Widely known as an important twentieth century American photographer, Ruth-Marion Baruch also turned her remarkable eye inward to explore through her poetry the depths of human suffering. Her poems, written for the most part in the 1950s and 60s, have remained unpublished until now. A Dangerous Thing gives voice to this powerful, at times awesome, figure.
Ruth-Marion Baruch
Praise for A Dangerous Thing
[Ruth-Marion Baruch’s] subject is the pain—she calls it “conspicuous pain”—and the difficulty of life, rarely its joy. Where there is joy, not only is it difficult if not improbable to maintain, but it exacts a payment of pain… Meanwhile what is to be done poetically? Ruth-Marion’s strategy is intense verbal condensation in which contrary feelings are simultaneously expressed and denied. Hers is an honest alternative to the easy sentimentality of half-truths. In view of the prevailing darkness of her visions, it is remarkable how life-affirming her clear and forthright declarations are.
— Mark Linenthal, from the Introduction
