Tillie Olsen Left a Lasting Impression
Oliver B. Pollak - Department of History, University of Nebraska at Omaha
I last visited with Tillie in 2005 in an Oakland home for Alzheimer patients. She was able to communicate, sang her Omaha praise song, “ Omaha , Omaha / Prettiest town I ever saw,” but lacked her hallmark verbal acuity.
As an habitual reader of obituaries, including those of founding parent George Washington, and as an occasional writer of death notices, I read with wavering interest The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson (New York: HarperCollins, 2006). Not a morbid genre, it attempts to momentarily revivify the life.
I was first informed of Tillie's passing by my Yiddish translator and co-author Leo Greenbaum who emailed me the link to the New York Times obituary. My cousin Ralph in San Francisco sent me the San Francisco Chronicle and my sister Judy in Corona Del Mar sent me the Los Angeles Times . I picked up the Washington Post on the web. The Omaha World-Herald ironically placed their coverage in the Living section.
I wrote an encyclopedia entry on Tillie for Jewish Women in America : An Historical Encyclopedia (1997). I only got the assignment when the first writer, Constance Coiner died with her 12 year old daughter in the crash of the Paris bound TWA flight 800 that exploded and sank in the Atlantic off of the Long Island coast on July 17, 1996 , taking 228 lives.
Teachers emphasize to their students the importance of an appropriate title, first sentence and first paragraph. Tillie labored over her words, seeking her voice and the voice of her characters. What follows is a didactic remembrance reproducing the title and first paragraph of five obituary writers, four of whom are women.
New York Times , January _, 2007
“Tillie Olsen, Feminist Writer, Dies at 94,” by Julie Bosman
“Tillie Olsen, whose short stories, books and essays lent a heartfelt voice to the struggles of women and working-class people, died on Monday in Oakland , Calif. She was 94.”
Omaha World-Herald , January 3, 2007
“‘Riddle' author Tillie Olsen dies; Omaha native was 94,” by Betsie Freeman
“She didn't go to college, but she had five honorary degrees.”
Los Angeles Times , January 4, 2007
“Tillie Olsen, 94; author known for a slim output of raw, powerful books,” by Elaine Woo
“Tillie Olsen, whose struggles with poverty, motherhood and writing endowed her slim body of work with uncommon power and made her a hero to a generation of women writers, has died. She was 94.”
San Francisco Chronicle , January 3, 2007
“Tillie Olsen – labor activist, author of ‘Tell Me a Riddle,'” by Heidi Benson
“Author and activist Tillie Olsen, whose landmark book of short stories, “Tell Me a Riddle,” depicted the lives of working-class women, died of complications of Alzheimer's disease Monday in Oakland . She was 94.”
Washington Post , January 4, 2007
“Working-Class Fiction Writer Tillie Olsen, 94,” by Joe Holley
“Tillie Olsen, 94, a chronicle of the working class whose few published works included some of the most critically acclaimed stories in modern American literature, died Jan. 1 of complications from Alzheimer's disease at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland , Calif. She lived in Berkeley , Calif. ”
Where did the obituary writer get their information? Did they read Tillie? They could have gone to their newspaper morgues or the web. “Tillie Olsen” receives about 252,000 google hits. JSTOR contains 579 citations. Dissertation Abstracts reveals mention in 42 doctoral dissertations and masters theses. ABEbooks reports that 648 of her books for sale, several of them inscribed.
Tillie took her Nebraska upbringing to an international audience. Her works were translated into Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. Her stories are her posterity.
When a nonagenarian passes a world passes. They are memory holders of the so-called Roaring Twenties, the Depression, the Second World War, and the early Cold War. They have seen presidents, monarchies and regimes come and go. Tillie's American experience reflects the Left of America. Tillie's great hope was the realization of the precepts of the United Nations 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Nonagenarians have seen many seasons of buds opening and blossoming, and the cold and isolation of long literary and political winters. They are often great-grand parents and models of conduct. The official publication of the Nebraska Library Association.
