The New York Times opinion writer accused of serving as an unregistered, paid foreign agent of Iran may have a... Born in Brooklyn, the son of a successful New York lawyer, Harland was educated at the City College of New York and Harvard Divinity School. He had to hold down a tedious day job while writing fiction at night. He believed that writers who were “old stock” Americans like himself were being ignored in favor of authors of “ethnic fiction.” His solution: the “Sidney Luska” appellation, which he used in fiction with melodramatic Jewish characters and plots. Stephanie Foote describes Harland’s literary strategy as “ethnic transvestism.” Harland’s Jewish characters were typically either deeply-learned rabbinic scholars or ruthless exploiters of the marketplace. His female characters sometimes hid their Jewish identities to succeed in “the marriage market.” His plots often preached the era’s social reform ideas.