Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism. Kenneth Rexroth

Kenneth Rexroth

Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement...

 said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation".

One of her most powerful pieces was a group of poems entitled The Book of the Dead (1938), documenting the details of the Hawk's Nest incident

Hawk's Nest incident

The Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster involved injuries and deaths as the result of the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project...

, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of silicosis

Silicosis

Silicosis, also known as Potter's rot, is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in forms of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs...

.

Her poem "To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century" (1944), on the theme of Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform

Reform Judaism

Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...

 and Reconstructionist

Reconstructionist Judaism

Reconstructionist Judaism is a modern American-based Jewish movement based on the ideas of Mordecai Kaplan . The movement views Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization. It originated as a branch of Conservative Judaism, before it splintered...

 movements for their prayer books

Siddur

A siddur is a Jewish prayer book, containing a set order of daily prayers. This article discusses how some of these prayers evolved, and how the siddur, as it is known today has developed...

, something Rukeyser said "astonished" her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life. http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rukeyser/tobeajew.htm

Early life

On Rukeyser's life, see Thurston (2006), Myles (1997), and http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rukeyser/bio.htm. She attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School

Ethical Culture Fieldston School

The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, known as "Fieldston", is a private "independent" school in New York City and a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. It has about 1600 students and a staff of 400 people , led by Dr. Damian J...

, a private school in The Bronx

The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

, then Vassar College

Vassar College

Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...

 in Poughkeepsie

Poughkeepsie (town), New York

Poughkeepsie is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 42,777 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the native term, "Uppu-qui-ipis-in," which means "reed-covered hut by the water."...

. From 1930–32, she attended Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

.

Her literary career began in 1935 when her book of poetry, Theory of Flight, based on flying lessons she took, was chosen by the American poet Stephen Vincent Benét

Stephen Vincent Benét

Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet, short story writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body , for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "By...

 for publication in the Yale Younger Poets Series.

Activism and writing

Rukeyser was active in progressive politics throughout her life. At age 18, she covered the Scottsboro case in Alabama, then worked for the International Labor Defense

International Labor Defense

The International Labor Defense was a legal defense organization in the United States, headed by William L. Patterson. It was a US section of International Red Aid organisation, and associated with the Communist Party USA. It defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active in the civil rights and...

, which handled the defendants' appeals. She wrote for the Daily Worker

Daily Worker

The Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a formerly Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it appear that the paper reflected a...

and a variety of publications including Decision (payne), Life & Letters Today (London) for which she covered the People's Olympiad

People's Olympiad

The People's Olympiad was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in Barcelona, the capital of the autonomous region of Catalonia within the Spanish Republic...

 (Olimpiada Popular, Barcelona), the Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

n government's alternative to the Nazis' 1936 Berlin Olympics. While she was in Spain, the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 broke out, the basis of her Mediterranean. Most famously, she traveled to Gauley Bridge, West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

, to investigate the recurring silicosis

Silicosis

Silicosis, also known as Potter's rot, is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in forms of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs...

 among miners there, which resulted in her well-regarded poem sequence The Book of the Dead. During and after World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, she gave a number of striking public lectures, published in her The Life of Poetry (excerpts here). For much of her life, she taught university classes and led workshops, but never became a career academic.

In 1996, Paris Press reissued The Life of Poetry, which had been published in 1949 but had fallen out of print. In a publisher's note, Jan Freeman called it a book that "ranks among the most essential works of twentieth century literature." In it she makes the case that poetry is essential to democracy, essential to human life and understanding.

In the 1960s and 1970s, a time when she presided over PEN

International PEN

PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....

's American center, her feminism and opposition to the Vietnam war

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

 (she traveled to Hanoi

Hanoi

Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...

) drew a new generation to her poetry. The title poem of her last book, The Gates, is based on her unsuccessful attempt to visit Korean poet Kim Chi-Ha

Kim Chi-Ha

Kim Ji-ha is a Korean poet and playwright. He was a dissident under the Park regime. After accusing the regime of extracting false confessions with the use of torture, he was tried and sentenced to death, which was commuted to a life sentence and eventual release following a public outcry...

 on death row in South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

. In 1968, she signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War.

In addition to her poetry, she wrote a fictionalized memoir, The Orgy, plays and screenplays, and translated work by Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...

 and Gunnar Ekelöf

Gunnar Ekelöf

Gunnar Ekelöf was a Swedish poet and writer. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1958. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by Uppsala University in 1958...

. She also wrote biographies of Josiah Willard Gibbs

Josiah Willard Gibbs

Josiah Willard Gibbs was an American theoretical physicist, chemist, and mathematician. He devised much of the theoretical foundation for chemical thermodynamics as well as physical chemistry. As a mathematician, he invented vector analysis . Yale University awarded Gibbs the first American Ph.D...

, Wendell Wilkie, and Thomas Hariot. Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist and writer best known for her criticism of pornography, which she argued was linked to rape and other forms of violence against women....

 worked as her secretary in the early 1970s.

Rukeyser died in New York on February 12, 1980 from a stroke, with diabetes as a contributing factor. She was 66.

In other media

In Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...

's novel Gut Symmetries (1997), Rukeyser's poem 'King's Mountain' is quoted.

Rukeyser's translation of a poem by Octavio Paz was adapted by Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD Cloudburst became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination...

 for his choral composition "Water Night

Water Night (Whitacre)

Water Night is one of composer Eric Whitacre's earliest works, written in 1994 during Whitacre's attendance at University of Nevada, Las Vegas and commissioned by the Dale Warland Singers. It is written for SATB choir a cappella with three, four, and five-part divisi in vocal sections...

". John Adams set one of her texts to music in his opera Doctor Atomic

Doctor Atomic

Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on 1 October 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb was...

.

Works

• Theory of flight. Foreword by Stephen Vincent Benet. New Haven: Yale Uni. Press, 1935.
• U.S. 1. 1938.
• A Turning Wind. 1939.
• Willard Gibbs: American Genius, 1942. Reprinted by the Ox Bow Press, Woodbridge CT.
• Beast in View. 1944.
• The green wave. (with Octavio Paz) Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1948.
• The life of poetry. NY: Current Books, 1949. Paris Press; reprint (1996) ISBN 0-9638183-3-3
• Elegies (1949)
• One Life. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1957. Biography of Wendell Willkie
  Wendell Willkie
  Wendell Lewis Willkie was a corporate lawyer in the United States and a dark horse who became the Republican Party nominee for the president in 1940. A member of the liberal wing of the GOP, he crusaded against those domestic policies of the New Deal that he thought were inefficient and...
  
  .
• Body of Waking. NY: Harper, 1958.
• Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962. NY: Macmillan, 1962.
• The Orgy. (1965) Paris Press; reprint (1997) ISBN 0-9638183-2-5
• The outer banks. (Sea poetry). Santa Barbara CA: Unicorn, 1967.
• The speed of darkness. NY: Random House, 1968.
• The traces of Thomas Hariot. NY: Random House, 1971
• Breaking Open. 1973.
• Early poems, 1935-1955. Octavio Paz
  Octavio Paz
  Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...
  
  . Translated from the Spanish by Muriel Rukeyser et al. NY: New Directions Pub. Corp., 1973.
• The gates: poems. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
• The collected poems. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
• Out of silence: selected poems. edited by Kate Daniels. Evanston IL: TriQuarterly Books, Northwestern University; Oak Park, IL: Distributed by ILPA, 1992.
• A Muriel Rukeyser Reader. W W Norton.
• The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.

External links

• Muriel Rukeyser by Michael Thurston, Modern American Poetry, retrieved January 30, 2006
• Muriel Rukeyser's FBI Files