About Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich (May 16, 1929 in Baltimore, Maryland – March 27, 2012 in Santa Cruz) was an American poet, essayist, university professor and feminist theorist. She has been called one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century. After the publication of The Diamond Cutters, and Other Poems, in 1953 she will remain eight years without publishing, she goes through a personal crisis, of doubt, of questions, she discovers Mary Wollstonecraft, James Baldwin and Simone de Beauvoir and decides after her last giving birth in 1959 to regain control of her life and her writings.In 1966, Adrienne Rich taught poetry at Columbia University in New York, where she encountered the radical ideas flooding the campus, in particular the anti-Vietnam movement and that of women's liberation. The same year, her husband was hired at the City College of New York. In 1968, she also obtained a teaching position at City College under the Seek program which attempted to reach out to underprivileged students. In her work, radical ideas began to surface in her poetry collection Leaflets, which appeared in 1969, and more decisively in her articles which had now begun to appear in feminist journals. Her political commitment created a crisis within the couple. In 1966, the couple separated. Her husband committed suicide in 1970.
In 1971, she published her poem The Will to Change, marked by her personal evolution, which she would support in 1973 with the publication of Diving into the Wreck. With Twenty-one Love Poems in 1976, she reveals her first lesbian loves. In the last part of her life, the notable works of Adrienne Rich will be especially essays. Her articles address various themes: feminism, motherhood, civil rights, pacifism, violence against women in prisons, abuse of women, homosexuality.
Browse all poems and texts published on Adrienne Rich
