The Book of the Dead

by Muriel Rukeyser, Catherine Venable Moore (Introduction)

Written in response to the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel disaster of 1931 in Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, The Book of the Dead is an important part of West Virginia’s cultural heritage and a powerful account of one of the worst industrial catastrophes in American history. The poems collected here investigate the roots of a tragedy that killed hundreds of workers, most of them African American. They are a rare engagement with the overlap between race and environment in Appalachia.
Published for the first time alongside photographs by Nancy Naumburg, who accompanied Rukeyser to Gauley Bridge in 1936, this edition of The Book of the Dead includes an introduction by Catherine Venable Moore, whose writing on the topic has been anthologized in Best American Essays .
 

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, School, History, Classics, Read For School, American

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1933

About the author

Muriel Rukeyser 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 entitled 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.

Reviews

[Kassy Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I didn't come to play with you hoes, I came to slay bitch" - Muriel Rukeyser, nearly a century ago.

[Dawson Escott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Conceptually, this book is really cool and I feel educated. Muriel Rukeyser has a strong grasp on words and which words sound good next to eachother. But sometimes, I felt like this book was a little too abstract on an event I wanted to be treated very realistically. We talked in class about the valid thematic reasons for it to be like this, but I still felt the Introduction resonated more with me than the actual poem. I think the poem cycle works best when reinterpreting the words of the court testimonies and in the beautiful last poem. Sometimes it could just get a little too heady and vague.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Reminded me that poetry doesn’t have to be flowery to be really good and also political and also so sad. A little too pro-American frontiersy for my taste but sue me I may have read that wrong

[Liz Matheny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow wow wow wow! This is an incredible book—a long essay/introduction followed by a collection of poems that tell the story of an avoidable disaster that occurred in 1935. I think the title should actual be “The Book of the Dead: How to slay corrupt politicians and dirty deeds in essay and poetry”

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important poetry of witness, a cousin of the Grapes of Wrath. The writing sometimes goes documentary flat, but there are bursts of lyrical insight.

[suzanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

is it bad that i’d prefer to comb through the archives myself?

[Ina Groovie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"El libro de los muertos" de Muriel Rukeyser, poeta y activista estadounidense, fue publicado por primera vez en 1938. Nunca había oído hablar de la autora y por esas maravillosas casualidades llamadas Ferias de Libros, fui a dar con ella.

Este libro es una epopeya/denuncia: un poema épico que aborda temas como la opresión social, la injusticia y la lucha. Utiliza una variedad de voces y estilos poéticos para explorar la experiencia humana y la búsqueda de la verdad en un mundo turbulento y por eso resulta imposible no hacer una trenza con Svetlana Alexiévich y otras autoras de este corte.

Hay imágenes feroces, despojos de su alma adolorida. Fragmentos de entrevistas con madres que perdieron a todos los hombres de su familia por la avaricia del hombre blanco. Un (otro) túnel que fagocita hombres saludables y los devuelve enfermos. Una historia real transformada en poesía.

[Charlotte Vosper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really effective example of protest poetry that taught me about the Hawk's Nest disaster, most notably characterised by the inclusion of testimonies, named organisations and statistical detail. Readers are left no choice but to confront the horrific reality of the capitalist negligence Rukeyser captures so brutally. Not something I especially ENJOYED reading (you'd hope not, anyway), nor something I'd come to independently (English degree), but am really glad I read it.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

!!!!!!!!

[Soefae · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ethics of the telling: must be poetry to immerse the reader into a story like this one.

[Jane Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredible poetry with a (dare I say: even better!) wonderful forward. so cool how such great pieces about Appalachia can be made by outsiders with love and care like this one

[Grandt White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who’s ever tried to write about something, and describe it knows how hard it is to figure out whether you and your audience is on the same page. The beauty is you don’t have to be on the same page, but you’ve got to be in the same book so to speak. I think poetry in particular, because it’s about how it feels, is hard to write in a way that will connect with an audience. The beauty of that is that no matter what you write there’s an audience who will eat that up, it’s more whether you find that audience or that audience finds you. Often the audience finds you after you die. Anyway, long story not as short as it could have been, this book is absolutely beautiful. I was captivated by really all of it, but in particular Rukeyser’s ability to describe sheets of water crashing down into a larger body of water. I’ve tried writing poetry about that very thing, and it’s so hard because like, I knew exactly what I was seeing, I knew exactly what I wanted to say, I just didn’t know what words to use. That’s writing in a nutshell, not my favorite way to talk about writing because I think there are more beautiful ways to put it but whatever.

I’m fascinated by how well Rukeyser tells this story. One second is serene, another medical horror, and another a perfect picture painted in one’s mind of the site of Hawk’s Nest and the nature around it. The stark contrast between mines and the world above and outside. There was an exhibit in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago that was about mines and mining and all that. And had I been more of a poet back then I would have tried to do the thing that Rukeyser perfects in this book, describing a mine. I don’t know, I’m rambling, but if you like history and/or poetry than you’ll probably be as captivated as I was by this book.

[Sophie M]

Moore’s masterful introduction necessarily situated Rukeyser’s poetry. An incredible project that brings to light horrors of environmental and racial injustice, this short piece is a must-read. Photography that was included added so much. Some poems I found especially interesting were Gauley Bridge, Praise of the Committee, The Doctors, The Dam, and of course, the final poem The Book of the Dead. Loved discussing this in class, but the work really stands on its own with no further voice needed to animate it.

[Tiffany]

A marvelous edition of this important work; my students are loving it! "I didn't know poetry could do this!"

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was alright I guess, read for school.

[Sam Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Long poem about the atrocities of extractive industry. The introduction helps with context and is also beautiful in its own right. Also there was a surprise Joplin mention in there!

[Joanne van der Vlies · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Down the reverberate channels of the hills / the suns declare midnight, go down, cannot ascend, / no ladder back; see this, your eyes can ride through steel, / this is the river Death, diversion of power, / the root of the tower and the tunnel's core, / this is the end."

[junosdaughter · Rating 4 out of 5]

overly sentimental to the point that it took me out of my focus sometimes. but, an excellent excellent introduction by venable moore.

standout section: The Cornfield (!!!)

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

read this for a class about poetry and the archive…this one needs context, but it is SO complex and raises many many many questions about poets and memory! I love poetry!!!!

[yue ☽]

forgot how interesting this is

[Gregory Duke · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

Timely and underwhelming. Political poetry is hard. Modernist postmodernism. Reinterpreted testimonials. Maybe I'd rather read the testimonials?

[Jane Wantland · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll never see a scenic overlook the same again

[Juane Pizarro · Rating 4 out of 5]

No sabía que exiatia la poesía documental

[Hannah Brick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good! She is a beast with her poetry and does not hesitate when approaching controversy within this mining incident. A really interesting way to combat racism/harmful environmental impacts (long a$$ poem) but I really enjoyed her wit and voice.

[Diane Busch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was enlightening and maddening. Although I was born and raised in WV, i had never heard or read about this horrible preventable Hawk’s Nest Tunnel Disaster in the early 1930’s in Gauley Bridge, WV. Many men were sickened and died at the hand of a corporation (Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation) who could have changed all that by following safety rules, such as providing respirators and wetting the sandstone before boring through the mountain full of silica. The deplorable conditions the workers had to live and work in were shameful. And the treatment of all the black men from the south (which was 75% of the workmen) was revolting. The corporate criminality and coverup during and after was unfathomable.

Originally in 1936, Muriel and a photographer visited Gauley Bridge to document the conditions of one of the worst industrial catastrophes in American history. Afterward, she wrote her account through a series of poems and published it as “The Book of the Dead”. Now in 2018, Catherine writes a 51-page introduction to set up the scene and explain the disastrous chain of events that took place in the early 1930’s in this small place. The center section of the book contains the names of the hundreds of men who died between April 1930-December 1935, their age, race, and place of burial, as well as can be documented. Following the list, is the original collection of poems by Muriel.

This disaster brings me anger and tears. I am glad that Catherine has again brought this to the forefront, to pay homage to those who lost their lives and the many families who were affected by the dereliction of this corporation.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books far ahead of its time; if you handed this to someone and asked them to date it, they'd say it's brand new. From the diction to the formatting on the page, everything (except the use of "gay" as "happy" throughout) strongly suggests contemporary poetry, in the best and worst ways. The collection took its sweet time to get started, with the first couple poems being a bit underwhelming, referencing people and places I've never met/been to, which threatened to stop me from reading. But then I hit "Mearl Blankenship." That poem starts like so:

He stood against the stove
facing the fire---
Little warmth, no words,
loud machines.

...

"I wake up choking, and my wife
rolls me over on my left side;
then I'm asleep in the dream I always see:
the tunnel choked
the dark wall coughing dust.

Immediately I was hooked. This was the poem that should have started the collection. Yes, I understand why Muriel began with the poem/style she did, it sounds like a beginning, and it wraps around nicely with the bookending poem (which is far superior). But oh my gosh, starting in media res would have been such a powerful start, with a man obviously suffering from some medical condition asking his wife to write a letter to the papers to see if we can get some publicity on this injustice.

And that's the core of this collection; the introduction (which is half the length of the book, and at times goes into too much detail) explains that Rukeyser wrote these poems in response to a tunnel which was dug through a mountain which was made of up to 99% silica, a useful but extremely toxic mineral. And also, the company mining/digging the tunnel absolutely did not care about their workers, neither wetting the drills to prevent the mineral from getting airborne, nor giving the workers masks or ventilators. All this took place in 1931-35, and in '36 Rukeyser toured the place where this happened (she seems to have first published this collection in '38). Hundreds of men lost their lives, slowly choking to death as their lungs fell to pieces from the powdered air. Early on, foreboding is fostered when the narrator describes their water as white, as milky. Whiteness as an attribute takes on a nefarious character in this collection, as the silica which coated the workers turned even the black workers a ghastly white. Everything is quite literally whitewashed in this collection: the workers, their rights, their families, the judicial system (some of them received payments ranging from $50-$1000, and nothing more; the rest got nothing).

Before the poetry begins (and after the introduction), the editor included a heartbreaking list of every name, age, race, and place of burial of the workers who died digging the tunnel. Some are missing ages, others are missing first names. Prefaced with this historical context, the collection also intersperses haunting quotations from the Egyptian book of the dead, which promises a return to the land of the living, and focuses intensely on the centrality of the heart (and, as we all know, its necessary lightness, being weighed against a feather). I do feel that the egyptian connection could have been better made, but the contrast alone is rather thought-provoking.

The collection alternates between more expected free-verse, modernist poetry, and what we would consider rather postmodern or contemporary usages of court transcripts, interviews, and headlines into lineated texts. These varied in persuasiveness (some being annoyingly contemporary in how on-the-nose they were), but the rest of the poems really shone through with a unique voice. The diction, cadence, and tone of Rukeyser was totally unexpected to me. It felt consistently as if it was translated, but apparently it wasn't. Instead of being choked with rage, like a contemporary activist might get (see this embarrassing drivel from Poetry Magazine, the foremost trash in the poetry world), this collection leads by example for how to make art of protest which doesn't sacrifice artistry for political points.

The last poem has some of the punchiest lines in the collection, including the brutal lines "What three things can never be done? / Forget. Keep silent. Stand alone." This feels so utterly contemporary, but it doesn't carry with it any of the egotism or dogmatism ubiquitous with contemporary activist art. The third-to-last poem makes a persuasive argument that the same/similar injustice affects hundreds of thousands, if not millions of men, practically on the scale of a war. This forces us to answer the uncomfortable question of why we care more about war than these peacetime casualties. Additionally, it forces us to ask why we excuse deaths in the name of capitalism but not those in the name of communism. Obviously, both are lamentable, and we should acknowledge all of them equally. In the end, I'm thankful Rukeyser wrote these poems, and I feel that they are just the start of exploring the tragic history of forgotten states like West Virginia. Those who do approach the level of brutality I think is appropriate for such injustices and squalor are the likes of Byzantine; if you don't know who they are, definitely check them out.

[wengel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will read again this fucking rules

[waytoobook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for poetry class. Overall, I think I enjoyed Moore’s introductory essay more than the poetry itself… which says a lot about the poetry. Or maybe it says something about me instead.

Moore travels across West Virginia (often using Rukeyser’s poetry as a literal guide/map) in search of more information about— and answers to— the 1931 Hawk’s Nest Tunnel disaster. I loved getting to feel like I was adventuring with her and, as I knew nothing about Hawk’s Nest Tunnel before this, discovering what exactly this disaster entailed and how it could have been avoided.

The poetry collection that follows is, at the line level, good and clear. Rukeyser didn’t win the Yale Young Poets prize for nothing. The language isn’t overly-flowery or trying to be anything that it isn’t, and I appreciate that. It gives voice to those affected by the disaster. I just didn’t absolutely love it as a cycle of poems and I didn’t walk away from this feeling like I’d been impacted that much. You know those poems that just gut punch you or slap you across the face with emotion? Or the ones that hold up a mirror to you and force you to confront the ugly yet beautiful things about yourself? None of this is that. This is more like Rukeyser holding a magnifying glass to the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel disaster, which works! But it ultimately wasn’t stunning to me. Again, though, I did enjoy to introduction so I’m sticking with 3 stars for now.

[Jack Pester · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read anything like this before. Interviews and tours made poetry strung together with the cruelty of denial by Union Carbide and their contractors.

I think it was a very profound way to capture the reaching grief The Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster had and still has on the region. Though Muriel Rukeyser was a traveler there, she was able to portray life and grief there in a way that, to me, did not feel voyeuristic but more of a dedication the memories of those affected.

I found it cheeky in certain aspects and both critical of the cost of what the country deems as progress while also being in awe of the capabilities of men and innovation/industry. Descending into the damn as circles of hell. Comparing the types of power held on hills over the people in the area.

Stand alone it's beautiful, haunting, and will stay with me, but I do think that further context is key, and that is where Moore's introduction shines.

An incredible writer in her own right, Catherine Venable Moore's introduction really set a perfect tone for the poetry and pose of The Book of the Dead. I think her background as being from the area allows for her perspective to be both part interview in it's own right while also adding a modern-day perspective from ancestors who's family and their history was taken from them.

[A.B. Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those works that I can't seem to keep all together in my head at the same time--some element of the great juggling act always slips away to surprise me on my next read, possibly because Rukeyser is trying to crystallize in the recounting of one industrial disaster the violence of a class society that itself demands amnesia, partiality, and mystification to function. A poem so centrally "about" the sociopathy of a ruling class that forgets its victims practically has to have almost too much happening in it to cohere, doesn't it? The stakes of this poem are only absolutely everything--maybe not surprising from an early admirer of Pound, as much as an ardent communist. I'm very glad that this poem has been reissued as its own volume, as it deserves to be in wider circulation.

"What do you want--a cliff over a city?
A foreland, sloped to sea and overgrown with roses?
These people live here."