--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: My own luck was being born white and…" description: "\"“My own luck was being born white and middle-class into a house full of books, with a father who encouraged me to read and write. So for about twenty y..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/900/adrienne-rich-803_books_my-own-luck-was-being-born-white-and-mid_3186731.jpg" --- # My own luck was being born white and middle-class into a… ![“My own luck was being born white and middle-class into a house full of books, with a father who encouraged me to read and write. So for about twenty years I wrote for a particular man, who criticized and praised me and made me feel I was indeed "special." The obverse side of this, of course, was…” quote by Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/900/adrienne-rich-803_books_my-own-luck-was-being-born-white-and-mid_3186731.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/900/adrienne-rich-803_books_my-own-luck-was-being-born-white-and-mid_3186731.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/900/adrienne-rich-803_books_my-own-luck-was-being-born-white-and-mid_3186731.jpg) > ““My own luck was being born white and middle-class into a house full of books, with a father who encouraged me to read and write. So for about twenty years I wrote for a particular man, who criticized and praised me and made me feel I was indeed "special." The obverse side of this, of course, was that I tried for a long time to please him, or rather, not to displease him. And then of course there were other men - writers, teachers - the Man, who was not a terror or a dream but a literary master and a master in other ways less easy to acknowledge. And there were all those poems about women, written by men: it seemed to be a given that men wrote poems and women frequently inhabited them. These women were almost always beautiful, but threatened with the loss of beauty, the loss of youth - the fate worse than death. Or, they were beautiful and died young, like Lucy and Lenore. Or, the woman was like Maud Gonne, cruel and disastrously mistaken, and the poem reproached her because she had refused to become a luxury for the poet.”” [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Reflects on privilege, mentorship, and gendered literary expectations shaping identity. **In simple terms:** Privilege and mentorship shape artistic identity. Key Takeaway Recognize how background influences voice. Themes identity privilege gender literature Mood reflective critical Type analytical philosophical When to use this quote - writing workshops - academic studies - personal reflection Key Concepts sociology feminist theory mentor dynamics Questions to Reflect On - How does privilege affect your creative work? - What role do mentors play in your growth? A Different Perspective May generalize experiences, ignoring individual variance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Like Maud](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/like-maud-5861629/) [Long time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/long-time/) [Men Writers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/men-writers-3583553/) [Parenting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/parenting/) [Poems Women](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poems-women-5861628/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Read And Write](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-and-write/) [Women Written](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/women-written-417858/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) [Wrote Poems](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wrote-poems-247561/) ## Related quotes > [Compared to men writers of like distinction and years of life, few women writers have had lives of unbroken productivity, or leave behind a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tillie-olsen/compared-to-men-writers-of-like-distinction-and-years-of-life-few/) [Tillie Olsen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tillie-olsen/) > [while there are 'women writers' there are not, and have never been, 'men writers.' 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There was a whole political movement asking such questions and others I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/the-women-s-movement-appeared-at-a-very-crucial-moment-in-my-life/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) > [The word revolution itself has become not only a dead relic of Leftism, but a key to the deadendedness of male politics: the revolution…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/the-word-revolution-itself-has-become-not-only-a-dead-relic-of/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) > [The decision to feed the world is the real decision. No revolution has chosen it. For that choice requires that women shall be free.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/the-decision-to-feed-the-world-is-the-real-decision-no-revolution-has/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) > [The necessity of poetry has to be stated over and over, but only to those who have reason to fear its power, or those…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/the-necessity-of-poetry-has-to-be-stated-over-and-over-but-only-to/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) > [I think many poets, including myself, write both for the voice and for the page. I certainly write for the person alone in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/i-think-many-poets-including-myself-write-both-for-the-voice-and-for/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) > [If I cling to circumstances I could feel not responsible. Only she who says she did not choose, is the loser in the end.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/if-i-cling-to-circumstances-i-could-feel-not-responsible-only-she-who/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) [Explore all 364 Adrienne Rich quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) ## More Books quotes > [I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aiden-wilson-tozer/i-think-a-new-world-will-arise-out-of-the-religious-mists-when-we/) [Aiden Wilson Tozer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aiden-wilson-tozer/) > [If I had a dollar for every time I couldn’t sleep, I could buy a billion locks and finally read a book in peace.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aesop-rock/if-i-had-a-dollar-for-every-time-i-couldn-t-sleep-i-could-buy-a/) [Aesop Rock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aesop-rock/) > [If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.'](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lydia-lunch/if-what-i-write-is-literature-i-guess-you-d-better-emphasize-the/) [Lydia Lunch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lydia-lunch/) > [My sentences got sharper and my stories more efficient, and I gradually learned to imagine the reader more clearly and to empathize with that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/karen-thompson-walker/my-sentences-got-sharper-and-my-stories-more-efficient-and-i/) [Karen Thompson Walker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/karen-thompson-walker/) > [Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! 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Some fine day you'll die of a misprint.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/markus-herz/be-careful-about-reading-health-books-some-fine-day-you-ll-die-of-a/) [Markus Herz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/markus-herz/) > [But editors are still the world's readers. And thus the eyes of the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/betsy-lerner/but-editors-are-still-the-world-s-readers-and-thus-the-eyes-of-the/) [Betsy Lerner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/betsy-lerner/) [Browse all 59,485 Books quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“My own luck was being born white and middle-class into a house full of books, with a father who encouraged me to read and write. So for about twenty years I wrote for a particular man, who criticized and praised me and made me feel I was indeed \"special.\" The obverse side of this, of course, was that I tried for a long time to please him, or rather, not to displease him. And then of course there were other men - writers, teachers - the Man, who was not a terror or a dream but a literary master and a master in other ways less easy to acknowledge. And there were all those poems about women, written by men: it seemed to be a given that men wrote poems and women frequently inhabited them. These women were almost always beautiful, but threatened with the loss of beauty, the loss of youth - the fate worse than death. Or, they were beautiful and died young, like Lucy and Lenore. 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