Product Description
Rukeyser earned an international reputation as a powerful voice against enforced silences of all kind, against the violence of war, poverty, and racism. Her eloquent poetry of witness--of the Scottsboro Nine, the Spanish Civil War, the poisoning of the Gauley Bridge laborers--split the darkness covering a shameful world, and brought her to the attention of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Yet her expansive, nonpartisan vision often rankled the political Left. Her poetry broke silences about sex, motherhood, daughterhood, breast-feeding, lesbian erotics, menstruation-all common experiences not deemed suitable for poetry until her emergence on the American literary scene in 1935.Much lauded (and criticized) during her lifetime, Rukeyser's place in modern American poetry is now secure. In addition to the complete texts of her twelve previously published books, this volume also features new poems discovered by the editors; Rukeyser's translations, including the Þrst English translations of Octavio Paz's work; early work by Rukeyser not previously published in book form; and the controversial book-length poem Wake Island. An introduction by the editors that traces Rukeyser's life and literary reputation complements discerning annotations and textual notes to the poems. ... Read more

Product Description
The Book of the Dead by Muriel Rukeyser was published as part of her 1938 volume U.S. 1. The poem commemorates the worst industrial accident in U.S. history, the Gauley Tunnel tragedy. In this terrible disaster, an undetermined number of men died of acute silicosis after working on a tunnel project in Fayette County, West Virginia, in the early 1930s.After many years of relative neglect, The Book of the Dead has recently returned to print and has become the subject of critical attention. In Muriel Rukeyser's "The Book of the Dead," Tim Dayton continues that study by characterizing the literary and political world of Rukeyser at the time she wrote The Book of the Dead. ... Read more

Product Description
novelized memoir of the poet's Irish visit ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

More Entertaining than an Orgy
This intensely interesting book, part fiction, part memoir, and part stream-of-consciousness writing, has such a unique premise (a trip to Ireland to research a wild festival first hand) that it would have been a great book even without a good writing style. Nevertheless, Rukeyser's startlingly vivid poetic sentences are a key reason to read this book as well. The narrator/author's observations are so detailed that the reader feels as though he or she is in Ireland with her. By some miracle, the details never slow the book down; I found myself regretting how quickly I'd gobbled down this marvelous book (two days). I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys travel memoirs, engaging novels, or prose poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A gem
A thinker's book.Wonderful to read Rukeyser wrestle with and explain life, art, thought.She is by turns poet, biographer, essayist and character.The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.Her art and criticism explore the same themes.The effect is surprisingly consistent in a book comprised of several incomplete selections.If you have any doubts, find a poem or two of hers and try it on for size (Gauley Bridge, for example).If you're fascinated, try this volume.Here's a sample.Rukeyser on poetry (from The Life of Poetry): "A first-rate scientist, or a fine prose writer, is able to say, 'How can I know a good poem? I can tell an honest piece of work in my own field from a phony piece of work, but how can I tell a fine poem from a phony poem?And what has to be said to such a question is that these are people who cannot trust their emotional reactions, their total reactions."

Excellent book
Muriel Rukeyser was certainly a terrific and fascinating poet. These are strange and striking creations, and originality is present on every page. I don't know how she got stuck with Adrienne Rich as her introducer, but onemay skip that and go on to a memorable experience. Rukeyser was a trueoriginal. ... Read more

Product Description
Muriel Rukeyser (1913–80) published her first book—the powerfully experimental Theory of Flight—at age twenty-two, and went on to an adventurous and prolific career as poet, translator, and political activist. Her expansive energies sought a poetry in which politics, geography, sexuality, mythology, and autobiography could find fused and fluid expression. From her early, brilliantly cinematic "Poem Out of Childhood" through excerpts from her long wartime "Letter to the Front" to her late "Resurrection of the Right Side," written after her stroke, this selection represents the many sides and selves of a major poet. ... Read more

Product Description
Muriel Rukeyser, the late poet, journalist, translator, biographer, pilot, and social activist, has been described as an "American Genius" and our "20th century Whitman." Anne Sexton and Erica Jong both referred to Muriel Rukeyser as "the Mother of Everyone." To read her collected work is to track Ameri these pages, can history through the century and to question with her the particular nature of the American imagination. Rukeyser began publishing in the 1930s, writing about Sacco and Vanzetti, the Scottsboro boys, and the Popular Front's stand against fascism, insisting always on the link between public subjects and the personal life. Until she died in 1980 at the age of 66, she persisted in bringing the events of the world into poetry, and poetry into the world. Her writing stretches the American poetic imagination, indeed the very definitions of American poetry, and guarantees her place in 20th-century American literature. This book brings together the voices of those who have been challenged by the complexity and richness of Rukeyser's poems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

There is a lot to learn in this portrayal of a Poet
If you are not that familiar with the work of Muriel Rukeyser (and I am not) you have lots to learn about what you missed. The essays individually portray aspects of the poet and collectively are a beautiful chorus of mixed voices that all share in common a deep reverence for her work and life. I add myself as a late arriving admirer of this formidable artist and activist.

inspiring chronicle of an inspiring life
I should preface this by telling you that I am fanatically devoted to Muriel Rukeyser's work and so may present a somewhat extreme perspective. As a high-schooler, it is one of my deepest hopes that my generation will awaken to this amazing and underappreciated woman. As Muriel Rukeyser's poems are monuments, so is her life itself. She was a tremendous force for artistic vision and social conscience. As a reflection of such a life, this book could hardly go wrong, and it is indeed intensely thought-provoking and inspiring.

I found the organization of the book to be effective on the whole. Rather than a single narrative, it is a collection of writings from a range of people including Adrienne Rich, and Muriel Rukeyser's son, William Rukeyser. It's divided into five parts: 1. Poetics and Vision; 2. Activism and Teaching; 3. The Body, Feminist Critique, and the Poet as Mother; 4. Poetry of Witness; 5. Remembering Muriel Rukeyser. For the most part the divisions seemed somewhat arbitrary, but of course dividing a life into such categories is a near impossible task. I enjoyed the mix of literary critique with personal stories. There were also a surprisingly large number of poems about/inspired by Muriel Rukeyser, and these were of mixed quality. On the whole, the book admittedly had it's hits and it's misses, but it was absolutely worth it for the hits. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Muriel Rukeyser (and that should, of course, be everyone). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If you can find this, buy it.
"What if one woman told the truth about her life?/The world would break open."--Muriel Rukeyser

"Breaking Open" does exactly what it claims: Rukeyser cracks the shell. She writes to us of flight, of feminism and of famine, demonstrating her mastery of poetic techniques and her sense of justice. She dares to speak her mind, with beauty and strength.

Rukeyser has influenced modern poets from Adrienne Rich to Sharon Olds. She reinforced the idea that science and art are inextricably linked, and helped set the stage for a healthier kind of feminism. By not downplaying women's traditional roles, while also seeking wholeheartedly what once was viewed as exclusively masculine -- the land of ideas -- Rukeyser remained true to her spirit. ... Read more

Product Description
Observing that poetry is a natural part of our pastimes and rituals, Rukeyser opposes elitist attitudes and confronts Americans' fear of feeling. Multicultural and interdisciplinary, this volume makes an irrefutable case for the centrality of poetry in American life.Amazon.com Review
In an era in which art is increasingly dictated by marketers,and publishers and filmmakers don't seem to make a move without firstconsulting focus groups, poetry might seem, at first, a bitsuperfluous. It's "difficult," for one thing, subject tomany interpretations; it's also deeply personal, unsuited to creationby committee. So what possible use does the modern world have forpoetry? Muriel Rukeyser answers this question in The Life ofPoetry, a book that just keeps coming back in time for each newgeneration. First published in 1949, it was reissued in 1974 andreturns to print again in 1997, courtesy of Paris Press. Rukeyser'spresents many definitions of poetry: it is an exchange of energy, arecord of the emotional meaning of every moment, a concentration ofuniversal joys and sorrows. It is a thing "in which we may liveand which will save us."

Rukeyser, herself a poet, was a womanwho understood that poetry alone was not enough to save the world. Anactivist on behalf of West Virginia coal miners and later censoredSouth Korean writers, Rukeyser had an intimate understanding of theplace principle and action occupy in saving the world. But the worldneeds a soul as well as a mind and a will, and for Rukeyser, poetryfills that role. The Life of Poetry is about poetry, but withinthat realm fall subjects as varied as musicals; war; and the works ofWhitman, Dickinson, and Lorca, among others. Rukeyser died in 1980,but her fierce intelligence and great heart live on in this marvelousmeditation on the universal applications of poetry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must-read for poets, authors, and fans of the arts!
Ever wonder why people actively loathe poetry?

Ever wonder why youshould continue writing/painting/acting/reading?

Rukeyser's book moveswell beyond therange of traditional literary theory, incorporatingphilosophy, social theory, and science to present a world view unlike any Ihad ever encountered before. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Breathtaking
Muriel Rukeyeser is a wonderful poet, much neglected in the canon of 20th century poets. Her words are awe-inspiring and evoke so many feelings, it's hard to know what to do with them when they emerge. Read these poems outloud, dramatically. Hopefully you will be inspired to stand up straight andshout "Yes, Yes! That's exactly right!" much as I was. Readingher words is like giving my soul pen and paper and being able to read thethings it would write. ... Read more