Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories

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.

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.