Long recognized as a feminist and a working-class writer, and more recently as a Jewish writer, Tillie Olsen has rarely been considered a writer of the American West. This may be because she deals with global human issues, trying to “recognize what is common between us.” In so doing, Olsen transcends any attachment to a specific region. While she has published only a modest number of works, Olsen's substantial contributions to American literature are widely acknowledged, particularly her committed efforts to reclaim lives and words from silence. Eschewing sentimentality in both her short stories and her prose, Olsen calls attention to “the relationship of circumstances . . . to the creation of literature” and strives to show how, through individual and communal strength, human dignity gives rise to hope. A celebration of the human capacity to endure in spite of insurmountable odds resides at the heart of her work and her...