Rich, Adrienne, 1929–, American poet, b. Baltimore, grad. Radcliffe, 1951. Since the 1970s her volumes of exquisitely wrought verse have increasingly reflected feminist and lesbian themes. Among her volumes of poetry are A Change of World (1951), Diving into the Wreck (1973), The Dream of a Common Language (1978), A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far (1981), Your Native Land, Your Life (1986), Time's Power (1989), and Dark Fields of the Republic (1996). Her influential volumes of feminist theory and criticism include Of Women Born (1976), On Lies, Secrets, and Silence (1979), and Blood, Bread, and Poetry (1986). Her prose reflections on the function of poetry are contained in What Is Found There: Notebooks on Poetry and Politics (1993).

Bibliography

See her Collected Early Poems: 1950–1970 (1993); study by C. Keyes (1986).

Rich, Adrienne (Cecile)

(born May 16, 1929, Baltimore, Md., U.S.) U.S. poet, scholar, and critic. She was a student at Radcliffe College when her poems were chosen for publication in the Yale Younger Poets series; the resulting volume, A Change of World (1951), reflected her formal mastery. Her subsequent work traces a transformation from well-crafted but imitative poetry to a highly personal and powerful style. Her increasing commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influenced much of her work. Among her collections are Diving into the Wreck (1973, National Book Award) and The Dream of a Common Language (1978). She also wrote compelling books of nonfiction, including Of Woman Born (1976; National Book Award), On Lies, Secrets, and Silence (1979), and What Is Found There (1993).

Rich, Adrienne (Cecile) (1929– ) poet; born in Baltimore, Md. She studied at Radcliffe (B.A. 1951), lived briefly in the Netherlands, and taught at many institutions, notably Cornell (1981). Based in New York City, she won many awards and is known for her highly personal poetry, such as Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971–1972 (1973).