Letter from Louise Kertesz to Denise Levertov

Dated December 21st, 1980. A typewritten letter from Louise Kertesz to Denise Levertov. Louise states that it was good to hear from Denise on “the 4th.” Louise states that LSU Press sent Denise a copy of the book, and that in one of its sections, Louise discusses Denise’s poetry. Louise asks Denise to tell her what she thought of that chapter. The letter also discusses Muriel’s appreciation of the book. When the manuscript was being read to her, she cried and kept saying, “Right on!” Rukeyser also called Louise Kertesz “her best reader.” However: “I'm starting to feel that because I didn't work at promoting the book (what could I have done?), I have failed Muriel in this way : in ten months, no one in the poetry and poetry-teaching community has noticed the book, the first to try to assess the scope of Muriel’s work and describe her rich tradition, a book she was enthusiastic about since its beginning. None of the poets close to Muriel who were sent galleys or the book itself has said a word that I know of. I feel the book has fallen into that proverbial void. I just don't understand this.” Louise realizes that it “is abrupt to lay this on you, but I really do feel my work is incomplete and unfinished now.”