Adrienne Rich

1929–2012

Born in Baltimore, Adrienne Rich was a distinguished poet, writer, teacher, feminist, and peace activist. Rich was the recipient of the 1974 National Book Award and the National Book Foundation’s 2006 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, among other honors.

Entries in the Posen Library by This Creator

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Diving into the Wreck

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First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade, I put on the body-armor of black rubber the absurd flippers the grave and awkward mask. I am…

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For Ethel Rosenberg

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convicted, with her husband, of “conspiracy to commit espionage”; killed in the electric chair June 19, 1953

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Split at the Root

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In a long poem written in 1960, when I was thirty-one years old, I described myself as “Split at the root, neither Gentile nor Jew, / Yankee nor Rebel.” I was still trying to have it both ways: to be…