Tell Me A Riddle
New York: Delta/Seymour Lawrence (Dell), 1961. Reprint. Paperback. 116 pages. Inscribed by the author. Softcover. Mild rubbing to covers; light bump to top corner. Originally published in 1961; this copy is from the ninth printing of the softcover reprint edition. Item #862
Inscribed by the author to Ella Valborg Tweet, daughter of the Norwegian-American novelist O. E. Rolvaag, author of Giants in the Earth and other writings on the experiences of poor immigrants in the Great Plains states. The inscription, in Olsen's characteristic tiny handwriting and with several scratched-out corrections and adjustments, is in red ink on the inside of the front cover: "Dear Valborg Tweet--dear daughter of a/writer who is sacred to me--/I try in my way to write of/humans as deeply he did.--he is a brother/writer--/Best. I hope some year we can meet and/talk/Tillie Olsen./Your daughter--your grandchildren--are joys./In Rolvaags House--April 12, 1977". A striking copy, given Olsen's background as a child of immigrants to Nebraska, her lifelong focus on women and working-class people, and Rolvaag's noted sympathetic treatment of such characters in his novels.
Price: $475.00