Tillie Olsen

Tillie Olsen was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1912. The
daughter of Russian immigrants, she was raised in a working
class, socialist environment. Growing up during the
Depression she did not go to college, but early on got
caught up in the struggle for survival at whatever jobs she
could find.

Her novel about the Depression, Yonnondio was begun when
she was 19. A portion of the manuscript appeared in 1934 in
the second issue of The Partisan Review. In her biography
for the magazine, she listed her occupations as tie
presser, hack writer, model, housemaid, ice cream packer
and book clerk. The novel was never finished and thought
irretrievably lost. However, remnants were found among some
old papers, pieced together and published in book form in
1973.

She is the author of the short story collection, Tell Me A
Riddle [1962], the novel Yonnondio: From the Thirties
[1994], a book of essays, Silences [1978]. She is the
editor of Mothers and Daughter: That special quality [] and
Mother to Daughter, Daughter to Mother, A Daybook and
Reader [].

The conflict between the demands of daily existence and the
fulfillment of human potential is a theme that permeates
Tillie Olsen's work. For twenty years, she was "silenced"
as a writer while working to earn a living and single-
handedly raising four daughters. "These are not natural
silences, that necessary time for renewal," she said. "They
are the unnatural thwarting of what struggles to come into
being but cannot."

Tillie Olsen was fifty years old when her first book, the
short story collection Tell Me A Riddle, was published. The
title story won the O'Henry Award and the story has been
anthologized 72 times. Four of the stories have been
adapted into stage productions, three into films, and one
into an Opera.