Adrienne Rich and the Women's Liberation Movement: A Politics of Reception

Abstract Notes 1"A communal poetry" in What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (New York: Norton, 1993), p. 165. 2Susan Grieger, "Adrienne Rich: 'A whole new poetry beginning here,'" Minnesota Daily May 15, 1978. 3Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (Norton, 1976). 4Rich, "Blood, Bread and Poetry" (1984), Blood, Bread and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979–1985 (London: Virago, 1986), p. 182. 5"It is the lesbian in us …" (1976) in Lies Secrets and Silence: Selected Prose 1966–1978 (New York: Norton, 1979), p. 199–203. 6See "Disloyal to Civilization" (1978) in Lies Secrets and Silence and "Notes towards a politics of location" (1984) in Blood, Bread and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979–1985 (Virago, 1986). 7The principal resource for this study is the Adrienne Rich Papers held in the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe College. I wish to thank the librarians there for their generous and informed assistance and Adrienne Rich for permission to quote from the papers. I have cited the location of published materials in this collection only where full bibliographical details were not otherwise vailable. 8Mary Carruthers, "The Re-Vision of the Muse: Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Judy Grahn and Olga Broumas," Hudson Review Vol. 36, 1983, 293–322, p. 296. 9The phrase is taken from Catharine MacKinnon, Feminism Unmodified (Harvard University Press, Cambridge. MA., 1987). 10Lorde for From a Land Where Other People Live, and Walker for Revolutionary Petunias: Jan Clausen, Books & Life (Ohio State University Press, 1989), p. 12. 11Article by Peter Prescott, Newsweek, December 24, 1973, pp. 83–85. (Rich Papers, Schlesinger Library, Box 7, Folder 282). 12"Underground Streams," Harpers' December 1973, pp. 120–121. 13"Cutting the Marble," New York Review of Books, Oct. 4 1973, 8–9. 14William Pritchard, "Poetry Matters," Hudson Review Vol. 26, 1973, pp. 587–588. 15"Two Sisters in Poetry," New York Times (Aug. 25, 1973). 16 Ms 2, July 1973, "Visionary Anger," pp. 30–34. 17 American Poetry Review Sept/Oct 1973, p. 11. Schulman was then poetry editor of The Nation. 18"Songs of experience," Washington Post Book World, Dec. 23, 1973, p. 2. 19 Village Voice April 25, 1974, p. 23. 20"Trying to Save the Skein," The Nation Oct. 8, 1973, pp. 346–349. 21 Off Our Backs Feb. 1974, p. 15. 22 Southern Humanities Review 10 (Winter 1976), pp. 81–84. 23"The Corn-Porn Lyric: Poetry 1972–73," Contemporary Literature 16 (Winter 1975), pp. 84–125. 24"Ghostlier demarcations, Keener Sounds," Parnassus: Poetry in Review 2 (Fall–Winter 1973), cited from Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi and Albert Gelpi, Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose (Norton, 1993), pp. 299–310. 25Sometimes it was reviewed along with Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi and Albert Gelpi's edited selection of poems, essays and reviews, Adrienne Rich's Poetry, also published by Norton in 1975. 26Norton, 1975. This was not her first composite volume: her Selected Poems appeared in 1967. 27 Michigan Quarterly Review Vol. 15, No. 3, Summer 1976, pp. 360–366. 28 American Poetry Review March/April 1975, pp. 4–7. 29"Three Women Poets," Harvard Magazine July–August 1975, pp. 66–67. 30See the excellent coverage of major United States reviews for all Rich's books up to 1981 in Jane Roberta Cooper, ed., Reading Adrienne Rich: Reviews and Revisions 1951–1981 (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1984). 31"The Poetry of Adrienne Rich," San Francisco Review of Books (September 2, 1976), pp. 19–21. 32Dr Annie Lou Smith, "AR's womanly world one of quest," Sun (June 1, 1975). 33Susan Wood "Poems show stunning power, courage, self-indulgence," Houston Chronicle, 6/22/75. 34Susan Gyneth Grieger in the Minnesota Daily (June 14, 1975, pp. 11 and 15), "Testing Bombs." 35Jan Greenberg, Post-Dispatch (May 18, 1975), "Women's Power, Brief and Local." 36Lolette Kuby "Poetry Corner: Women," Plain Dealer (September 7, 1975). 37Jane Ellen Glasser (poetry editor of the Ghent Quarterly), "Poet's Spontaneity and Grace Revealed," Pilot (27 July 1975). 38Margaret Atwood, "It's seminal. A landmark. The struggle of woman," Globe and Mail (30 April 1976). (Toronto is hardly "regional," but the review is not included in Cooper's bibliography – see note 30). 39 New York Times Book Review, (30 December 1973), p. 240. 40Craig Werner, Adrienne Rich: The Poet and her Critics, American Library Association, Chicago and London, 1988, p. 8. 41James Whitehead in Saturday Review, December 18, 1971 (Papers, Box 7, folder 288). There are, in fact, many admiring reviews by males in this folder. 42Jan Clausen, Books & Life, p. 7. 43"A communal poetry" in What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (1993), pp. 168–172. 44Quoted by Paula Bennett in My Life a Loaded Gun: Female Creativity and Feminist Poetics (Beacon Press, Boston, 1986), p. 29. 45Kim Whitehead, The Feminist Poetry Movement (University of Kentucky Press, 1996), pp. 19–20. 46Whitehead, The Feminist Poetry Movement, p. 9. 47Jane Lazarre, The Mother Knot (1976), Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mermaid and the Minotaur (1977), Nancy Chodorow, The Reproduction of Mothering (1978). 48 Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution (10th anniversary ed., Norton, 1986), p. x. 49Reviewing On Lies, Secrets and Silence in Washington Post Book World 5/6/79; Papers, Folder 295. Nearly all the longer reviews of this second prose work that Rich kept are from feminist and radical papers – and, of course, there were more of them around now than in 1976. 50This review by Theroux is reprinted in Cooper (1984), though it is by no means representative. 51"Of Woman Born" Globe and Mail, 6 November 1976. 52"Adrienne Rich comes to terms with 'the woman in the mirror,'" Village Voice, Nov. 8 1976, 81–82. 53 New York Times Book Review (10 October 1976). 54 New York Review of Books (30 September 1976). 55Susan Grieger, "Adrienne Rich: 'A whole new poetry beginning here,'" Minnesota Daily (15 May 1978). 56"Reviewing Reviews of 'Of Woman Born,'" Chrysalis (No. 2 1977), 300. 57In her 1990 obituary for Benedict, who had been her editor at Norton for 22 years, since he worked with her on Leaflets: Papers, Folder 143. 58Letter May 10, 1978; Folder 142, Rich Papers. It was reviewed a month later in the New York Times Book Review, but seems never to have been reviewed in the Times itself, or the New York Review of Books (see Cooper, pp. 361–362). 59"Everything that Grows," The Nation (1 July 1978), 21–22. 60 Vision (Dallas, Texas, FM magazine, April 1979, pp. 8–9). 61Karen Whitehill, "A Whole New Poetry," Virginia Quarterly Review (Summer 1979), pp. 563–567. 62Hayden Carruth, "Excellence in Poetry," Harpers November 1978, 81–85. 63Stephen Yenser, "New Books in Review," Yale Review (Autumn 1978), pp. 85–102. 64"Backward into the Future," Parnassus 7 (Fall–Winter 1979), 77–90. 65For example, the reviewer who reassures readers that "the Sapphic testament to womanly love," is not the only message: Frances E. Keuling, "AR's Dream born of pain," Charlotte Observer 6/11/78. 66Preston L. Houser, Monterey Peninsula Herald, 16 April 1978. 67Webster, "Six Poets," Poetry 133 (January 1979), 227–234. 68 William Bridges, "The tamed lightning of a feminist poet," Louisville, Kentucky Courier-Journal, 14 May 1978. 69 Santa Barbara News and Review, August 17, 1978. 70Esther G. Swartz, "New Language Sought," Buffalo Courier-Express, June 18, 1978. 71"Unfinished Women," New York Times Book Review 11 June 1978. 72"Her Cargo," in American Poetry Review, reprinted in Ostriker, Writing Like a Woman, University of Michigan Press, 1983, pp. 102–124. 73 Chrysalis No. 6, 1978, 109–113. 74"To be of use: politics and vision in Adrienne Rich's poetry," Sinister Wisdom, No. 7, Fall 78, 92–99. 75Dorinda Hale, "Uncommon Dream," Sojourner July 1978, p. 10. 76Lorraine Bethel, "The Poetry of Adrienne Rich," GCN, Sept. 16 1978, pp. 8–9. 77Anonymous reviews from Rich Papers, Folder 294: Big Mama Rag (Denver Col. Vol. 6, No. 7) and Womanspirit, n.d. 78Susan Wood-Thompson, Feminary (Vol. X, No. 2, 1979, 68–79). 79Jan Clausen, when she surveyed women involved in independent publishing, found that "the distinction I made between feminist and lesbian presses was largely irrelevant (partly because the respondents, with one exception, were not lesbian separatists, partly because a large percentage of the women's presses are run by lesbians)": "The Politics of Publishing," Sinister Wisdom Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1976, p. 98. 80 SF Bay Guardian [currently in 2004 described as "the elder statesman of the city's alternative newspapers"] March 23, 1978, p. 11, Rich Papers, Box 7, folder 282). 81First published in Signs in 1980: the version in Blood, Bread and Poetry (1986), pp. 23–75 includes correspondence with between Rich and some feminist critics. 82Clausen, "A Movement of Poets: Thoughts on Poetry and Feminism" (1981), reprinted in Books & Life, p. 13. 83 Chrysalis No. 9 (Fall 1979), pp. 29–31. Adrienne Rich was a contributing editor to this journal. 84Clausen, ibid, pp. 17–30. 85Bonnie Zimmerman, "Disobedient Daughter" (review of Blood Bread and Poetry), Women's Review of Books, 4 April 1987, pp. 5–6. 86Mary Carruthers, "The Re-Vision of the Muse: Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, Judy Grahn and Olga Broumas," Hudson Review Vol. 36, pp. 293–322. 87Catharine Stimpson, "Adrienne Rich and Lesbian/Feminist Poetry," Parnassus, Vol. 12, No. 2/Vol. 13, No. 1, 1985, pp. 162–176. 88Paula Bennett, My Life a Loaded Gun: Female Creativity and Feminist Poetics, Beacon Press, Boston, 1986. 89Craig Werner, Adrienne Rich: The Poet and Her Critics, American Library Association, Chicago and London, 1988, pp. 110–113. 90Alice Templeton, The Dream and the Dialogue: Adrienne Rich's Feminist Poetics, University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, 1994. 91"Her Cargo" in American Poetry Review (1979), reprinted in Ostriker, Writing Like a Woman, University of Michigan Press, 1983, pp. 102–122. 92John Blades. "Rich's poetry prize to pay emotional debt": "Tempo," Chicago Tribune, June 12 1986, Rich Papers, Schlesinger Library, Box 1. 93Adrienne Rich, "Arts of the Possible," Massachusetts Review, Vol. 38 (Autumn 1997), Issue 3, p. 319. Anon. Review of Dream of a Common Language. Big Mama Rag, 6, no 7. Adrienne Rich Papers, Folder 294. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College Anon. Review of Dream of a Common Language. Womanspirit, n.d. Adrienne Rich Papers, Folder 294. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College Barry, Kathleen. 'Reviewing Reviews of Of Woman Born', Chrysalis, no. 2 (1977), 300 Blades, John. 'Rich's poetry prize to pay emotional debt.' 'Tempo.' Chicago Tribune, 12 June 1986, Adrienne Rich Papers, Schlesinger Library, Box 1 Bridges, William. 'The tamed lightning of a feminist poet', Louisville Kentucky Courier-Journal, 14 May 1978 Broumas, Olga. 'Dream of a Common Language.' Chrysalis, no 6 (1978), 109–13 Goldstein, Laurence. 'The Evolution of Adrienne Rich.' Michigan Quarterly Review 15, no. 3 (Summer 1976), 360–66 Jong, Erica. 'Visionary Anger.' Ms 2, July 1973, 30–34 Prescott, Peter. Newsweek, 24 December, 1973, 83–5. (Adrienne Rich Papers, Schlesinger Library, Box 7, Folder 282 Russ, Joanna. ' On Lies, Secrets and Silence.' Washington Post Book World, 5 June 1979. Adrienne Rich Papers, Folder 295 Smith, Dr Annie Lou. 'Adrienne Rich's womanly world one of quest.'Sun, 1 June, 1975 Stansell, Christine. Off Our Backs February 1974, 15 Stimpson, Catharine. 'Adrienne Rich and Lesbian/Feminist Poetry.' Parnassus 12, no. 2/13, no. 1, (1985), 162–76 Vendler, Helen. '"Ghostlier demarcations, Keener Sounds"', Parnassus: Poetry in Review 2 (Fall-Winter 1973), cited from Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi and Albert Gelpi, Adrienne Rich's Poetry and Prose (Norton, 1993), 299–310 Whitehead, James. Saturday Review, December 18, 1971. Adrienne Rich Papers, Box 7, folder 288

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.