Rose Gollup Cohen (1880–1925) was a writer. She grew up in a village in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, immigrated to America with her aunt Masha in 1892 to join her father, and lived on New York City's Lower East Side. She worked in a garment sweatshop, joined a union, and also worked as a domestic servant. She suffered from poor health, and was at one point visited by

Lillian Wald Lillian D. Wald (March 10, 1867 – September 1, 1940) was an American nurse, humanitarian and author. She was known for contributions to human rights and was the founder of American community nursing. She founded the Henry Street Settlement in N ...

, who sent her to uptown Presbyterian Hospital, where she met people who sponsored summer outings for immigrant children. She then worked summers at a Connecticut retreat. Wald also referred her to a cooperative shirtwaist shop directed by Leonora O'Reilly, and when O'Reilly began teaching at the Manhattan Trade School for Girls in 1902, she recruited Cohen as her assistant. Cohen attended classes at Breadwinners' College at the Educational Alliance, the

Rand School of Social Science The Rand School of Social Science was formed in 1906 in New York City by adherents of the Socialist Party of America. The school aimed to provide a broad education to workers, imparting a politicizing class-consciousness, and additionally served a ...

, and University Extension at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1918 Cohen published her autobiography, ''Out of the Shadow: A Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East Side'', which was well-received and appeared in French and Russian as well as English. She also wrote five short pieces published in New York literary magazines, and three published in Philadelphia magazines, between 1918 and 1922. One short story of hers, "Natalka's Portion," was reprinted six times, and appeared in ''Best Short Stories of 1922''. In 1923 and 1924 Cohen met Lilla Cabot Perry and

Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson (December 22, 1869 – April 6, 1935) was an American poet and playwright. Robinson won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry on three occasions and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Early life Robin ...

while attending the

MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDowel ...

. She died under mysterious circumstances, perhaps a suicide, and

Anzia Yezierska Anzia Yezierska (October 29, 1880 – November 20, 1970) was a Jewish-American novelist born in Mały Płock, Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. She emigrated as a child with her parents to the United States and lived in the ...

wrote a thinly veiled short story about her, called ''Wild Winter Love'' (1927), that ended in suicide.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Rose Gollup 1880 births 1925 deaths Trade unionists from New York (state) American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent American women writers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States American trade unionists of Russian descent

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