Paying Respects

Dear Friends,
Please link over to Ericka Lutz at Literary Mama.

Her entry this month tells of the passing of renowned American feminist and writer, Tillie Olsen, who also happens to be Ericka's grandmother.

Comments are welcome should you want to pay your respects. Personally, I think we all should, as we stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before us. I know I owe Tillie a drink or two.

(Or should I say, a cup of her favorite peppermint tea?)

From The Feminist Press:

"Olsen's landmark text pays tribute to the labor of writing, and details the impediments that can force writers to relinquish their craft. She champions the myriad would-bes who lived and died, leaving "silences where the lives never came to writing."

Inspired by her immigrant mother's struggle to overcome illiteracy, frustrated by her own years as a waitress, secretary, and capper of mayonnaise jars—years during which her writing was effectively silenced by the demands of work and motherhood—Olsen gives voice to all who strive to prevent their "unused capacities" from atrophying, from ceasing to be. A clear-eyed, unsentimental tribute to anyone who has ever tried to work with words."

Also, JOHN LEONARD of The Nation offers his ode to Tillie "celebrating the eloquence of the feminist, activist and writer in whose work memory, history, poetry and prophecy converge."