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American Jewish Fiction surprise that Fanny Herself, like many of Ferber’s better-known novels—the Pulitzer Prize–winning So Big (1924), Show Boat (1926), and Giant (1952)—was adapted into a film, in 1921 (titled No Woman Knows; it has not survived). Ferber’s novel itself refers to movies and comic strips continually, and assertive Fanny resembles a toned-down version of the daring heroines of the movie serials of the mid-1910s such as the Hazards of Helen or The Exploits of Elaine. With insights into the sales end of the garment industry as well as Jewish involvement in the arts, the book may come off as quaint to some but will undoubtedly charm most contemporary readers. Further reading: Ferber’s first autobiography, A Peculiar Treasure (1939), is of particular interest because of its response to the rise of Nazism and fascism, and Ferber’s great-niece, Julie Goldsmith Gilbert, also wrote a biography of the author (1978). Fannie Hurst was a similarly prolific writer of slick short stories and novels, most famous for her narrative of African American passing, Imitation of Life (1933); her short fiction has been recently republished as The Stories of Fanny Hurst (2004), and she discusses her Jewish background in her autobiography, Anatomy of Me, published in 1958. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13pSalome of the Tenements By Anzia Yezierska BONI AND LIVERIGHT, 1923. 184 PAGES. Yezierska’s debut novel, first published in 1923, is ripped from the headlines, so to speak: Sonya, a poor Russian Jewish immigrant, falls for a millionaire philanthropist—just like the real-life sweatshop worker Rose Pastor, who rose to national celebrity in 1905. Despite poverty, Sonya is wild and passionate for beauty, and from the perspective of her paramour, John Manning, she embodies “the intensity of spirit of the oppressed races.” The book’s title refers to a New Testament character, but Yezierska is concerned less with the original Salomé and more with the turn-of-the-century craze for her, which took the forms of Oscar Wilde’s 1893 play of that name and the many risqué Dances of the Seven Veils performed throughout the world. A story of passion and desire, Yezierska’s rags-to-riches narrative unearths the complexities and discomforts of Jewish success in America. For one thing, living the American dream often involves turning your back on your history: as she rises to fame and fortune, Sonya encounters Jacques Hollins, who drapes wealthy New York aristocrats in the finest Paris fashions. Like the contemporary fashion icon Ralph Lauren, whose name was originally Lifshitz, Jacques was once called Jaky and grew up in the same Lower East Side ghetto as Sonya. More centrally, there is trouble in paradise when Sonya and her high-class husband encounter each other’s peers: Sonya finds the WASP establishment desiccated and judgmental, while Manning finally betrays a streak of genteel anti-Semitism. 28 Rendering her characters’ speech in Yiddish-inflected dialect, Yezierska’s novel raises crucial questions about intermarriage and about charity, which remain unresolved today: Can a Jew and a gentile overcome their differences through shared passion? What’s the best way to help the working classes? Though neglected by readers for decades, Yezierska’s work provides a crucial example of the leftist feminist position that was more common than one might expect among immigrants in the early 20th century. When Yezierska writes, “Sonya was like the dynamite bomb and Manning the walls of tradition,” she reveals some of her own experiences: she married and divorced, forged a bond with the famed educator John Dewey, and protested exploitation, whether by capitalists or by patriarchal Judaism. Her work found admirers both among the literary elite (she was one of the first Jewish guests at the MacDowell Colony, a prestigious artists’ retreat) and in Hollywood, where a number of her works, including Salome, were adapted for the screen. Further reading: Two biographical volumes explore Yezierska’s life and her own intense relationship with a non-Jewish beau, respectively—Louise Levitas Henriksen’s Anzia Yezierska: A Writer’s Life (1988) and Mary Dearborn’s Love in the Promised Land: The Story of Anzia Yezierska and John Dewey (1988)—and the author’s own reminiscences can be found in Red Ribbon on a White Horse (1950), which takes its title from a famous talmudic statement about poverty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14pHaunch, Paunch and Jowl By Samuel Ornitz BONI AND LIVERIGHT, 1923. 300 PAGES. One of the literary debates that never seems to get resolved is whether a book...

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