Part I

Part I of the papers of Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980) spans the period 1867-1980, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the years 1936-1979. The papers include literary notes and notebooks which record the variant stages of Rukeyser's poetry and writings and reflect the development of her literary technique. The notebooks also contain notes on background readings, trial lines, and Rukeyser's research. Also included are literary manuscripts and typescripts as well as production material for books and plays. A series of diaries and appointment books contains personal notes and literary drafts, though for the most part neither type of entry is fully developed. The papers also contain a small amount of correspondence and correspondence notebooks, subject files , an oversize series, and a collection of papers belonging to the author and lay psychologist Frances G. Wickes , for whom Rukeyser acted as literary executor. The main body of Wickes's papers located in the Library of Congress is available to researchers in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.

Muriel Rukeyser was a lyric, feminist poet whose social and political involvement lent to her writings a broader message in support of social justice worldwide. Rukeyser's concern for the cause of human rights was expressed early when, as the literary editor of the Student Review , an undergraduate journal at Vassar College, she reported on the second Scottsboro trial in 1932. In 1936, she traveled to Barcelona, Spain, to report on the People's Olympiad, an alternative competition organized by workers' sports clubs opposed to the official Olympics being staged in Berlin. Diaries and appointment books contain several pages by Rukeyser and limited entries by an unidentified diarist who accompanied Rukeyser to Barcelona, and additional material relating to the People's Olympiad can be found in the Subject File . Rukeyser's defense of the dissident Korean poet, Chi-ha Kim, and her active opposition to the Vietnamese Conflict, both of which are documented in the Subject File, further demonstrate her involvement in political and social issues.

Rukeyser wedded her personal and social views in her writings, and it is this aspect of her life that is most fully documented in her papers. The Literary File contains manuscripts and production material for the wide variety of literary forms which Rukeyser produced, including drafts and related material of both her classroom and public lectures. The Literary File documents Rukeyser's book, The Traces of Thomas Hariot , a prose portrait of the sixteenth-century English mathematician, and her play, "Houdini," based on the life of the magician. It also contains literary notebooks kept by Rukeyser on a sporadic basis over many years. These books cover a wide range of topics and provide clues to the conception and germination of her literary ideas, some of which resulted in published works, while others were never developed beyond the research stage, such as Rukeyser's notes on Franz Boas, the subject of a projected biography. Another research file on Boas is located in the Subject File . A series of unorganized literary notes is also contained in the Literary File , as are files on several children's books and translations of foreign authors, including Bertolt Brecht, Gunnar Ekelöf, and Octavio Paz.

The Subject File documents Rukeyser's appointment as president of the American Center of P.E.N. Her reaction to the issues raised during her term in office further reflects her social outlook. Material in the General Correspondence series includes letters exchanged with friends and colleagues from the New York literary circle in which Rukeyser moved. Single letters from personalities of note are scattered throughout this series, while letters from Isobel M. Cerney and James Edmiston illuminate Rukeyser's California period in the late 1940s, during which time she lectured for the California Labor School. Correspondence files of Monica McCall, Rukeyser's friend and literary agent, and Frances G. Wickes are also of importance. Other correspondents include Kay Boyle, Betty and Richard Eberhart, Donnan Call Jeffers, Denise Levertov, Helen Merrell Lynd, James Marshall, Carson McCullers, William Meredith, Marianne Moore, William Packard, Robert Payne, Rebecca E. Pitts, Katharine Anne Porter, Miriam M. Reik, May Sarton, Bryna Ivens and Louis Untermeyer, Alice Walker, Robert Penn Warren and his wife, Eleanor Clark, Toni Willson, and Ella Winter.

Part II

Part II of the papers of Muriel Rukeyser covers the years from 1844 to 1986, with the bulk of the material dating from 1930 to 1979. It contains family papers , correspondence , literary material , subject files , oversize items, and miscellaneous material supplementing many of the topics and files noted in Part I. Part II includes holograph drafts and typescripts, outlines, notes and notebooks, trial lines, research material, and other items pertaining to Rukeyser's poetry and writings, in particular her journalistic narrative The Orgy , her book of poems The Speed of Darkness , and the historical biography The Traces of Thomas Hariot . In addition, Part II also includes material relating to Rukeyser's translations of Gunnar Ekelöf, Selected Poems of Gunnar Ekelöf , and Octavio Paz, Selected Poems of Octavio Paz . A small collection of family papers touches on issues of Rukeyser's personal life as reflected in her correspondence with her parents, Lawrence and Myra Lyons Rukeyser, her son, William Laurie Rukeyser, and other members of the Rukeyser family. A Miscellany series contains further items of personal interest including address and appointment books, a small diary and diary notes, notebooks and notes, including those recording the interpretations of her dreams, and transcriptions of letters written by Rukeyser.

The Literary File in Part II contains drafts and trial lines of Rukeyser's poetry. Notes and notebooks record her poetic and literary reflections and other miscellaneous notes. In addition to material concerning the writing and production of her books and articles, the Literary File also includes plays, radio and television scripts and outlines, screenplays, and recordings. Rukeyser's play, The Colors of the Day , written for the centennial celebration of Vassar College, is particularly well documented. Outlines and research topics supplement files in Part I and contain material assembled by Rukeyser for works-in-progress. Correspondence and related material pertain to Rukeyser's lectures and poetry readings, as well as communication with her agents, editors, and publishers. Rukeyser's letters from students and the public are also located in the Literary File.

The Subject File in Part II contains material similar to that in Part I documenting various aspects of Rukeyser's life, such as her association with the California Labor School and PEN (Organization). Other subjects include her work with the Office of War Information during World War II, her academic life from her student years at Vassar College to her teaching career at Sarah Lawrence College, and her concern for issues of political and social justice, as reflected in her opposition to the Vietnamese Conflict and her coverage of the Scottsboro trial.

The General Correspondence series of Part II contains many of the same correspondents listed in Part I. Additional correspondents include Berenice Abbott, Eleanor Clark, Alexandra and Peter Docili, Robert Duncan, Sara Bard Field, Hallie Davis Flanagan, Henry Fuller, Horace Gregory and his wife, Marya Zaturenska, Norman Holmes Pearson, and Marie de L. Welch.