Muriel Rukeyser

poet and political activist

Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet, essayist, biographer, and political activist.[1]

Muriel Rukeyser
Born(1913-12-15)December 15, 1913
New York City
DiedFebruary 12, 1980(1980-02-12) (aged 66)
New York City
Occupationpoet, essayist, biographer
CitizenshipAmerican
EducationVassar College, Columbia University
GenrePoetry
Subjectequality, feminism, social justice
Years active1932-1980
Website
Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive

She was born in New York City and went to Vassar College. As a student reporter there, Rukeyser covered the 1932 Scottsboro trial in Alabama when nine black youths were accused of raping two white girls. Later she reported from Barcelona on the Loyalists during the Spanish Civil War. She protested against the Vietnam War. She was president of the American Center for PEN in the 1970s.[1]

Her first book of poems, Theory of Flight won the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition in 1935.[2]

Poet Adrienne Rich said that Rukeyser wanted readers "to enlarge our sense of what poetry is about in the world, and of the place of feelings and memory in politics.”[2]

Books change

  • Theory of Flight. (1935)
  • Mediterranean. (1938)
  • U.S. 1: Poems. (1938)
  • A Turning Wind: Poems. (1939)
  • The Soul and Body of John Brown. (1940)
  • Wake Island. (1942)
  • Willard Gibbs: American Genius. (1942)
  • Beast in View. (1944)
  • The Green Wave: Poems. (1948)
  • The Life of Poetry. (1949)
  • Orpheus. (1949)
  • Elegies. (1949)
  • Selected Poems. (1951)
  • One Life. (1957)
  • Body of Waking: Poems. (1958)
  • Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962. (1962)
  • The Outer Banks. (1967, 1980)
  • The Speed of Darkness: Poems.(1968)
  • 29 Poems. (1972)
  • Breaking Open: New Poems.(1973)
  • The Gates: Poems. (1976)

Related pages change

References change

  1. 1.0 1.1 "Muriel Rukeyser". Poetry Foundation. 2023-02-18. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
  2. 2.0 2.1 "About Muriel Rukeyser | Academy of American Poets". poets.org. Retrieved 2023-02-18.

Other websites change