Gertrude Friedberg

Gertrude (née Tonkonogy) Friedberg (March 17, 1908 – September 17, 1989) was an American playwright and writer.

Life and career Gertrude Tonkonogy was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1908 as one of 11 children. to George Tonkonogy, Sr. and Sadie König, both Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Gertrude grew up in Brooklyn with her siblings; Abraham, Mamie, Henrietta, Archibald, Elizabeth, Eugene, and George.

Tonkonogy went to Wellesley College,

She wrote several short stories through the 1950s, publishing in the magazines New World Writing, Esquire, The Atlantic, Friedberg's first—and only—collection was in 1959 in the new writer showcase Short Story 2; this volume featured five of her stories, as well as stories from three other authors including Michael Rumaker. Between 1958 and 1972, Friedberg published three science fiction stories, and one science fiction novel, The Revolving Boy (1966). It would be Friedberg's only novel.

In the 1950s, Friedberg lived in Brooklyn, reviewed books on music, did editorial work on technical textbooks,

According to the back page of an edition of The Revolving Boy published in 1980, Friedberg lived in New York, where she taught mathematics. She died of cancer in her Manhattan home, aged 81. The Short and Happy Death of George Frumkin (1963) For Whom the Girl Waits (1972)

Legacy Gertrude Friedberg Scholarship, Stuyvesant High School, New York City