Legacy of Tillie Olsen

Olsen’s importance to American letters rests on the beauty and insight of Tell Me a Riddle and the catalytic effect of Silences. In her lectures she displayed wit, warmth, and literary knowledge that attracted devotees wherever she went. Her fame, however, carried drawbacks. Fearing that she had lost her creativity, she blamed circumstances while at the same time altering the facts of those circumstances. She said she was kept out of school until she was nine because she was thought developmentally disabled—a complete fabrication, as kindergarten records prove. She liked to say that her father worked in Omaha’s meat-processing plants—another fabrication. She diligently tried to deny the existence of her first husband. She continued even in old age to claim she was writing books that probably did not exist. She might have written more if an adoring public had treated her claims of never-ending hardships with more objectivity and less protectiveness. America, however, wanted a feminist hero who had surmounted adversities to achieve greatness. Her devotees colluded to make her that heroic icon, and she readily played the part. She made a tremendous impact upon 20th-century literature, elevating the domestic to the profound. In the 21st century the better representation of women and minorities in publishing, academia, and the marketplace is at least in part due to the influence of Tillie Olsen.