The Collected Works of Ruth Whitman : Personas and Personhood

Positioning poet Ruth Whitman as a necessary and radical voice within the American poetry canon.

Ruth Whitman's poetry and other creative work have left an undeniable mark on twentieth-century literature. Known as a poet and a translator of Yiddish poetry, Whitman was intensely interested in gender and women's stories. For the first time in a single volume, readers can engage with her eight published books of poetry as well as the never-before-seen Atlantic Light and her prose practicum, Becoming a Poet. The first half of the collection contains persona poems of fascinating women—from Tamsen Donner of the ill-fated Donner Party, to Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, to modern dancer Isadora Duncan. The second half takes up many themes, including Jewishness, domestic life, and motherhood. Whitman's distinctive methods and influences, alongside her unique poetic technique, make clear her commitment to expanding the boundaries of poetic form as well as exploring gender, family, the self, creativity, mortality, and memory in poetry. This text firmly positions Whitman as a necessary and radical voice within the American poetry canon.