Many of Fannie Hurst's stories are about working-class girls and guys struggling to survive in the big, crushing city. Between 1910 and the mid-1930s, Fannie Hurst was the most popular writer in America. Twenty-nine films were based on her novels and short stories. Star-Dust shows the relationship of a mother and her daughter as the central theme. Star-Dust was adapted to a movie which Hurst was displeased with.