{"title":"Fannie Hurst","description":"Fannie Hurst (1889-1968) was a popular writer of many novels and short stories. Among her best-known works are Back Street (1930) and Lummox (1923).Daniel Itzkovitz is Associate Professor of English and Director of American Studies at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. He is a coeditor of Queer Theory and the Jewish Question.","products":[{"product_id":"imitation-of-life-paperback","title":"Imitation of Life - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eA bestseller in 1933, and subsequently adapted into two beloved and controversial films, \u003ci\u003eImitation of Life\u003c\/i\u003e has played a vital role in ongoing conversations about race, femininity, and the American Dream. Bea Pullman, a white single mother, and her African American maid, Delilah Johnston, also a single mother, rear their daughters together and become business partners. Combining Bea's business savvy with Delilah's irresistible southern recipes, they build an Aunt Jemima-like waffle business and an international restaurant empire. Yet their public success brings them little happiness. Bea is torn between her responsibilities as a businesswoman and those of a mother; Delilah is devastated when her light-skinned daughter, Peola, moves away to pass as white. \u003ci\u003eImitation of Life\u003c\/i\u003e struck a chord in the 1930s, and it continues to resonate powerfully today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe author of numerous bestselling novels, a masterful short story writer, and an outspoken social activist, Fannie Hurst was a major celebrity in the first half of the twentieth century. Daniel Itzkovitz's introduction situates \u003ci\u003eImitation of Life\u003c\/i\u003e in its literary, biographical, and cultural contexts, addressing such topics as the debates over the novel and films, the role of Hurst's one-time secretary and great friend Zora Neale Hurston in the novel's development, and the response to the novel by Hurst's friend Langston Hughes, whose one-act satire, \"Limitations of Life\" (which reverses the races of Bea and Delilah), played to a raucous Harlem crowd in the late 1930s. This edition brings a classic of popular American literature back into print.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eBack Jacket\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis new edition of an influential American classic--one of the first books in twentieth-century popular literature to grapple with issues of gender and race--is reason enough to celebrate, but Daniel Itzkovitz's splendid and insightful introduction reclaims for Fannie Hurst a preeminent position as an essential American literary figure whose work matters today more than ever.--Michael Bronski, author of \"The Pleasure Principle: Sex, Backlash, and the Struggle for Gay Freedom\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51370071458015,"sku":"9780822333241","price":31.27,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/C-3eVM8Mga9780822333241.webp?v=1789150299"},{"product_id":"back-street-paperback","title":"Back Street - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe bestselling story behind Ross Hunter's classic melodrama starring Susan Hayward and John Gavin.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen \"fly girl\" and gorgeous socialite Ray Schmidt first meets Walter Saxel in Cincinnati, their attraction is instant and everlasting. As their bond deepens, Ray finds herself envisioning a future with Walter, until one fateful day when the settling of her family affairs interferes with their plans to meet, and his relationship with another woman forms. Though years pass and Ray manages to carve out a life for herself in New York City, Walter remains in her memory, and a chance run-in with him leads them both to fall into their former ways. What unfolds is the fascinating tale of what life was for selfless, devoted Ray, a prisoner to her love for the one man who would never fully love her back. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOriginally published in 1931, this bestselling classic novel about the heartbreak of living along the \"back streets\" of a man's life was adapted into film three times. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith a new foreword by Cari Beauchamp. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eVintage Movie Classics\u003c\/b\u003e spotlights classic films that have stood the test of time, now rediscovered through the publication of the novels on which they were based.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51374746271967,"sku":"9780804170673","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/AlGWHENGzO9780804170673.webp?v=1789186007"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/fannie-hurst.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}