Hobson, Laura Z. (1900–1986)

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Hobson, Laura Z. (1900–1986)

Jewish-American writer who advocated tolerance, best known for her novel Gentleman's Agreement. Name variations: (joint pseudonym with Thayer Hobson) Peter Field. Born Laura Kean Zametkin in New York City on June 19, 1900; died on February 28, 1986; daughter of Adella (Kean) Zametkin and Michael Zametkin (editor of a Yiddish newspaper and labor organizer); Cornell University, A.B.; married Thayer Hobson (a publisher), in 1930 (divorced 1935); children: (with Eric Hodgins of Time magazine) Christopher Z. Hobson (b. 1941); (adopted) Michael Hobson (b. 1937).

Selected writings:

(with Thayer Hobson under joint pseudonym Peter Field) Outlaws Three (NY: Morrow, 1933); (with Thayer Hobson as Peter Field) Dry Gulch Adams (NY: Morrow, 1934); A Dog of His Own (NY: Viking, 1941); The Trespassers (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1943); Gentleman's Agreement (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1947); The Other Father (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1950); The Celebrity (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1951); First Papers (NY: Random House, 1964); I'm Going to Have a Baby (NY: Day, 1967); The Tenth Month (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1971); Consenting Adult (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975); Over and Above (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1979); Untold Millions (NY: Harper & Row, 1982); Laura Z: A Life (NY: Arbor House, 1983).

Laura Z. Hobson was born in New York City in 1900, the daughter of Adella Kean Zametkin and Michael Zametkin, a labor organizer and editor of a Yiddish newspaper. After a childhood spent on Long Island, Hobson earned an A.B. at Cornell University and in 1930 married publisher Thayer Hobson but divorced in 1935. Until 1934, Hobson worked as an advertising copywriter. She then worked as consultant and promotion director for such journals as Time, Life, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, and Saturday Review; spent one year as a reporter for the New York Evening Post; had short stories published in Collier's, Ladies' Home Journal, McCall's, and Cosmopolitan; collaborated with Thayer Hobson on two Westerns written under the joint pseudonym Peter Field (Outlaws Three, 1933, and Dry Gulch Adams, 1934); and wrote two works of juvenile fiction (A Dog of His Own, 1941, and I'm Going to Have a Baby, 1967), nine novels for adults, and her autobiography, Laura Z. (1983).

Laura Z. Hobson writes of tolerance and challenges her readers to face their unacknowledged prejudices and overcome them. She is particularly sensitive to empty-souled phrases of acceptance which mask a fear of anyone different. Hobson demands that individuals of a minority group have the same rights as individuals in the majority. She most often writes from the point of view of the majority group, creating a protagonist who rises above class, spurred by a sensitivity to the predicaments of others.

"Those who have read Hobson's nine novels already know a great deal about [her]," writes Sybil Steinberg in Publishers Weekly, "although they may be generally unaware that all were based on episodes from the author's own life." She was a child of socialists (First Papers, 1964); an advertising copywriter (Untold Millions, 1982); an unwed mother (The Tenth Month, 1971); a parent (The Other Father, 1950); a critic of the refugee quota system (The Trespassers, 1943); a critic of anti-Semitism (Gentleman's Agreement, 1947); a sudden celebrity (The Celebrity, 1951); the mother of a gay son (Consenting Adult, 1975); and a Jew who has questioned her Jewish identity (Over and Above, 1979).

Hobson was discouraged by friends from writing Gentleman's Agreement; they thought Americans would find it unpalatable. Hobson told her publishers: "I've got an idea for a book that the magazines will never look at, the movies won't touch, and the public won't buy.… But I have to do it." Gentleman's Agreement was reprinted in Cosmopolitan, topped the bestseller list, and was filmed in 1947 by Elia Kazan, with Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, Celeste Holm , and Anne Revere in the starring roles. That year, Elia Kazan won an Academy Award for Best Director, McGuire was nominated for Best Actress, Celeste Holm won for Best Supporting Actress, and the movie was named the Best Picture of the Year.

In Gentleman's Agreement, Philip Green, a Protestant journalist, moves from the West Coast to the East to take a job at Smith's Weekly, where he is virtually unknown. For his first assignment, an analysis of American anti-Semitism, he assumes the identity of a Jew. Though Green is aware of the blatant prejudices awash in America, he is not prepared for the more subtle bigotry in his seemingly broad-minded friends. His new love, Kathy, is sympathetic to his assignment but worries about introducing him as a Jew to her establishment family and friends; his future in-laws, who own a cottage in the restricted community of Darien, Connecticut, are terrified over the prospect of selling the cottage to the young couple. In Detroit, Philip's sister fears her husband's job will be in jeopardy if word gets out about her "Jewish" brother. Philip learns that in some cases people are not "consciously antisemitic.… They despise it; it'san 'awful thing.' But … they help it along and then wonder why it grows." When Philip's son becomes the object of anti-Semitism at school, Philip's anger causes him to reject the "gentleman's agreement" of polite prejudice. "I wrote the book for and about liberals," said Hobson. "I had in mind decent people, who, never having probed their own prejudices, profess disgust for anti-Semitism, castigate the Bilbos and the Rankins, but let it go at that."

Following her divorce, Hobson adopted a son Michael in 1937; she also had a natural son, Christopher, the cherished outcome of a "light and amiable" affair with Eric Hodgins, an editor at Time magazine. It is Christopher of whom she writes in Consenting Adult.