This collection of four stories, "I Stand Here Ironing, " "Hey Sailor, What Ship?, " "O Yes, " and "Tell Me a Riddle, " has become an American classic. Since the title novella won the First Prize O. Henry Award in 1961, the stories have become staples in literature classes. They have been anthologized over a hundred times, made into three films, translated into thirteen languages, and - most important - once read, they live forever in the hearts of their readers.
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This collection of four stories, "I Stand Here Ironing, " "Hey Sailor, What Ship?, " "O Yes, " and "Tell Me a Riddle, " has become an American classic. Since the title novella won the First Prize O. Henry Award in 1961, the stories have become staples in literature classes. They have been anthologized over a hundred times, made into three films, translated into thirteen languages, and - most important - once read, they live forever in the hearts of their readers.
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Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $105.50, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Diego, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1971 by Delta.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $168.61, new condition, Sold by GridFreed rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from San Diego, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1961 by Faber.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $65.42, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1971 by Delta.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $68.01, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1976 by Laurel Leaf.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $68.17, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1979 by Bantam Doubleday Dell.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $82.32, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1988 by Delta.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $105.48, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by Demco Media.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $107.20, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1978 by The Delacorte Press.
Add this copy of Tell Me a Riddle to cart. $111.26, new condition, Sold by Just one more Chapter rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Miramar, FL, UNITED STATES, published 1961 by Faber.
Set during "the pre-relief, pre-WPA world of the Depression," Tillie Olsen's story, "I Stand Here Ironing," turns on a working class single mother's refusal to discuss with a social worker her 19-year-old daughter Emily, and that refusal unlocks a poetic monologue of memories, guilts, and regrets. Written in 1953, what's striking about Olsen's story is the unnamed mother's concession that her daughter has an unknown life "beyond me," her acknowledgment of the economic forces that forced her to seek work, leave Emily with her husband's family, and send her to a strict, loveless convalescent home to recuperate from the measles. Emily's sister Susan is everything she is not: golden, confident, verbally dexterous. Emily becomes a stoic, anonymous in school, cultivates a gift for comedy, but one which has "clogged and clotted." In the end the mother's hope for her grown daughter is very modest: a life of sufficiency beyond physical appearances and domestic entrapment. Olsen's work is heartbreaking in its delineation of the ever-elusive American Dream and its limits.
