Tell Me a Riddle is a collection of short fiction by

Tillie Olsen Tillie Lerner Olsen (January 14, 1912 – January 1, 2007) was an American writer who was associated with the political turmoil of the 1930s and the first generation of American feminism, feminists. Biography Olsen was born to Russian Jewi ...

first published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. in 1961. The volume is composed of three short stories and a novella, the title piece “Tell Me a Riddle.” “Tell Me a Riddle” was awarded the O. Henry Award in 1961 for best American short story. The works in the collection continue to be the most highly acclaimed of Olsen's literary ''oeuvre''.

Stories

The magazine and date of original publication are indicated. The titles of the stories are those established in the 1961 J. B. Lippincott & Co. volume, and the table of contents ordered by the

Dell Publishing Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and ...

collection in 1962: the order in which they were written. *“

I Stand Here Ironing "I Stand Here Ironing" is a short story by Tillie Olsen that first appeared in ''Pacific Spectator'' and '' Stanford Short Stories'' in 1956 under the title "Help Her to Believe." The story was republished in 1957 as "I Stand Here Ironing" in '' ...

” (''Pacific Spectator'', 1956. Originally titled “Help Her to Believe”) *“Hey Sailor, What Ship? (New Campus Writing, 1957) *“O Yes” (

Prairie Schooner ''Prairie Schooner'' is a literary magazine published quarterly at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the cooperation of UNL's English Department and the University of Nebraska Press. It is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was first publi ...

, 1957, under the title “Baptism”) *“Tell Me A Riddle” (

New World Writing ''New World Writing'' was a paperback magazine, a literary anthology series published by New American Library's Mentor imprint from 1951 until 1960, then J. B. Lippincott & Co.'s Keystone from volume/issue 16 (1960) to the last volume, 22, in 1 ...

, Stanford Short Stories, both 1960)

Reception

The short story "Tell Me a Riddle" has been called "a powerful study of the politics of voice", "an American Classic", and described as "beautifully crafted and painfully real in the issues of family that it raises". ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' named ''Tell Me a Riddle'' one of the ten best books of the year in its December 1961 issue. The title story “Tell Me A Riddle” won first prize O. Henry Award the same year.

Form and style

One of the outstanding features of Olsen's literary form is the “extraordinary compression” of her short stories. The origins of this form lie in the “immediate circumstances” under which Olsen wrote: a low-income working-class mother raising four daughters, who recognized both the limitations and possibilities these hardships presented her as a writer. Literary critic Joanne S. Fry explains that Olsen's social realities and her awareness of herself as subject to the larger historical influences in the 20th century led her to create short stories and novellas that are “novelistic” in form. Fry writes: The Dungannon Foundation, in presenting Olsen with the

Rea Award REA or Rea may refer to: Places * Rea, Lombardy, in Italy * Rea, Missouri, United States * Rea River, in Fiordland, New Zealand * River Rea, a river in Birmingham, England * River Rea, Shropshire, a river in Shropshire, England * Rea, Hungarian ...

in 1994, declared that ''Tell Me a Riddle'' possessed “the lyric intensity of an

Emily Dickinson Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massac ...

poem and the scope of a Balzac novel.” Literary critic

Marilyn Yalom Marilyn Yalom (March 10, 1932 – November 20, 2019), born Marilyn Koenick, was an American feminist author and historian. She was a senior scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, and a professor of French. She ...

praises “Olsen’s style, that accounts for her prestige in literary circles.” Biographers Mickey Pearlman and Abby H. P. Werlock wrote: Literary critic Mara Faulkner comments on the feminist component in the collection:

Adaptations

Tell Me a Riddle Tell Me a Riddle is a collection of short fiction by Tillie Olsen first published by J. B. Lippincott & Co. in 1961. The volume is composed of three short stories and a novella, the title piece “Tell Me a Riddle.” “Tell Me a Riddle” w ...

'', a film based on the short story collection, was released in 1980.

References

Sources

*Faulkner, Mara. 1993. ''Protest and Possibility in the Writing of Tillie Olsen.''

University Press of Virginia The University of Virginia Press (or UVaP) is a university press that is part of the University of Virginia. It was established in 1963 as the University Press of Virginia, under the initiative of the university's then President, Edgar F. Shann ...

, Charlotteville and London. * Frye, Joanne S. 1995. Tillie Olsen: A Study of the Short Fiction.

Twayne Publishers Gale is a global provider of research and digital learning resources. The company is based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, United States, west of Detroit. It has been a division of Cengage since 2007. The company, formerly known as Gale Research a ...

, New York. * Leonard, John. 1994. ''Introduction'' to Tell Me a Riddle in Tell Me Riddle, ''Delta Books'' published by

Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...

, New York. *Mambrol, Nasrullah. 2020. “Analysis of Tillie Olsen’s Stories.” ''Literary Theory and Criticism'', ''Literariness''. https://literariness.org/2020/06/22/analysis-of-tillie-olsens-stories/ Retrieved 19 November 2023. * Olsen, Tillie. 1961. ''Tell Me A Riddle.'' J. B. Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia. *Pearlman, Mickey and Werlick, Abby H. P.. 1991. Tillie Olsen.

, Boston, Mass.

External links

''Tell Me a Riddle'' study guideTillie Olsen's 'Tell Me a Riddle': The Catastrophe of History"No one's private ground": A Bakhtinian reading of Tillie Olsen's Tell Me a Riddle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tell Me a Riddle 1956 short stories 1961 short story collections American short stories American short story collections Feminism and the family Short stories adapted into films