The Long Day

The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl, As Told by Herself is a novel by Dorothy Richardson. The book was originally published anonymously in 1905 by Century Company in New York. Dorothy Richardson, who was a middle-class woman born in 1882, was not the same Dorothy Richardson who wrote stream-of-consciousness novels in Great Britain. Background The Long Day: The Story of a New York Working Girl, As Told by Herself is a book about the life of a working-class girl. She was formerly a teacher in a small town, but is now alone in New York City, living day to day on a few dollars. She lives from boarding house to boarding house, experiencing harsh rules, starvation, and the death of a friend. Furthermore, she works in a number of different positions, including box-making, flower/feather making, sewing, and finally, a shaker. Throughout this time, she learns what it is like to live on a few dollars a week, working twelve-hour shifts with horrible conditions and few breaks. Ultimately, she is able to earn a respectable living as a typewriter. At the time the book was released, Richardson remained anonymous. "Her book presents itself as the product of an anonymous worker. She never names herself to the reader as a middle-class person venturing into a different world to study it" (Pittenger 26).