Letters from Kenneth Burke to William H. Rueckert, 1959-1987

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Kenneth Burke has been hailed by many as one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. In The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Paul Jay refers to him as "the most theoretically challenging, unorthodox, and sophisticated of twentieth-century speculators on literature and culture." Geoffrey Hartman praised him as "the wild man of American criticism." We see him represented in the influential Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. The Chronicle of Higher Education suggested in 2001 that Burke may have "accidentally create[d] cultural studies." Burke has profoundly influenced in one way or another a long list of major literary theorists, poets, novelists, linguists, and rhetoricians. They include Harold Bloom, Wayne Booth, Paul De Man, Hugh Duncan, Ralph Ellison, Dell Hymes, Richard Kostelanetz, Frank Lentricchia, Andrea Lunsford, Howard Nemerov, Edward Said, Victor Vitanza, Hayden White, and William Carlos Williams. These letters show the development of Burke's thought in the last thirty or so years of his life, when he remained remarkably productive not only as a correspondent but as a critic and traveling scholar. Rueckert became for Burke both student and "co-conspirator," with Burke himself playing the roles of teacher, mentor, father, and peer. While Burke corresponded for many years with Malcolm Cowley, William Carlos Williams, Hugh Duncan, and others, with Rueckert, we see him writing to someone who may have understood and appreciated his work more than anyone. These letters often probe deeper, with less explanation and defensiveness, more inquiry and reflection. As one might expect among like-minded peers, we also see sharp critiques of contemporaries, including theorists who have had enormous influence of their own, such as Marshall McLuhan and Fredric Jameson. Rueckert's Introduction to the letters sets this correspondence into relief. Angelo Bonadonna's Foreword stands as one Burkean scholar's use of these letters to make inroads of his own.