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English 4994 Adrienne Rich Research Project

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Biography

Early Life

Adrienne Cecile Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland on May 16, 1929. (4) Her father, Arnold Rice Rich, was a professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University. (5)Her mother, Helen Jones Rich, studied musical composition and was a concert pianist but after becoming a wife and mother, she focused her life entirely on her husband and two daughters. Adrienne Rich's early poetic influence stemmed from her father who encouraged her to not only read but also to write her own poetry. Her interest in literature was sparked within her father's library where she read the work of writers such as Matthew Arnold, William Blake, Thomas Carlyle, John Keats, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. (5) Adrienne Rich and her younger sister were home schooled by their mother until Adrienne began public eucation in the fourth grade.(5)

Rich attended Radcliffe College. During her college education she focsed primarily on poetry, which was taught to her by male professors. (4) In 1951, her last year at Radcliffe College, Rich's first collection of poetry, A Change of World, was selected by W.H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Her collection was highly influenced by the works of male poets whom she studied. (4) Adrienne Rich was well respected as a rising poet and acknowledged for her modesty and respect of elders.(4)Following her graduation, Rich received the Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed her to travel across Europe, including England between 1952-1953. (source 5)

Family Life

In 1953 at age twenty-four, Adrienne Rich married Alfred Haskell Conrad, an economy professor at Harvard. They lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 1953 to 1966, and had three sons together. David, their first son was born in 1955, followed by Paul in 1957, and Jacob in 1959. With three young children and a husband, Rich poured her energy into the role of wife and mother leading her writing to become less of a priority. These conflicting roles and ambitions left her unfulfilled, which she expressed later in her works. (4) Adrienne Rich's travels continued during 1961-1962 in the Netherlands on behalf of a second Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1966 Rich and her family moved to New York City, where her and her husband both taught at City College of New York. Here, Rich began her work with disadvantaged students. Trouble began arising in Adrienne and Alfred's marriage during the early 1960's causing them to seaparate in 1969. One year following their separation in 1970, Alfred Conrad committed suicide. (5)

Later Life & Sexuality

In 1963, Rich chose to write and publish a much more personal work entitled Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law. Throughout this piece she began to examine her female identity. In 1976, Rich publicly announced her sexuality as a lesbian, which is overtly reflected in her work, The Dream of a Common Language, as well as in her later works. Rich embraced her sexuality and took an active role in political issues of sexual equality. (4)

She taught at City College as well as Rutgers University until 1979. She moved to Western Massachusetts with her partner, Michelle Cliff, in the early 1980’s. Ultimately, they moved to Northern California, where Rich continued her career as a professor, lecturer, poet, and essayist. Rich taught and lectured at Scripps College, San Jose State University, and Stanford University during the 1980’s and 1990’s.

Activism

Adrienne Rich's activism began in the 1960's with involvment in the student and anti-war movements. In the 1960's and 1970's, her commitment to the women's movement grew and was demonstrated through her poetry and writings. (3) In 1964, Rich joined the New Left, which spurred a period of both political and personal growth. (5) After Rich moved to New York, she became a civil rights and anti-war activist, as well as a radical feminist active in the women's rights movement. (4)

Rich was awarded the National Book Award in 1974 for Diving into the Wreck, a work which was strongly criticized for its personal tone. She refused to personally accept the award, however, she accepted it on behalf of Audre Lorde and Alice Walker as well as all women. (2)

During the 1990’s Rich became an active member of numerous advisory boards such as the Boston Woman’s Fund, National Writers Union, Sisterhood in Support of Sisters in South Africa, and New Jewish Agenda. (source 5)

Awards

Adrienne Rich has received numerous awards including two Guggenheim Fellowships, the first Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Brandeis Creative Arts Medal, the Common Wealth Award, the William Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the National Poetry Association Award for Distinguished Service to the Art of Poetry. She has also been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lannan Foundation, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, the National Book Award for Diving into the Wreck, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the Wallace Stevens Award, and the Frost Medal.

In 1997, she declined the National Medal for the Arts, unable to back down from her political agenda: “I could not accept such an award from President Clinton or this White House because the very meaning of art, as I understand it, is incompatible with the cynical politics of this administration.” (source 5)