Files
Transcript (171 KB)
Description
In the summer of 2021, Louise Kertesz donated a rich stash of documents to Eastern Michigan University’s Halle Library Archive, which she had collected during the years of researching and composing The Poetic Vision of Muriel Rukeyser. Published in 1980, the book is the first study of Rukeyser’s published oeuvre and its critical reception. Kertesz’s donation also includes three audio cassettes of her conversations with Muriel Rukeyser, the first of which took place on July 11, 1977, the second on January 2, 1978. For the first interview, Kertesz came prepared to ask pointed questions about Rukeyser’s life—her friends, her political activities, her involvement with the San Francisco Renaissance, her relationship to other poets like Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Kenneth Rexroth, and Denise Levertov. She had sent Rukeyser lists of such questions in advance (now in the EMU archive) and sought to construct a detailed chronology of Rukeyser’s life to place at the end of her book. Fortunately, what unfolded was not a one-sided interview, but a genuine conversation that touches on a great many topics, both literary and biographical. During the second conversation, five months later, Kertesz broached questions about Rukeyser’s relation to the Communist party, to religion, in particular Judaism, about good friends like Ruth Lehman, Marie Welch, May Sarton, and Jane Cooper, and about Rukeyser’s assiduous archiving habit. Both conversations offer invaluable insight into Rukeyser’s life and works as well as glimpses of her humor and generosity of spirit.
Interview Date
1-2-1978
Original Media Type
Audio cassette
Digital Media File Type
mp3
Keywords
Eastern Michigan University Archives, Muriel Rukeyser, Louise Kertesz, Poetry
Permission to Use
Permission to quote from this oral history should be requested from the University Archives (lib_archives@emich.edu).
Copyright
Copyright to the audio resource and its transcript is held by the content creator, author, artist or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any other format without written permission of the copyright owner, Eastern Michigan University Archives (lib_archives@emich.edu).
Recommended Citation
Kertesz, Louise, "Interview with Muriel Rukeyser, 1978, Part B" (1978). Oral Histories. 283.
https://commons.emich.edu/oral_histories/283