The Book of the Dead
West Virginia University Press · Print & ebook · February 1, 2018
A Poetry pick for readers exploring The Book of the Dead.
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- Who it’s for
- Rukeyser’s poems confront industrial catastrophe through race, labor, and Appalachia’s environment.
- Themes
- Industrial catastrophe, Race and environment, Appalachian cultural heritage
- Genres
- American Poetry, Southern U.S. History, African American Poetry
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Start with this bookAbout this book
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.
Continue reading
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.
Poetry and Witness
Rukeyser’s poems confront industrial catastrophe through race, labor, and Appalachia’s environment.
Come here for
- Poetry at the intersection of race, labor, and environmental harm
- A searching encounter with a little-known American catastrophe
Expect
- Poems rooted in the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel disaster
- This edition pairs the poems with Nancy Naumburg’s photographs
Where it sits
| American Poetry | 66% |
|---|---|
| Southern U.S. History | 50% |
| African American Poetry | 36% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Southern U.S. History
- Poetry
- Civil Rights
- Disaster & Crisis Studies
- Authors
- Muriel Rukeyser
- Publisher
- West Virginia University Press
- Published
- February 1, 2018
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Industrial catastrophe · Race and environment · Appalachian cultural heritage
- Reading lane
- Southern U.S. History