The power of Adrienne Rich : a biography
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 447-449) and index.

LJ Nov 2020

"The first biography of the internationally acclaimed lesbian-feminist poet and essayist Adrienne Rich. One of the most prominent and influential intellectuals of the latter half of the twentieth century, poet and essayist Adrienne Rich remains a timely and timeless voice. Beginning in the 1970's, Rich became essential reading for feminists. Her collections Diving into the Wreck and The Dream of a Common Language give literary substance to a revolution in feminist thought. Hilary Holladay's vivid account of Rich's courageous and at time turbulent life reveals the woman behind the unforgettable writing. Drawing on interviews with the poet's friends, colleagues, and former students, as well as on thousands of pages of her unpublished letters and journals, Holladay creates a portrait of a brilliant, relentlessly striving individual. Beginning with the publication of her first collection of verse in 1951, Rich has entranced readers. I n the early 1970's following the death of her husband, the economist Alfred Conrad, this mother of three sons rejected the patriarchal world and announced she would no longer countenance being a token woman. And her writing reflected her new resolve. Rich successively embraced feminism, lesbianism, and her ancestral Judaism. She championed the rights of women of color and of lesbians and gay men, and she insisted that poets of all ages and ethnicities deserve to be heard and read. Admired for her eloquence and her insight, denounced for breaking the rules of the male-dominated literary world, loved and feared by her feminist friends, Rich lived a life of astonishing and deft transformations."--inside jacket.