Born: 15 December 1913, United States
Died: 12 February 1980
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following bio was written by Emma Rosen, author of On This Day She Made History: 366 Days With Women Who Shaped the World, and has been republished with permission.
Muriel Rukeyser was a renowned Jewish-American writer known for her poetry, essays, biographies, and active political engagement, focusing on themes like equity, women’s rights, social justice, and her Jewish heritage. Her notable works include “The Book of the Dead” (1938), which recounted the tragic Hawk’s Nest incident, where many miners succumbed to silicosis. Her poem “To Be a Jew in the Twentieth Century” (1944) unexpectedly found its way into the prayer books of the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements despite her earlier distant connection to her Jewish heritage.
Rukeyser was deeply involved in progressive politics throughout her life, covering the Scottsboro case at 21, working for the International Labor Defense, and reporting on events like the People’s Olympiad in Barcelona. Her experiences during the Spanish Civil War inspired her book “Mediterranean.”
In “The Life of Poetry,” she passionately championed poetry’s role in democracy and human understanding. During her tenure as president of PEN America in the 1960s and 1970s, her feminism and opposition to the Vietnam War resonated with a new generation. Her final work, “The Gates,” drew inspiration from her attempt to visit poet Kim Chi-Ha on death row. In 1968, she signed the “Writers and Editors War Tax Protest” pledge against the Vietnam War through tax withholding.
Rukeyser’s diverse work included a fictionalized memoir, plays, and translations for authors like Octavio Paz and Gunnar Ekelöf. She also authored biographies of figures such as Josiah Willard Gibbs, Wendell Willkie, and Thomas Hariot. In the early 1970s, she worked with Andrea Dworkin and served on the Advisory Board of the Westbeth Playwrights Feminist Collective in New York City, producing feminist-themed plays.
Rukeyser’s partner for decades was her literary agent, Monica McCall.