Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet, essayist, biographer, novelist, screenwriter and political activist. She wrote across genres and forms, addressing issues related to racial, gender and class justice, war and war crimes, Jewish culture and diaspora, American history, politics, and culture.

Kenneth Rexroth Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (December 22, 1905 – June 6, 1982) 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. Althoug ...

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

Anne Sexton Anne Sexton (born Anne Gray Harvey; November 9, 1928 – October 4, 1974) was an American poet known for her highly personal, confessional poetry, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967 for her book ''Live or Die (book ...

famously described her as "mother of us all", while

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

wrote that she was “our twentieth-century Coleridge; our Neruda." One of her most powerful pieces was the long poem titled '' The Book of the Dead'' (1938), documenting the details of the

Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster was a large-scale incident of occupational silicosis, lung disease in the 1930s as the result of the construction of the Hawks Nest Tunnel near Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, as part of a hydroelectric project. Th ...

, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of

silicosis Silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust. It is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of Nodule (medicine), nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of pneum ...

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

Judaism Judaism () is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, Monotheism, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jews, Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of o ...

as a gift, was adopted by the American

Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...

and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said "astonished" her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.

Early life

Muriel Rukeyser was born on December 15, 1913, to Lawrence and Myra Lyons Rukeyser. She attended the

Ethical Culture Fieldston School The Ethical Culture Fieldston School (ECFS), also known more simply as Fieldston or Ethical Culture, is a private pre-K through twelfth grade coeducational school in New York City with two campuses, in Manhattan and in the Bronx. The school is ...

, a private school in

The Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, then

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States. The college be ...

Poughkeepsie Poughkeepsie ( ) is a city within the Town of Poughkeepsie, New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeepsie is in the Hudson River Valley region, midway between the core of the New ...

. From 1930 to 1932, she attended

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. 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 ( ; July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) was an American poet, short story writer, and novelist. He wrote a book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, '' John Brown's Body'', published in 1928, for which he receive ...

for publication in the '' Yale Younger Poets Series''.

Activism and writing

Rukeyser was active in progressive politics throughout her life. At age 21, she covered the Scottsboro case in Alabama, then worked for the

International Labor Defense The International Labor Defense (ILD) (1925–1947) was a legal advocacy organization established in 1925 in the United States as the American section of the Comintern's International Red Aid network. The ILD defended Sacco and Vanzetti, was active ...

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

Daily Worker The ''Daily Worker'' was a newspaper published in Chicago founded by communists, socialists, union members, and other activists. Publication began in 1924. It generally reflected the prevailing views of members of the Communist Party USA (CPU ...

'' and a variety of publications, including ''Decision'' and ''Life & Letters Today'', for which she was supposed to cover the

People's Olympiad The People's Olympiad ( Catalan: ''Olimpíada Popular'', Spanish: ''Olimpiada Popular'') was a planned international multi-sport event that was intended to take place in 1936 in Barcelona, Catalonia within the Spanish Republic. It was conceived a ...

(Olimpiada Popular, Barcelona), the Catalan government's alternative to the Nazis'

1936 Berlin Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

. Instead of reporting on the games, she witnessed the first days of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, an experiences that she would describe as a "moment of proof," forming the basis of her rediscovered autobiographical novel, ''Savage Coast'', and the long poem ''Mediterranean''. Rukeyser famously traveled to Gauley Bridge,

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

with the filmmaker and photographer Nancy Naumburg, to investigate the recurring

among miners there, which resulted in her

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

masterpiece the documentary poem ''The Book of the Dead'' (poem). During and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

she gave a series of lectures, entitled ''The Usable Truth'', about art and politics in times of crisis, eventually published, in 1949. as ''The Life of Poetry''. From the end of the war through the period of

McCarthyism McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...

, she was the target of sexist literary and political attacks which affected her career trajectory and publishing opportunities, and the FBI compiled a thick file on her as a suspected Communist. For much of her life, she taught university classes and led writing workshops, but she never became a career academic. In 1996, Paris Press reissued ''The Life of Poetry'', which was 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 Rukeyser makes the case that poetry is essential to democracy, essential to human life and understanding. In the 1960s and 1970s, when Rukeyser presided over

PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...

, her feminism and opposition to the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

drew a new generation to her poetry. The title poem of her final book, ''The Gates'', is based on her unsuccessful attempt to visit Korean poet

Kim Chi-Ha Kim Jiha or Kim Chi-ha (; born Kim Yeongil (); 4 February 1941 – 8 May 2022) was a South Korean poet and playwright.LTI Korea Author Database: http://klti.or.kr/ke_04_03_011.do# Biography Kim Jiha was born Kim Yeongil () on 4 February 1941 ...

on death row in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. In 1968, she signed the "

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse o ...

" 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, among them the musical ''Houdini'', and screenplays. She also translated work by

Octavio Paz Octavio Paz Lozano (March 31, 1914 – April 19, 1998) was a Mexican poet and diplomat. For his body of work, he was awarded the 1977 Jerusalem Prize, the 1981 Miguel de Cervantes Prize, the 1982 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, a ...

and Gunnar Ekelöf. She wrote biographies of

Josiah Willard Gibbs Josiah Willard Gibbs (; February 11, 1839 – April 28, 1903) was an American mechanical engineer and scientist who made fundamental theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. His work on the applications of thermodynami ...

Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican nominee for president. Willkie appeale ...

, and Thomas Hariot.

Andrea Dworkin Andrea Rita Dworkin (September 26, 1946 – April 9, 2005) was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography. Her feminist writings, beginning in 1974, span 30 years. They are found in a dozen sol ...

worked as her secretary in the early 1970s. Also in the 1970s she served on the Advisory Board of the

Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective The Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective was a group of professional women playwrights in New York active from 1971 to 1975. They wrote and produced feminist plays and were one of the first feminist theatre groups in the United States to do so ...

, a New York City based theatre group that wrote and produced plays on feminist issues. Rukeyser died in New York on February 12, 1980, from a stroke, with

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

as a contributing factor. She was 66.

In other media

In the television show ''

Supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

'', Metatron the angel quotes an excerpt of Rukeyser's poem "Speed of Darkness": "The Universe is made of stories, not of atoms." Library Walk 6

Jeanette Winterson Jeanette Winterson (born 27 August 1959) is an English author. Her first book, '' Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit'', was a semi-autobiographical novel about a lesbian growing up in an English Pentecostal community. Other novels explore gender ...

's novel ''Gut Symmetries'' (1997) quotes Rukeyser's poem "King's Mountain". Rukeyser's translation of a poem by Octavio Paz was adapted by

Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. Early life Whitacre was born in Reno, Nevada, to Ross and Roxanne Whitacre. He studied piano intermittently as a child a ...

for his choral composition " Water Night."

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

set one of her texts in his opera ''

Doctor Atomic ''Doctor Atomic'' is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with a libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on October 1, 2005. The work focuses on how leading figures at Los Alamos dealt with the ...

'', and

Libby Larsen Elizabeth Brown Larsen (born December 24, 1950) is a contemporary American classical composer. Along with composer Stephen Paulus, she is a co-founder of the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum. A former holder of the Pa ...

set the poem "Looking at Each Other" in her choral work ''Love Songs''. Writer Marian Evans and composer Chris White collaborated on a play about Rukeyser, ''Throat of These Hours'', titled after a line in Rukeyser's ''Speed of Darkness''.
JNT: Journal of Narrative Theory
' dedicated a special issue to Rukeyser in Fall 2013. Rukeyser's 5-poem sequence "Käthe Kollwitz" (The Speed of Darkness, 1968, Random House) was set by Tom Myron in his composition "Käthe Kollwitz for Soprano and String Quartet," "written in response to a commission from violist Julia Adams for a work celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Portland String Quartet in 1998." Rukeyser's poem "Gunday's Child" was set to music by the experimental rock band

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (often abbreviated to SGM) is an American experimental rock band, formed in 1999 in Oakland, California. The band fuses classical, industrial, and art-rock themes throughout their music. They are known to perform elabor ...

Personal life

Rukeyeser never spoke publicly about her sexuality, but had relationships with men and women throughout her life. Her literary agent Monica McCall was her partner for decades. She was briefly married in 1945. In 1947, she gave birth to her only child, William Rukeyser, whose father was a different man to the one she had married. In 1936 she had traveled to Spain to cover the

for the literary journal Life and Letters. The

broke out and during her five-day stay, she fell in love with Otto Boch, a German communist athlete who volunteered to fight the fascists, and who was later killed. That experience was evoked in "To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century."

Awards

Yale Younger Poets Award The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the Uni ...

(1935) with ''Theory of Flight'' * Harriet Monroe Poetry Award (the first) * Levinson Prize * Copernicus Prize *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

Works

; Rukeyser's original collections of poetry *''Theory of Flight''. Foreword by Stephen Vincent Benet. New Haven: Yale Uni. Press, 1935. Won the

in 1935. *''Mediterranean.'' Writers and Artists Committee, Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy, 1938. *''U.S. 1: Poems''. Covici, Friede, 1938. *''A Turning Wind: Poems''. Viking, 1939. * ''The Soul and Body of John Brown.'' Privately printed, 1940. With etchings by Rudolph von Ripper. *''Wake Island''. Doubleday, 1942. *''Beast in View''. Doubleday, 1944. *''The Green Wave: Poems''. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1948. Includes translations of

poems and rari. * ''Orpheus.'' Centaur Press, 1949. With the drawing "Orpheus" by

Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...

. *''Elegies''. New Directions, 1949. *''Selected Poems''. New Directions, 1951. *''Body of Waking: Poems''. NY: Harper, 1958. Includes translated poems of

. *''Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962''. NY: Macmillan, 1962. *''The Outer Banks''. Santa Barbara CA: Unicorn, 1967. 2nd rev. ed., 1980. *''The Speed of Darkness: Poems''. NY: Random House, 1968. *''29 Poems''. Rapp & Whiting, 1972. *''Breaking Open: New Poems''. Random House, 1973. *''The Gates: Poems''. NY: McGraw-Hill, 1976. ; Fiction by Rukeyser *''Savage Coast : A Novel.'' Feminist Press, 2013. ; Plays by Rukeyser * ''The Middle of the Air.'' Produced in Iowa City, IA, 1945. * ''The Colors of the Day: A Celebration of the Vassar Centennial.'' Produced in Poughkeepsie, NY, at Vassar College, June 10, 1961. * ''Houdini.'' Produced in Lenox, MA, at Lenox Arts Center, July 3, 1973. Published as ''Houdini: A Musical,'' Paris Press, 2002. ; Film written by Rukeyser * ''All the Way Home.'' Produced in New York City, NY, 1957. ; Children's books *''Come Back, Paul.'' Harper, 1955. * ''I Go Out.'' Harper, 1961. Illustrated by Leonard Kessler. * ''Bubbles.'' Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967. * ''Mazes.'' Simon & Schuster, 1970. Photography by Milton Charles. *''More Night.'' Harper & Row, 1981. Illustrated b
Symeon Shimin
; Memoirs by Rukeyser *''The Orgy: An Irish Journey of Passion and Transformation''. London: Andre Deutsch, 1965; NY: Pocket Books, 1966; Ashfield, MA: Paris Press, 1997. ; Works of criticism by Rukeyser *''The Life of Poetry''. NY: Current Books, 1949; Morrow, 1974; Paris Press, 1996. ; Biographies by Rukeyser *''Willard Gibbs: American Genius'', 1942. Reprinted by the Ox Bow Press, Woodbridge CT. Biography of

, physicist. *''One Life''. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1957. Biography of

. *''The Traces of Thomas Hariot''. NY: Random House, 1971. Biography of Thomas Hariot. ; Translations by Rukeyser * ''Selected Poems of Octavio Paz.'' Indiana University Press, 1963. Rev. ed. published as ''Early Poems 1935-1955,'' New Directions, 1973. * ''Sun Stone.''

. New Directions, 1963. * ''Selected Poems of Gunnar Ekelöf.'' With Leif Sjöberg. Twayne, 1967. * ''Three Poems.'' Gunnar Ekelöf. T. Williams, 1967. * ''Uncle Eddie's Moustache.''

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...

. Pantheon Books, 1974. * ''A Molna Elegy: Metamorphoses.'' Gunnar Ekelöf. With Leif Sjöberg. 2 volumes. Unicorn Press, 1984. ; Edited collections of Rukeyser's works * ''The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser.'' McGraw, 1978. * ''Out of Silence: Selected Poems.'' Edited by Kate Daniels. Triquarterly Books, 1992. *''A Muriel Rukeyser Reader''. Norton, 1994. *''The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser''. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005. *The Muriel Rukeyser Era: Selected Prose. Eds. Eric Keenaghan and Rowena Kennedy-Epstein. Cornell University Press, 2023.

References

External links

Muriel Rukeyser: A Living Archive
ongoing project by

Eastern Michigan University Eastern Michigan University (EMU, EMich, Eastern Michigan or simply Eastern) is a public university, public research university in Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1849 as the Michigan State Normal School, it was the fourth normal ...

featuring creative content by Rukeyser as well as critical resources and scholarly/creative responses by artists and scholars.
Muriel Rukeyser papers, 1844–1986
at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Guide to the Muriel Rukeyser Papers
at the Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library

by Michael Thurston, ''Modern American Poetry'', retrieved January 30, 2006
"The Book of the Dead"
by Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser's FBI filesPennSound page
(audio recordings).
All the Way Home, short film
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rukeyser, Muriel 1913 births 1980 deaths American feminists American tax resisters American women poets Bisexual women writers Bisexual poets Columbia University alumni Ethical Culture Fieldston School alumni Jewish American poets Jewish American feminists Jewish women writers Bisexual Jews American LGBTQ poets Sarah Lawrence College faculty Vassar College alumni Yale Younger Poets winners 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers LGBTQ people from New York (state) Bisexual academics Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters American bisexual writers Jewish LGBTQ women