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Charles Ruas
Born
NationalityAmerican
EducationPrinceton University
Occupation(s)Author, translator, critic, interviewer
ChildrenAlexander Ruas
AwardsDanforth Fellowship, Fulbright, NYSCA, NEA, Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters

Charles Ruas is an American writer, translator, literary and art critic, and interviewer for print and broadcast. He is well known for his work with artists, musicians, and writers of the 1970s, when he was Director of Arts Programming at WBAI Radio, New York. He was a literary and art critic for the Soho Weekly News, ArtNews, and Art in America, among other publications. He is the author of the interview collection Conversations with American Writers (1985) [1] and the editor and translator of numerous literary works. A specialist in French, English, and Comparative Literature, he has taught at Columbia University, New York University, University of Grenoble, France, and Nankai University in China. He lives and works in New York City.

Background

Born in Tianjin, China, Ruas's father, an engineer, died in 1940 as a result of the Great Flood of Tianjin. Afterwards, Ruas and his brothers, Franklin and Alex, were repatriated with their mother to Paris, where she was recruited to join the United Nations in New York. The family moved to the UN community in Queens, New York, in 1950. Ruas attended Jamaica High School, followed by Princeton University, where he received his BA in 1960, his MA in 1963, and his PhD in 1970. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Sorbonne from 1963–64. [2]

New York

When he returned to New York in 1965, Ruas began teaching French at New York University.

During this time, he lived in the West Village but socialized within the downtown arts community. He began to write literary criticism for The New Leader, The Village Voice and Anaïs Nin's Under the Sign of Pisces.

WBAI

Ruas was for a time in the late 1970s Director of the Drama and Literature Department of WBAI, where he initiated separate coverage of all the arts. [3] Within this programming Susan Howe produced her own series and specials on poetry. Other programming initiated by Ruas at WBAI included the Audio-Experimental Theatre, [4] for which multi-media performers, including poets, playwrights, video artists, and dancers were invited to create a work for radio broadcast. Performers included Meredith Monk, Vito Acconci, John Cage, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Yvonne Rainer, Ed Bowes, Robert Wilson, Richard Foreman, and Helen Adam.

Ruas also produced The Reading Experiment, a year-long series of readings from Marguerite Young's novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. The programs were scored by Rob Wynne with a collage of music and concrete sound effects. The readers came from a wide variety of artistic backgrounds and included Anaïs Nin, Marian Seldes, Oceola Archer, Novella Nelson, Leo Lerman, Owen Dodson, Wyatt Cooper, Anne Fremantle, Daisy Aldan, and Ruth Ford, among others.

He has also produced arts and literature programming for Art International Radio for PS1 and Art on Air for Clocktower. A literary critic for the SoHo Weekly News until 1982, Ruas interviewed artists and writers for broadcast and print, including Toni Morrison, Michel Foucault, Carlos Fuentes, Eudora Welty, Susan Sontag, Truman Capote, Buckminster Fuller, Andy Warhol, Wyatt Cooper, Maxine Hong Kingston, and others. [5] As a critic Ruas has been a frequent contributor to ARTnews and Art in America. [2]

In 1992 Ruas returned to his birthplace, Tianjin, as a Visiting Fulbright Professor of American Literature and Civilization at Nankai University. In 2019, for its centennial celebration, the university awarded him the College of Foreign Languages Distinguished Professor Medal.

For his work in furthering literature and the arts and for his translation from the French, in 2012 Ruas was named Chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters by the government of France.

Ruas currently lives and works in New York City.

Works

  • The Intellectual Development of the Duc de Saint Simon - Charles Ruas. Princeton University, 1970.
  • Conversations with American Writers – Charles Ruas. Knopf, 1985, ISBN  978-0-394-52787-1
  • Death and the Labyrinth – Michel Foucault. John Ashbery (Introduction), Charles Ruas (Translator). Doubleday, 1986, ISBN  978-0-385-27854-6 / Continuum, 2007, ISBN  978-0-8264-9362-0
  • An Artful Life: The Biography of D.H. Kahnweiler – Pierre Assouline. Charles Ruas (Translator). Grove/Atlantic, 1990, ISBN  978-0-8021-1227-9
  • Harp Song for a Radical: The Life and Times of Eugene Victor Debs – Marguerite Young. Charles Ruas Editor. Knopf, 2009, ISBN  978-0-19-539759-8
  • Hergé: The Man Who Created Tintin—Pierre Assouline. Charles Ruas (Translator) Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN  0-670-79099-0
  • Vera Gran: The Accused - Agata Tuszynska. Charles Ruas (Translator). Knopf, 2013, ISBN  978-0-307-26912-6
  • Portrait of a Family in Fear - Agata Tuszynska. Charles Ruas (Translator). Knopf, 2016, ISBN  978-0375413704
  • The Art of Literary Publishing: Editors and Their Craft, edited by Bill Henderson. Pushcart Press, 1980, ISBN  0-916366-05-7.
    • "New Directions: An Interview with James Laughlin" with Susan Howe
    • "The Struggle Against Censorship: with Maurice Girodias, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Carl Solomon, and James Grauerholtz"
  • Marguerite Young, Interview, The Paris Review #71, New York, 1977.
  • "Carlos Fuentes: An Interview," with Alfred MacAdam. Writers at Work, Sixth Series, edited by George Plimpton. The Viking Press, 1984, ISBN  978-0-679-42757-5
  • Marguerite Young, Our Darling : Tributes and Essays, Edited by Miriam Fuchs, Dalkey Archive Press, 1994. ISBN  978-1564780553
  • "China's Other Cultural Revolution: History and Chinese Art." Art in America, 9/1/98.
  • Grace: An American Woman in China, 1934–1974 – Eleanor McCallie Cooper, William Liu. Charles Ruas (Introduction). Soho Press, 2003, ISBN  978-1-56947-350-4

Filmography

  • Joan Jonas: I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances) (1976), written and performed by Joan Jonas, intercutting scenes from the Nova Scotia countryside with images of a Soho loft studio set-up, and featuring visuals, readings and music. (consultant) [6] [7]
  • Better, Stronger (1978), written and directed by Ed Bowes. With Karen Achenbach and Charles Ruas. Camera by Tom Bowes. Video Feature Film, Walsung Productions. [8]
  • How to Fly (1980), written and directed by Ed Bowes. With Tom Bowes and Karen Achenbach. Video Feature Film, Walsung Productions. (consultant) [9]
  • Spitting Glass (1989), written and directed by Ed Bowes. With Rosie Hall and cameo by Sophie Marsh. Musical score by Brooks Williams. Costumes by Nicole Miller. Produced by Amy Taubin. Video Feature Film, Walsung Productions. (consultant) [10]

References

  1. ^ "Christmas 1985; Notable Books of the Year", The New York Times
  2. ^ a b PS1 Archived October 6, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas
  4. ^ "Search Our Collection | Pacifica Radio Archives". www.pacificaradioarchives.org. Retrieved 2023-11-12.
  5. ^ "Princeton University Library Catalog". catalog.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2020-08-01.
  6. ^ Morgan, Susan (2006). Joan Jonas: I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances). London: Afterall Books. pp. 74, 78. ISBN  9781846380259.
  7. ^ "Electronic Arts Intermix: I Want to Live in the Country (And Other Romances), Joan Jonas : Video Intro". www.eai.org. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  8. ^ "Better Stronger - Ed Bowes". 2022-10-28. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  9. ^ "How to Fly - Ed Bowes". 2022-10-27. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
  10. ^ "Spitting Glass - Ed Bowes". 2022-10-27. Retrieved 2023-10-28.

External links