Helen Yglesias

Infobox Writer
name = Helen Yglesias


imagesize =
caption =
pseudonym =
birthname = Helen Bassine Yglesias
birthdate = birth date|1915|3|29
birthplace = New York, New York
deathdate = death date and age|2008|3|28|1915|3|29
deathplace = New York, New York
occupation =
nationality = American
period =
genre =
subject =
movement =
notableworks = "Sweetsir" (1981)
spouse = Bernard Cole, José Yglesias
partner =
children =
relatives =
influences =
influenced =
awards =


website =
portaldisp =

Helen Bassine Yglesias (March 29, 1915 – March 28, 2008) was an American novelist.

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.cite news |first=Dennis |last=Hevesi |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Helen Yglesias, Who Wrote of Women, Is Dead at 92 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/07/books/07yglesias.html?ex=1365307200&en=9686e3ceeca6f0dc&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss |work=New York Times |date=2008-04-07 |accessdate=2008-04-13 ]

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."

Arguably Yglesias' most famous work is "Sweetsir" (1981), a story about a man who was known for his womanizing traits and his cruelty toward 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.

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.

Bibliography

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.

hort 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.

Other

*"Starting: Early, Anew, Over, and Late". New York, Rawson Wade, 1978.
*"Isabel Bishop". New York, Rizzoli, 1989.

References

External links

* [http://biography.jrank.org/pages/4853/Yglesias-Helen.html Helen Yglesias Biography]