Adrienne Rich was born in Baltimore in the USA in 1929. Rich was the daughter of a Jewish father and a protestant mother. Her father was a professor of medicine and her mother was a composer. Rich's parents believed that they could educate their children more effectively than a public school could, so Adrienne and her sister were home schooled until the fourth grade (10years). However, by the time Rich graduated from high school she was already writing great poetry.
Adrienne Rich then went on to university to study literature. Most of her inspiration for her first poetic publication came from her university lecturers, who were men.
At twenty-four, Rich married Alfred H. Conrad and they had three sons together before Rich was 30. After the birth of her sons Rich tried to be a good housewife and mother - much like her own mother. However, her efforts were in vain. She felt inadequate for this role. Her poetry started to change. She started to deal with issues such as the role of women in society.
Rich and her family later moved to New York City, where she took up a lecturing post. By now Adrienne Rich was an activist poet. She was dealing with themes of anti-war and racism in her poetry. She was still very much interested in feminism.
Rich and her husband split up in 1970. Later that year Alfred committed suicide. Through her work on feminism and the roles of women, Rich explored her sexuality and came to the decision that she was a lesbian.
Today she lives in Santa Cruz, California with her partner, Michelle Cliff, who is also a poet.
No comments:
Post a Comment