Synopses & Reviews
In
Tillie Olsen: One Woman, Many Riddles, Panthea Reid examines the complex life of this iconic feminist hero and twentieth-century literary giant.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, Tillie Olsen spent her young adulthood there, in Kansas City, and in Faribault, Minnesota. She relocated to California in 1933 and lived most of her life in San Francisco. From 1962 on, she sojourned frequently in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Santa Cruz, and Soquel, California. She was a 1920s andquot;hell-catandquot;; a 1930s revolutionary; an early 1940s crusader for equal pay for equal work and a war-relief patriot; an ex-GI's ideal wife in the later 1940s; a victim of FBI surveillance in the 1950s;a civil rights and antiwar advocate during the 1960s and 1970s; and a life-long orator for universal human rights.
The enigma of Tillie Olsen is intertwined with that of the twentieth century. From the rebellions in Czarist Russia, through the terrors of the Depression and the hopes of the New Deal, to World War II, the Nuremberg Trials, and the United Nations' founding, to the cold war and House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, to later progressive and repressive movements, the story of Olsen's life brings remote events into focus.
In her classic short story andquot;I Stand Here Ironingandquot; and her groundbreaking Tell Me a Riddle, Yonnondido, and Silences, Olsen scripted powerful, moving prose about ordinary people's lives, exposing the pervasive effects of sexism, racism, and classism and elevating motherhood and women's creativity into topics of study. Popularly referred to as andquot;Saint Tillie,andquot; Olsen was hailed by many as the mother of modern feminism.
Based on diaries, letters, manuscripts, private documents, resurrected public records, and countless interviews, Reid's artfully crafted biography untangles some of the puzzling knots of the last century's triumphs and failures and speaks truth to legend, correcting fabrications and myths about and also by Tillie Olsen.
Review
andquot;A feminist icon, beloved of the left and also a superb delineator of what blocks writers from writing, Tillie Olsen is deserving of this penetrating biography, the first book to unravel the riddle of a life devoted to and tormented by writing.andquot;
Review
andquot;Attempting to solve 'the riddle' of Tillie Lerner Olsen, literary scholar Reid paints a warts-and-all portrait of the woman who became an iconic feminist and admired writer. Reid paints a deftly engrossing, nuanced, and meticulously researched portrait of a perplexing, larger-than-life woman.andquot;
Review
andquot;A biographical bombshell. Reid's meticulous research undoes the feminist legend of Saint Tillie and replaces it with a complex, even-handed account of a passionate, often devious, and always ideological woman writer.andquot;
Review
"Panthea Reid tells an enthralling, complicated story of a maddening, charismatic writer; her self-creation, self-destruction, and self-promotion; and her profound social commitments."
Review
andquot;Panthea Reid's quest for the truth about the courageous, egotistical, generous, maddening, and difficult Tillie Olsen is downright heroic. Tillie Olsen: One Woman, Many Riddles is biography at its fascinating best.andquot;
Review
andquot;A remarkable amount of material on the life of Olsen. Students of Olsen's work will find this a valuable guide to the autobiographical roots of Olsen's fiction.andquot;
Review
andquot;This book is well-researched and provides an in-depth look at Olsen's life.Ried definitely knocks Olsen off any saintly pedestalandagrave;but she does this without lessening the impact of Olsen's work.andquot;
Review
"The first comprehensive account of the extraordinary life of one of the twentieth century's most exalted writers. Compelling reading."Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent
Review
andquot;Reid sets out to interrogate the heroic feminist image that adorned Olsen in her last decades, to fill in the neglected, blurred, or falsified facts of her long life, and to answer riddlesandmdash;most notably, 'why didn't Tillie write?'. An ambitious and obsessively well-researched biography.andquot;
Review
andquot;Reid brings her extraordinarily complex and endlessly perplexing subject to vitally disarming life and her book provides substantively more for Olsenites than any previous attempt. Tillie Olsen is richandmdash;and riddled with answers.andquot;
Review
andquot;Reid concludes her book with a sense of conflicted loss. While she wept at Olsen's death, 'I have never adored Tillie,' she admits. Reverence hampers facts, she says, then adds, 'My biographer's obligation . . .is to tell the truth as artfully as possible and not to let love hamper honesty.' No wise reader could ask for anything more.andquot;
Review
andquot;Brilliant. Professor Reid sympathetically and critically describers the strengths and foibles of the iconic Olsen. Her intimate revelations are pertinent to Tillie's complex character.andquot;
Review
andquot;Biographer Panthea Reid's extensive research reveals that some accounts of Olsen's life are more fable than fact. While Reid solves some riddles, she creates additional ones for admirers and scholars to ponder in the years ahead.andquot;
Review
andquot;Panthea Reid chronicles a journey for knowledge and social justice that spans the entire 20th century and follows the events that made the times momentous. Olsen is a biography of rare humanity. It is profoundly real. Reid has written a marvelously evocative book.andquot;
Review
andquot;Reid has succeeded in giving us a well-rounded and well-grounded picture of Tillie Olsen. This book is a major achievement in offering a balanced appraisal of Tillie Olsen, who was revered by some and reviled by others.andquot;
Review
andquot;Superb and painstaking biography. Reid artfully depicts a tortured writer whose concern for oppressed masses often eclipsed her duty to intimates.andquot;
Review
andquot;Get ready for the unflinching, warts-and-all story of Tillie Lerner Olsen. Reid unwraps the riddle of Olsen's complex personality in this fascinating biography.andquot;
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andquot;Great lives challenge and empower an intelligent, determined biographer. Tillie Olsen lived a great life to which Panthea Reid does full justice.andquot;
Review
andquot;Panthea Reid's ten-year odyssey in writing a definitive biography of this enigmatic woman has been long awaited by western literature and history scholars alike.
Tillie Olsen will delight readers.andquot;
Review
andquot;Simply put, this is a deliciously engaging book. The authors weave a rich and well-paced narrative of a network of 'literary sisters,' determined to write despite only dribbling support from the literary establishment. But more than that, the book broadens and deepens our knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance, while correcting so many misconceptions surrounding its fabled artists.andquot;
Review
andquot;With this biography, Mitchell and Davis complete a trilogy of studies of the novelist Dorothy West, poet Helene Johnson, and the women they wrote with, traveled with, performed with, and slept with during the Harlem Renaissance. Highly recommended.andquot;
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andquot;Soundly researched and well written, Dorothy West's Paradise adds significantly to our understanding of the Harlem Renaissance and its youngest surviving member.andquot;
Review
andldquo;An illuminating study that should secure Westandrsquo;s place in the canon and at the center of the racial geography of place, gender, and class.andrdquo;
Review
andquot;Interest in the life and works of Dorothy West, now generally recognized as the last surviving artist of the Harlem Renaissance, has surged in the 21st century. In this new biography, Sherrard-Johnson emphasizes West's childhood as the dark-skinned daughter of a light-skinned African American Boston beauty, and her explorations, through her writing, or intra-racial color and class divisions. Recommended.andquot;
Review
andquot;An illuminating analysis of the ways black women writers negotiated race, class, and gender. Sherrard-Johnsonandrsquo;s book offers an intimate and valuable look at the complex relationships between some of the most heralded artists, writers, and intellectuals of the Harlem Renaissance.andquot;
Synopsis
In Tillie Olsen: One Woman, Many Riddles, Panthea Reid examines the complex life of this iconic feminist hero and twentieth-century literary giant, hailed by many as the mother of modern feminism. Based on diaries, letters, manuscripts, private documents, resurrected public records, and ountless interviews, Reidandrsquo;s artfully crafted biography untangles some of the puzzling knots of the last centuryandrsquo;s triumphs and failures and speaks truth to legend, correcting fabrications and myths about and also by Tillie Olsen.
Synopsis
Harlem Renaissance writer Dorothy West led a charmed life in many respects. Literary Sisters reveals a different side of Westandrsquo;s personal and professional livesandmdash;her struggles for recognition outside of the traditional literary establishment, and her collaborations with talented African American women writers, artists, and performers who faced these same problems. Integrating rare photos, letters, and archival materials from Westandrsquo;s life, Literary Sisters is not only a groundbreaking biography of an increasingly important author but also a vivid portrait of a pivotal moment for African American women in the arts.
Synopsis
Dorothy Westandrsquo;s Paradise captures the scope of the authorandrsquo;s long life and career, reading it alongside the unique cultural geography of Oak Bluffs and its history as an elite African American enclaveandmdash;a place that West envisioned both as a separatist refuge and as a space for interracial contact. An essential book for both fans of Westandrsquo;s fiction and students of race, class, and American womenandrsquo;s lives, Dorothy Westandrsquo;s Paradise offers an intimate biography of an important author and a privileged glimpse into the society that shaped her work.
Synopsis
Dorothy West is best known as one of the youngest writers involved in the Harlem Renaissance. Subsequently, her work is read as a product of the urban aesthetics of this artistic movement. But West was also intimately rooted in a very different milieuandmdash;Oak Bluffs, an exclusive retreat for African Americans on Marthaandrsquo;s Vineyard. She played an integral role in the development and preservation of that community. In the years between publishing her two novels, 1948andrsquo;s The Living is Easy and the 1995 bestseller The Wedding, she worked as a columnist for the Vineyard Gazette.
Dorothy Westandrsquo;s Paradise captures the scope of the authorandrsquo;s long life and career, reading it alongside the unique cultural geography of Oak Bluffs and its history as an elite African American enclaveandmdash;a place that West envisioned both as a separatist refuge and as a space for interracial contact. An essential book for both fans of Westandrsquo;s fiction and students of race, class, and American womenandrsquo;s lives, Dorothy Westandrsquo;s Paradise offers an intimate biography of an important author and a privileged glimpse into the society that shaped her work.
About the Author
VERNER D. MITCHELL is an associate professor of English at the University of Memphis. He is the editor of This Waiting for Love: Helene Johnson, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance.
CYNTHIA DAVIS is a professor of English and chair of General Education (ACE) at Barry University. She is the author of Dynamic Communication for Engineers and (with Verner D. Mitchell) Dorothy West: Where the Wild Grape Grows and Western Echoes of the Harlem Renaissance: The Life and Writings of Anita Scott Coleman.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. andquot;Nothing So Broadening as Travelandquot;: Porgy, 1929
2. The Benson Family Comes to Boston
3. Pauline Hopkins and African American Literature in New England
4. Boston Girlhoods, 1910-1925
5. The Youngest Members of the Harlem Renaissance, 1926-1931
6. The Russian Interlude, Literary Salons, and Challenge
Epilogue
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index