Alice Tisdale Hobart was the author of over a dozen novels and a memoir, Gusty’s Child (1959). Many of her novels are set in China, where she taught, and met her husband, a Standard Oil executive posted to that country, including her most famous book, Oil for the Lamps of China (1933), which was also made into a film. Other novels include Pioneering Where the World is Old (1917), Within the Walls of Nanking (1928), and Pidgin Cargo(1929). After moving to California, Hobart set later novels there and in Mexico, such as The Cup and the Sword (1942), The Peacock Sheds His Tail (1945), and The Cleft Rock (1948).
In 1935, Hobart hired another writer, Ruth Moore, as her live-in personal assistant. Hobart survived spinal meningitis in infancy, but was in frail health her whole life, at times living in confined circumstances due to back pain. Moore moved with the Hobarts, first to DC, then to Berkeley, California.
The Homes
Alice Tisdale Hobart
3031 Sedgwick St. NW
Located in Van Ness neighborhood, Northwest- West of Rock Creek