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"A notable number of women writers were known for their humor. Bel Kaufman, granddaughter of Sholem Aleichem, wrote the well-loved, humorous account of high-school teaching, Up the Down Staircase (1965). Comedian Joan Rivers hit the best-seller charts in 1984 with The Life and Hard Times of Heidi Abromowitz, as did Bette Midler with her madcap illustrated fable in verse, The Saga of Baby Divine, in 1983. In Heartburn (1984), a witty, bittersweet account of a marriage and its breakup, Nora Ephron writes of her protagonist’s Jewish background with humor and irreverent affection. Iris Rainer Dart offers portraits of Jewishness itself as a heritage of humor"
"Edna Ferber (1885–1968) was the first Jewish American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize (1925), for the novel So Big (1924). Ferber is famous for her regional novels, which stress the history, attitudes, local color, and typical characters of various parts of the United States. Her best-known books include Show Boat (1926), which deals with life on the Mississippi River; Cimarron (1930), which focuses on the Oklahoma territory; and Giant (1952), which portrays Texas ranchers and oil tycoons. While a number of Jewish characters enter these fictions peripherally, they are central to Ferber’s Fanny Herself (1917), a semiautobiographical novel about a young girl growing up in the Midwest. Fanny strikes out on her own to make a spectacularly successful career in business. After a period of trying to deny her Jewishness, this character comes to take pride in her identity. Indeed, she becomes convinced that Jews possess special talents and sensibilities because of the suffering they have endured over the ages. Here, as in other novels by Ferber, a strong female character helps to build America as she herself achieves the American dream of success."
[From: Fiction, popular in the united states. (n.d.). Jewish Women’s Archive. Retrieved July 28, 2025, from https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/fiction-popular-in-united-states]
