Muriel Rukeyser: A woman who lived life to the fullest

Muriel Rukeyser

Born: 15-Dec-1913
Birthplace: New York City
Died: 12-Feb-1980
Location of death: New York CityCause of death: Stroke
Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Bisexual
Occupation: Poet, Activist
Nationality: United States
Best known work: The Book of the Dead

You gotta love a reporter who was jailed for protesting the incarceration of 4 Black men in the 30's (the Scottsborough case) and the Vietnam war in the 60's. She was a woman who attended one of those private women colleges that taught women to think for themselves. Hey, at one point, even her parents thought she was too smart for her own good.

Always an activist, she was also arrested for protesting the imprisonment on death row of fellow poet Kim Chi Ha by South Korea. She was also considered an expert on the labor movement and taught at a labor school in California.

University: Vassar College (two years)
University: Columbia University (1930-32)
Teacher: Vassar College Teacher: Sarah Lawrence College Teacher: California Labor School

Author of these books:Theory of Flight (1935, poetry)U.S. 1 (1938, poetry)A Turning Wind (1939, poetry)Beast in View (1944, poetry)The Green Wave (1948, poetry)Elegies (1949, poetry)The Life of Poetry (1949, nonfiction)Body of Waking (1958, poetry)Waterlily Fire: Poems 1935-1962 (1962, poetry)The Orgy (1965, novel)The Speed of Darkness (1968, poetry)Breaking Open (1973, poetry)The Gates (1976, poetry)Collected Poems (1978, poetry).