Muriel Rukeyser, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Muriel Rukeyser

poet and political activist

Date of Birth: 15-Dec-1913

Place of Birth: New York City, New York, United States

Date of Death: 12-Feb-1980

Profession: screenwriter, writer, poet, author

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius

Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913 – February 12, 1980) was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism.
Kenneth Rexroth said that she was the greatest poet of her "exact generation." One of her most powerful pieces was a group of poems titled The Book of the Dead (1938), documenting the details of the Hawk's Nest incident, an industrial disaster in which hundreds of miners died of silicosis. Her poem "To be a Jew in the Twentieth Century" (1944), on the theme of Judaism as a gift, was adopted by the American Reform and Reconstructionist movements for their prayer books, something Rukeyser said "astonished" her, as she had remained distant from Judaism throughout her early life.