February 28: Laura Z. Hobson

Laura Z. Hobson (born Laura Kean Zametkin), author of Gentleman’s Agreement (1947), a bestselling novel about American anti-Semitism, died at 85 in New York on this date in 1986. She was the daughter of Jewish socialist radicals; her father had been tortured by the tsarist police and became the first editor of the Forverts newspaper. As a single mother, Hobson (who had been married to the owner of William Morrow and Company and worked for Time, Life and Fortune magazines) adopted one son and gave birth to another. Her 1975 novel, Consenting Adult, about a mother dealing with her son’s homosexuality, was based on her real-life experience. Hobson wrote nine novels in the course of her career, including three on Jewish themes, as well as children’s books, short stories, and a memoir.

“She defied convention by becoming an unmarried mother long before it was socially acceptable. Her works demonstrate that she was constantly thinking about and assessing, but never retreating from, the world.” —Julia Wolf Mazow, Jewish Women’s Archive