Helen Yglesias
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| Helen Yglesias | |
|---|---|
| Born | Helen Bassine Yglesias March 29, 1915 New York, New York |
| Died | March 28, 2008 (aged 92) New York, New York |
| Nationality | American |
| Notable work(s) | Sweetsir (1981) |
| Spouse(s) | Bernard Cole, José Yglesias |
Helen Bassine Yglesias (March 29, 1915 – March 28, 2008) was an American novelist.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Yglesias was the youngest of seven children born to Solomon and Kate Bassine, both Yiddish-speaking immigrants from the Russian-controlled portion of Poland who lived in an apartment in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. Solomon Bassine was the failed owner of several grocery stores. She wrote her first novel about a teenage girl in a New York high school, on three notebooks on her kitchen table when she was a teenager herself. The book was never published, however, and, after high school, she worked at jobs selling underwear, stuffing envelopes, teaching ballroom dancing, and typing manuscripts. Yglesias worked as an editor at The Nation in 1965, by which time she was a mother of 3.[1]
[edit] Career
She started writing professionally when she was 54; her first published novel was How She Died (1972). The protagonist is Mary Moody Schwartz, the daughter of a Communist who was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union during the 1930s. According to the New York Times, it delved into "the roots of American radicalism, the story evolves into an account of one woman's struggle with cancer and the disorganized attempts of her family and friends to help her."[1]
Arguably Yglesias' most famous work is Sweetsir (1981), about a man who like to beat his 5 wives. Set in a small New England town, the fifth wife had had enough of the cruelty and stabbed the husband to death. It goes on to tell of her trial and examines the idea of liberation.[1]
[edit] Death
Yglesias died on March 28, 2008—one day short of her 93rd birthday—in Manhattan of natural causes. She was survived by her daughter, Tamar Cole; a son from her first marriage, Lewis Cole; a son from her second marriage, novelist and screenwriter Rafael Yglesias; and six grandchildren.[1]
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- How She Died. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1972; London, Heinemann, 1973.
- Family Feeling. New York, Dial Press, 1976; London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1977.
- Sweetsir. New York, Simon and Schuster, and London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1981.
- The Saviors. Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
- The Girls. Harrison, New York, Delphinium Books, 1999.
[edit] Short stories
- "Semi-Private," in the New Yorker, 5 February 1972.
- "Kaddish and Other Matters," in the New Yorker, 6 May 1974.
- "Liar, Liar," in Seventeen (New York), February 1976.
[edit] Other
- Starting: Early, Anew, Over, and Late. New York, Rawson Wade, 1978.
- Isabel Bishop. New York, Rizzoli, 1989.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Hevesi, Dennis. "Helen Yglesias, Who Wrote of Women, Is Dead at 92", New York Times, 2008-04-07. Retrieved on 2008-04-13.
