A career-spanning selection of the lucid, courageous, and boldly political prose of National Book Award winner Adrienne Rich. Adrienne Rich was an award-winning poet, influential essayist, radical feminist, and a major intellectual voice of her generation. The Essential Essays gathers twenty- five of Rich's most renowned essays into one volume, demonstrating the lasting brilliance of her voice and her prophetic vision. Her thoughts on feminism, poetry, race, homosexuality, and identity are still powerful and relevant today. Discussing everything from her fearless poetic vision to her revolutionary views on social justice, Rich's essays unite the political, personal, and poetical.