Letter from Kenneth Rexroth to Louise Kertesz

Dated October 25th, 1977. To Louise Kertesz from Kenneth Rexroth. The letter states his willingness to write a preface for Louise Kertesz’s book on Rukeyser, but he adds: “...but between you and me, I don't think the book is very satisfactory. It does not do Muriel justice. She is certainly the best poet of those now in their sixties; she is also the best US woman poet since Mina Loy and Laura Riding, and she is better than either, except for a very few poems of each. All this rehearsal of book reviews gives a completely false picture of anything except Stalinist-anti Stalinist politics and change in the Party Line itself. … Never forget–Muriel for a whole generation was, along with Patchen, myself and very very few others a rare US representative of the international idiom of modern poetry.” Compares her to Octavio Paz, Paul Eluard, Paul Celan, Eugenio Montale.