“[Art] means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of the power which holds it hostage,” she wrote in a letter to the National Endowment of the Arts.
Golden, who represented Rich for more than 25 years, said that Rich continued writing until her last days in spite of macular degeneration and rheumatoid arthritis—the chronic condition that eventually caused her death.
Rich completed a poetry collection—which she had said would be her last—only a few weeks ago.
“I wept when I got the final manuscript,” said Golden.
Rich published 30 books over the course of her life, all of which are still in print. Between 750,000 and 800,000 copies of her works have been sold, according to her publisher W.W. Norton and Company.
“She had the most profound respect for the power of the written word,” said her son, Jacob Conrad. “She wanted her legacy to be her writing.”
—Staff writer Jared T. Lucky can be reached at lucky@college.harvard.edu.