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Recovered for a new generation of feminist readers, this revolutionary depiction of the American working poor was one of the first literary critiques of industrial capitalism by a nineteenth-century proletarian.
Originally published in 1861 in the Atlantic Monthly, “Life in the Iron Mills” remains a classic of proletarian literature that paints a bleak and incisive portrait of nineteenth-century industrial America. Rebecca Harding Davis was one of the first writers to depict a working class that was exploited and exhausted as capitalism’s mills and factories destroyed both the natural environment and the human spirit.
Davis's work was first recovered in the 1970s by the Feminist Press and writer Tillie Olsen, and then expanded in the 1980s to be the most comprehensive collection of her work to date. This reissued edition includes an updated critical introduction by labor journalist Kim Kelly, and shares a uniquely prescient capitalist critique with a new generation.
Praise for Life in the Iron Mills
“You must read this book and let your heart be broken.” —New York Times Book Review
“One of the earliest recognitions in American literature of the existence of the very poor.” —National Observer
“An American classic that foreshadowed the naturalist technique of later nineteenth-century writers.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Rebecca Harding Davis (1831-1910) was an American author and journalist, and a pioneer of literary realism in American literature. Her seminal work Life in the Iron Mills originally published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1861, gaining her immediate acclaim. Lauded as “a brave new voice” by both Louisa May Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson, Davis held a prolific career with over 500 published works, including “Waiting for the Verdict,” John Andross, and Silhouettes of American Life, and worked as an editor for the New York Tribune. Though she fell out of public knowledge by her death, Davis was reintroduced to the literary circles in the 1970s by feminist writer Tillie Olsen, re-emphasizing her heavy significance to American literature.
Tillie Olsen (1912-2007) was an American writer, activist, editor, and part of the first generation of American feminists. Her most notable works include “Tell Me a Riddle,” Yonondio: From the Thirties, and Silences. She was awarded nine honorary degrees, National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Kim Kelly is the labor columnist for Teen Vogue and a columnist on labor and class at the New Republic. Her writing on labor, politics, and culture have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Baffler, and many others. She is a proud member of and councilperson for the Writers Guild of America, East, and has been active in multiple organizing and contract campaigns since 2015. She is currently based in Philadelphia.
Table of Contents
1. A Note from the Publisher
2. New Introduction
3. Life in the Iron Mills
4. A Biographical Interpretation by Tillie Olsen
5. The Wife's Story
6. Anne