Jeremy D. Popkin holds the William T. Bryan chair of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books, including most recently A New World Begins: A History of the French Revolution (Basic Books, 2019). He resides in Lexington, Kentucky.

• Introduction: Zelda Popkin, An American Jew, an American Woman, an American Writer1. An American Jewish Childhood2. Zelda Popkin: Modern American Woman3. Women, Murderers, and Soldiers: A Career in Popular Culture4. Facing Personal Loss and Jewish Catastrophe5. Zelda Popkin and the Women of Israel6. Left Behind in the ‘Golden Age’7. “Yes, There Is a Second Chance”EpilogueAcknowledgmentsSources and Bibliography

In this ambitious mix of biography, historiography, and family memoir, historian Popkin pays tribute to his grandmother, novelist Zelda Popkin, née Feinberg. Born in Brooklyn in 1898, Zelda worked as a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania before moving to New York City in 1916. She married Louis Popkin, her boss at the Jewish Welfare Board, in 1919, and the couple opened Planned Publicity Service, one of the earliest public relations firms. Zelda longed to be an author, however, and wrote freelance magazine pieces while raising two sons and placating her disapproving husband, who died suddenly in 1943. Popkin charts Zelda’s decades-long, up-and-down writing career, focusing on her struggle with whether to focus on Jewish themes or on more universal “American” ones. Two of her most popular works—the Mary Carner detective series and the novel The Journey Home (which sold a million copies in 1945 and 1946)—highlighted issues of working women, while the third, Herman Had Two Daughters, blended fiction with autobiography to spotlight generational conflict between Jewish immigrant parents and their American-born children. Throughout, Popkin draws insightful comparisons between Zelda and other Jewish American writers and provides helpful synopses of her novels. This admiring profile restores a well-deserving author to the spotlight.

Jeremy D. Popkin holds the William T. Bryan chair of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books, including most recently A New World Begins: A History of the French Revolution (Basic Books, 2019). He resides in Lexington, Kentucky.

• Introduction: Zelda Popkin, An American Jew, an American Woman, an American Writer1. An American Jewish Childhood2. Zelda Popkin: Modern American Woman3. Women, Murderers, and Soldiers: A Career in Popular Culture4. Facing Personal Loss and Jewish Catastrophe5. Zelda Popkin and the Women of Israel6. Left Behind in the ‘Golden Age’7. “Yes, There Is a Second Chance”EpilogueAcknowledgmentsSources and Bibliography

In this ambitious mix of biography, historiography, and family memoir, historian Popkin pays tribute to his grandmother, novelist Zelda Popkin, née Feinberg. Born in Brooklyn in 1898, Zelda worked as a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania before moving to New York City in 1916. She married Louis Popkin, her boss at the Jewish Welfare Board, in 1919, and the couple opened Planned Publicity Service, one of the earliest public relations firms. Zelda longed to be an author, however, and wrote freelance magazine pieces while raising two sons and placating her disapproving husband, who died suddenly in 1943. Popkin charts Zelda’s decades-long, up-and-down writing career, focusing on her struggle with whether to focus on Jewish themes or on more universal “American” ones. Two of her most popular works—the Mary Carner detective series and the novel The Journey Home (which sold a million copies in 1945 and 1946)—highlighted issues of working women, while the third, Herman Had Two Daughters, blended fiction with autobiography to spotlight generational conflict between Jewish immigrant parents and their American-born children. Throughout, Popkin draws insightful comparisons between Zelda and other Jewish American writers and provides helpful synopses of her novels. This admiring profile restores a well-deserving author to the spotlight.

Jeremy D. Popkin holds the William T. Bryan chair of history at the University of Kentucky. He is the author of many books, including most recently A New World Begins: A History of the French Revolution (Basic Books, 2019). He resides in Lexington, Kentucky.

• Introduction: Zelda Popkin, An American Jew, an American Woman, an American Writer1. An American Jewish Childhood2. Zelda Popkin: Modern American Woman3. Women, Murderers, and Soldiers: A Career in Popular Culture4. Facing Personal Loss and Jewish Catastrophe5. Zelda Popkin and the Women of Israel6. Left Behind in the ‘Golden Age’7. “Yes, There Is a Second Chance”EpilogueAcknowledgmentsSources and Bibliography

In this ambitious mix of biography, historiography, and family memoir, historian Popkin pays tribute to his grandmother, novelist Zelda Popkin, née Feinberg. Born in Brooklyn in 1898, Zelda worked as a newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania before moving to New York City in 1916. She married Louis Popkin, her boss at the Jewish Welfare Board, in 1919, and the couple opened Planned Publicity Service, one of the earliest public relations firms. Zelda longed to be an author, however, and wrote freelance magazine pieces while raising two sons and placating her disapproving husband, who died suddenly in 1943. Popkin charts Zelda’s decades-long, up-and-down writing career, focusing on her struggle with whether to focus on Jewish themes or on more universal “American” ones. Two of her most popular works—the Mary Carner detective series and the novel The Journey Home (which sold a million copies in 1945 and 1946)—highlighted issues of working women, while the third, Herman Had Two Daughters, blended fiction with autobiography to spotlight generational conflict between Jewish immigrant parents and their American-born children. Throughout, Popkin draws insightful comparisons between Zelda and other Jewish American writers and provides helpful synopses of her novels. This admiring profile restores a well-deserving author to the spotlight.