The title of this novel was taken from a Walt Whitman poem and means "a lament for the lost." The narrative is similar to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Olsen states the book was heavily influenced by an unsigned novella, published in an 1861 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, entitled "Life in the Iron Mills."
For other works by Olsen, please see: Tell Me a Riddle (1961), Silences (1978), Mothers to Daughter, Daughter to Mother: Mothers on Mothering: A Daybook and Reader (1989), Mothers & Daughters: That Special Quality: An Exploration in Photographs with Estelle Jussim (1995), The Riddle of Life And Death with Leo Tolstoy (2007) and Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I and Other Works (...
