Biographical Note
Kenneth Duva Burke was born May 5, 1897, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and attended Ohio State University from 1916-1917 and Columbia University from
1917-1918. He lived most of his life, from about 1921 until his death in 1993,
at his home in Andover, New Jersey.
Kenneth Burke was a poet, essayist, reviewer, novelist, translator,
social commentator, and writer of short stories. But Burke was more widely
known in scholarly circles as a philosopher of language, and his ever-fertile
writings have continued to influence contemporary thought, particularly in
areas of rhetoric, philosophy, literary theory, cultural studies, and
communication studies.
In 1918-1919 Burke was a member of an avant-garde group of writers in
Greenwich Village. In the 1920s he worked intermittently as an editor at The
Dial Magazine and became its music critic from 1927 to 1929. He taught literary
criticism at the New School for Social Research (1937) and the University of
Chicago (1938, 1949-1950). Burke also was associated closely with Bennington
College, Vermont, where he began teaching literary theory and criticism in
1943. After resigning from Bennington in 1961, Burke accepted shorter teaching
and lecturing opportunities at universities across the United States (including
Penn State). During this time, Burke received many honorary doctorates and
other awards, among them the Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and
Letters (1975) and the National Medal for Literature (1981).
Burke's noted works include
Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose (1935; 3rd
rev. ed. 1984),
Attitudes Toward History (2 volumes, 1937; 3rd. rev. ed.
1984),
The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic
Action (1941; 3rd. ed. 1973),
A Grammar of Motives (1945; 2nd ed. 1955; 1969),
A Rhetoric of Motives (1950; 2nd ed. 1955; 1969),
The Rhetoric of Religion: Studies in Logology (1961;
1970),
Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and
Method (1966), and
Dramatism and Development (1972). Many of Burke's essays
have been selected and published in different collections.
Throughout his life, Kenneth Burke wrote to many people, among them
William H. Rueckert, a promising Burke scholar who would go on to become
Burke's foremost academic interpreter. Their correspondence began in 1959 with
Rueckert's letter, to "Dear Mr. Burke," describing his study of Burke and
inquiring about Burke's long-promised "Symbolic of Motives." Burke's role as
mentor, colleague, and friend is reflected in their long interchange that ends
with a letter from Burke dated 1987. Rueckert published these letters in
Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert,
1959-1987 (2003).
William Howe Rueckert was born November 4, 1926, in Cleveland, Ohio.
He served in the United States Navy, from 1945-1946. In 1950 he earned a B.A.
from Williams College and in 1951 and 1956 an M.A. and Ph.D. from the
University of Michigan.
William Howe Rueckert taught at Russell Sage College, Troy, New York,
from 1954 to 1956; Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, from 1956 to 1957; the
University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, from 1957 to 1965; the University of
Rochester, Rochester, New York, from 1966 to 1975; and the State University of
New York at Geneseo, beginning in 1975. In May 1990, Rueckert was elected the
first president of the Kenneth Burke Society. He was a member of the Modern
Language Association.
Through his writings and editions William H. Rueckert introduced
Burke's writings to a wide scholarly audience. He is author of the influential
study
Kenneth Burke and the Drama of Human Relations (1963,
1982). He is also editor of
Critical Responses to Kenneth Burke: 1924-1966 (1969);
Encounters with Kenneth Burke (1994); with Angelo
Bonadonna,
On Human Nature, A Gathering While Everything Flows: Essays,
1967-1984 (2003); and
Burke's Essays Toward a Symbolic of Motives, 1950-1955
(2004).
Other of William H. Rueckert's publications include,
Glenway Wescott (1965),
Faulkner From Within--Destructive and Generative Being in the
Novels of William Faulkner (2004), and the essay, "Literature and
Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism" (
The Iowa Review 9:1 (1978)).
Scope and Content
The collection predominantly includes letters written by Kenneth Burke
to William H. Rueckert from 1959 to 1987. Friend, mentor, and colleague, Burke
wrote to Rueckert, a knowledgeable Burke scholar, in Burke's late productive
period when Burke was developing and extending his earlier thought.
Included in the collection are approximately 238 letters, notes, or
postcards written by Burke to Rueckert and his first wife Betty Ehlers. In his
letters Burke wrote about his personal and intellectual life and often included
a poem. The collection also contains about twenty-two letters, notes, or
postcards from Elizabeth Batterham Burke to Rueckert and his wife. Among them
is Elizabeth Burke's appreciative postcard to Rueckert shortly before she died,
on the occasion his dedication to her of
Critical Responses to Kenneth Burke: 1924-1966 (1969).
Seven letters from Rueckert appear in the collection. In addition, a
vignette written by Rueckert in 1968 offers an impressionistic glimpse of Burke
lecturing at the Brockport, New York, International Philosophy Year conference
and visiting his friend James Sibley Watson at Watson's home in Rochester, New
York.
Additional miscellaneous items appear in the collection: a few
reprints, statements, newspaper accounts, and speeches, as well as a publicity
card, certificate photocopy, search printout, and correspondence table. A few
copies or original correspondence also are included: letters, notes, or card,
from translator Erica Freiberg, critic and editor of
The Nation Robert Hatch, Northwestern University professor
Leland Griffin, editor of
The Nation Carey McWilliams, poet Howard Nemerov, New York
University English professor Gordon Norton Ray, University of Connecticut
English professor Milton R. ("Mickey") Stern, and French literary critic
Christian Susini.
Differences from the published book. The collection
includes all the correspondence William H. Rueckert published in
Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert,
1959-1987 (2003). Angelo Bonadonna's "Foreword" and William H.
Rueckert's "Introduction" to their book provide informative introductions to
these letters.
Though essentially the same, the collection contains a few additional
letters and postcards written by Burke and in place of selected excerpts from
Elizabeth Burke's letters includes her complete letters. In addition, the
collection contains miscellaneous items and a few letters from other
correspondents.
The dating or placement of letters in the collection differs
from the book in four instances.
1)
Collection: TLS, 25 July 1963, to Dear B & B,
with envelope.
Book: The letter is dated 26 July 1963. [Type is
difficult to discern.]
2)
Collection: TLS, Charlie Marcus' and K. Burke's
Birthday 78, [5 May 1978], to Dear Billions, with envelope.
Book:
The date is given as May 6, 1978.
3)
Collection: TLS/AN, 17 Aug. 1978, to Dear
Billions, with envelope.
Book: The date is given as Aug. 7, 1978.
4)
Collection: TPS, circa 2 Feb. 1982, to Dear
Billions.
Book: This letter is dated similarly, but placed in
1983.
Index Terms
These materials are indexed under the following headings in the
catalog of the Pennsylvania State University. Researchers wishing to find
related materials should search the catalog under these index terms.
Personal Name Subjects
Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993
Rueckert, William H.
(William Howe), 1926-
Topical Subjects
Philosophers -- United
States
Rhetoricians -- United
States
Correspondents
Burke, Elizabeth
Batterham
Burke, Kenneth, 1897-1993
Freiburg,
Erica
Griffin, Leland M.,
1920-
Hatch, Robert (Robert
L.), 1910-1994
McWilliams, Carey,
1905-
Nemerov,
Howard
Ray, Gordon Norton,
1915-
Rueckert, William H.
(William Howe), 1926-
Stern, Milton
R.
Susini,
Christian
