author
Gertrude Landa
A journalist, novelist, and playwright who also wrote for children, she is best remembered for retelling Jewish stories with warmth and imagination. Her work helped bring folklore, legend, and family reading together for a wide audience.
1 Audiobook
Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends
by Gertrude Landa
About the author
Born Annie Gertrude Gordon and later known as Gertrude Landa, she was a British Jewish journalist and writer who also used the pen name Aunt Naomi. Reliable library and reference sources identify her as the sister of novelist Samuel Gordon and the wife of writer Myer Jack Landa.
She wrote fiction, plays, and journalism, and is especially associated with children’s literature. Sources consistently note that she wrote a children’s column for the Jewish Chronicle, and her best-known book is Jewish Fairy Tales and Legends (published in 1919), a collection that draws on stories from the Hebrew Bible, Midrash, and Jewish folklore.
The available sources agree on the broad outline of her career, though some differ on small biographical details such as her birth year. Taken together, they show a versatile early 20th-century writer whose lasting reputation comes from making Jewish tales lively, accessible, and memorable for younger readers.