Letter from Rukeyser to Kertesz with responses to Kertesz's questions
Letter from Rukeyser to Kertesz with responses to Kertesz's questions
Original typewritten three-page letter, undated, of Muriel Rukeyser to Louise Kertesz, answering sixteen questions. Rukeyser's answers are wide-ranging. In answer to a question about her involvement in the publication of Erika Mann's book School for Barbarians: Education Under The Nazis, she clarifies that "I rewrote the rough English version ... The published version was mine. It was a job for which I got 200 dollars." She also addresses the Partisan Review debacle and suggests that Kertesz ask the editors directly "why it [her poem "Wake Island"] was singled out for abusive criticism." In another answer, she mentions a "wonderful teacher of science who was also the teacher of Frank Oppenheimer, with whom I am working at the Exploratorium ...The Exploratorium is a museum of perception. I have looked on the political questions and the scientific questions you ask, as matters of perception, the way one reaches the world, and the way one reaches onself." Page 2 of 3.