Letter from Kertesz to Rukeyser, October 24 1979

Title

eng Letter from Kertesz to Rukeyser, October 24 1979

Description

eng An original, typewritten letter dated October 24th, 1979. The letter is from Louise Kertesz to Muriel Rukeyser. Louise begins the letter by saying that she had phoned Rukeyser earlier today, but she was told that Rukeyser was out of town. Louise hopes that Rukeyser is doing well. Louise asks Rukeyser if she has received the page proofs. The proofs were in such poor shape that Louise requested that she will be the final proofreader for the corrected page proofs. The press went with electronic composition for her book, which is their first experience with computer set type, and they have had many problems. The galleys were full of errors. Louise received the reviews that Rukeyser had sent her a few weeks ago, and she wonders how she could answer them, since her book is an answer to all of these reviews. Louise was particularly shocked at William Prichard’s review in The Hudson Review, and amazed at the “...shallowness, the stupidity I encountered from time to time in reading past reviews of your books.” "There is a rich vein of that running in contemporary 'criticism.'” Louise then states that B.R. Cohen, in [her?] review in the Buffalo Newspaper "didn’t read attentively, and seems to be paraphrasing recent reviews of your books." Louise sent copies of these reviews to Michael True who said he would try to place a review of her book in The Chronicle of Higher Education. True will see that the reviews that Rukeyser sent Louise are like several others documented in Louise’s book. Louise hopes that True will reference these reviews in his review of Louise’s book. She is also mailing to Rukeyser at her 50th St. address a copy of Moving to Detroit. There is a shorter version at 90 pages. Louise is now querying publishers, with a sampling of the poems. Louisiana didn’t want the manuscript, saying only that it was too long. It took five and a half months for them to say that. Perhaps they didn’t want to offend Louise, but Louise is sure that Rukeyser will be more candid. She is looking forward to Rukeyser’s response, when she gets time to read it. Louise ends the letter by saying that she is thinking of Rukeyser, and she hopes that all is well.

Identifier

eng 018_LK_01_12_022.jpg

Creator

eng Louise Kertesz

Date Created

eng October 24th, 1979

Medium

eng Paper

Subject

eng Louise Kertesz, Muriel Rukeyser, Female Poets, Correspondence, Photography

Is Part Of

eng 018.LK, Louise Kertesz papers

Contributor

eng Andrew Schick