Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories - Softcover

Davis, Rebecca Harding

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0935312390 ISBN 13: 9780935312393

Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY, 1993

Synopsis

This 1861 classic of social realism the first book to be reprinted by the Feminist Press in its series of rediscovered women writers remains a powerful evocation of what Davis herself called thwarted, wasted lives . . . mighty hungers . . . and unawakened powers." The New York Times Book Review said of the novella: "You must read this book and let your heart be broken.” With an insightful biographical essay by Tillie Olsen, and with two short stories never before anthologized, this expanded edition is the most complete volume available from this important nineteenth-century writer.

About this title

About the Author:

Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910) was an American author, journalist, and a pioneer of literary realism in American literature. Her seminal work Life in the Iron Mills originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1861, gaining her immediate acclaim. Lauded as “a brave new voice” by both Louisa May Alcott and Ralph Walph Emerson, Davis held a prolific career with over 500 published works, including “Waiting for the Verdict,” John Andross, and Silhouettes of American Life, and worked as an editor for the New York Tribune. Though she fell out of public knowledge by her death, Davis was reintroduced to the literary circles in the 1970s by feminist writer Tillie Olsen, re-emphasizing her heavy significance to American literature.

Tillie Olsen (1912-2007) was an American writer, activist, editor, and part of the first generation of American feminists. Her most notable works include “Tell Me a Riddle,” Yonondio: From the Thirties, and Silences. She was awarded nine honorary degrees, National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Review:

"You must read this book and let your heart be broken."
The New York Times Book Review

"One of the earliest recognitions in American literature of the existence of the very poor."
National Observer

"Life in the Iron Mills has been described as the 'Uncle Tom's Cabin of American capitalism,' a work which first acknowledged the dignity and intelligence of working people. . . . It's an American classic that foreshadowed the naturalist technique of later nineteenth-century writers."
San Francisco Chronicle

"You must read this book and let your heart be broken."
―The New York Times Book Review

"One of the earliest recognitions in American literature of the existence of the very poor."
―National Observer

"Life in the Iron Mills has been described as the 'Uncle Tom's Cabin of American capitalism,' a work which first acknowledged the dignity and intelligence of working people. . . . It's an American classic that foreshadowed the naturalist technique of later nineteenth-century writers."
―San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0935312390
• ISBN 13: 9780935312393
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 248
• Editor: Olsen Tillie