Olsen, Tillie (Vol. 114) - Ellen Cronan Rose (essay date April 1976)
Ellen Cronan Rose (essay date April 1976)
SOURCE: "Limming: or Why Tillie Writes," in The Hollins Critic, Vol. XIII, No. 2, April, 1976, pp. 1-13.
[In the essay below, Rose explores Olsen's philosophy on writing and suggests that Olsen, a renowned feminist, is as powerful at depicting men as she as at depicting women.]
Tillie Olsen was born in Nebraska 65 years ago. In 1960, when she was 50 years old, she published her first book, a slim volume of short stories called Tell Me A Riddle. In 1974 she finally published a novel—Yonnondio—she had begun in 1932 and abandoned in 1937. To women in "the movement" she is a major literary figure, not so much despite as because of the paucity of her publications.
Since 1971, when Delta reissued Tell Me A Riddle in paperback, Olsen has been stumping the country, speaking about women who have been prevented by their sex from utilizing their creative talents. These are her...
[The entire page is 4375 words long]
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