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The Power of Adrienne Rich: A Biography
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About This Book
The first comprehensive biography of Adrienne Rich, feminist and queer icon and internationally revered National Book Award winning poet . Adrienne Rich was the female face of American poetry for decades. Her forceful, uncompromising writing has more than stood the test of time, and the life of the woman behind the words is equally impressive. Motivated by personal revelations, Rich transformed herself from a traditional, Radcliffe-educated lyric poet and married mother of three sons into a path-breaking lesbian-feminist author of prose as well as poetry. In doing so, she emerged as both architect and exemplar of the modern feminist movement, breaking ranks to denounce the male-dominated literary establishment and paving the way for the many queer women of letters to take their places in the cultural mainstream. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished materials, including Rich's correspondence and in-depth interviews with numerous people who knew her, Hilary Holladay digs deep into never-before-accessed sources to portray Rich in full dimension and vivid, human detail.
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Reviews
"Synthesizing a treasure trove of Rich's letters, journals, testimonials, and published writings to chronicle a complicated and impactful life, Holladay takes readers through Rich's unorthodox and at times turbulent upbringing, her early years of professional and academic success at Radcliffe College in Cambridge, her frustrations as a mother of three young sons with a demanding family life, and her later years as a prominent feminist activist and writer in New York and California."
"This is the question that the scholar and writer Hilary Holladay poses in The Power of Adrienne Rich, the first biography of the poet and, one hopes, not the last."
"This elegant, assured biography underscores Rich's essential place in our literary pantheon."
"Holladay reveals the extent to which actual, first-hand suffering also informed Rich's aesthetics ..."
"Nights When Nothing Happened builds from a somnambulant beginning to a dramatic conclusion as the Chengs' choices, based on what they think will be safest for the kids, actually endanger them."
"One of the great virtues of Holladay's narrative is how skillfully it integrates jargon-free textual analysis of the poetry and uses it to trace Rich's personal and political metamorphoses."
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