Charles Ruas

Charles Ruas
Born	Tianjin, China
Nationality	American
Education	Princeton University
Occupation(s)	Author, translator, critic, interviewer, teacher
Children	Alexander Ruas
Awards	Danforth 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) 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.

New York

When he returned to New York in 1965, Ruas began teaching French at New York University. After his first year of teaching, he took a summer trip to North Africa and Europe, where he met his future wife, Agneta Danielsson, who was also traveling from her native Sweden. They were married in New York in June, 1967, and the following year celebrated the birth of their son Alexander at New York Hospital in March, 1968.

During this time, Ruas 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. 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, 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 on Air, PS1 and for Art International Radio, 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. As a critic Ruas has been a frequent contributor to ARTnews and Art in America.

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.

Books

• 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
• 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
• 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

Anthologies

• 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"
• Writers at Work, Sixth Series, edited by George Plimpton. The Viking Press, 1984, ISBN 978-0-679-42757-5.
  • "Carlos Fuentes: An Interview," with Alfred MacAdam.
• Tennessee Williams Interviews, edited by Albert J. Devlin. University Press of Mississippi, 1986. ISBN 0-87805-263-1.
• The Fiction Writer's Market, 1987. Writer's Digest Books, 1987. ISBN 0-89879-267-3.
• Marguerite Young Festschrift, University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
  • "The Epic Imagination."
• Marguerite Young, Our Darling: Tributes and Essays, edited by Miriam Fuchs, Dalkey Archive Press, 1994. ISBN 978-1564780553
• Conversations with Susan Sontag, edited by Leland Poague. University Press of Mississippi, 1995. ISBN 0-87805-834-6.
  • "Susan Sontag: Me, Etcetera"
• Conversations with Eudora Welty, Vol II, edited by Peggy Whitman Prenshaw. University Press of Mississippi, 1996. ISBN 0-87805-864-8.
• Foucault Live: Collected Interviews, edited by Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e), Columbia University Press, 1996. ISBN 9781570270185.
• Recollections of Anaïs Nin: By Her Contemporaries, edited by Benjamin Franklin V. Ohio University Press, 1996. ISBN 0821411659.
• Donald Barthelme, Not Knowing: The Essays and Interviews, edited by Kim Herzinger. Villard, 1999. ISBN 0679409831.
• Burroughs Live: Collected Interviews, edited by Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e), Columbia University Press, 2001. ISBN 9781584350101.
• Conversations with Robert Stone, edited by William Heath. University Press of Mississippi, 2016. ISBN 978-1-4968-0891-2.

Select Articles and Reviews

Asian Arts and Culture

• "China's Other Cultural Revolution: History and Chinese Art." Art in America, September 1, 1998.
• "Modernism in China, 1850–1980," Art in America, 1998.
• "Frank Lloyd Wright and the Art of Japan at Japan Society," Art News, November 2001.
• "Contemporary Chinese Artists, Goedhuis Gallery," Art News, February 2002
• "The Silk Road: Multiculturalism in China," Art in America, March 2002.
• "Designed for Pleasure: The World of Eco, Japan, in Prints and Paintings at the Asia Society," Art News, June 2007.
• "Rough and Refined: Contemporary Japanese Avant-Garde," Art News, June 2007.
• "Art and China's Revolution," Art News, October 2008.

Literary Reviews

• "The Volatile Voyeur: Cecil Beaton: A Biography," Review, The New York Native, September 20, 1986.
• "Marguerite Young, Interview." The Paris Review #71, New York, 1977.
• "Andy Warhol," Interview, Book Forum, June 1980.
• "Han Suyin, My House Has Two Rooms," Review, Soho News, July 23, 1980.
• John Berger: Pig Earth, Review, Soho News, August 20, 2980.
• "Truman Capote," Interview, Soho News, September 3, 1980.
• "E.L. Doctorow," Interview, Soho News, September 3, 1980.
• "Paul Theroux," Interview, Soho News, September 21, 1980.
• "Susan Sontag," Interview, Soho News, October 12, 1890.
• "Mary Lee Settle," Interview, Soho News, October 1980.
• "Eudora Welty," Interview, Soho News, October 1980.
• "Anne Arensberg," Interview, Soho News, October 22, 1980.
• "Vincent Virgas," Interview, Soho News, December 23, 1980.
• "Toni Morrison," Interview, Soho News, March 11, 1981.
• "Elizabeth Bowen, The Collected Stories," Review, Soho News, April 15, 1981.
• "Gore Vidal," Interview, Soho News, 1981.
• "Elizabeth Spencer, Collected Stories," Review, Soho News, 1981.
• "Robert Stone, A Flag for Sunrise," New York Times Book Review, October 18, 1981.
• "Mario Vargas Ilosa, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," New York Times Book Review, September 1, 1982.
• "Susan Sontag: Past Present and Future," New York Times Book Review, October 24, 1982.

Arts Journalism

• "Kiki Smith at Pace Wildenstein," Art News, 1997.
• "Giacometti Retrospective at MoMA," Art News, September 2001.
• Jack Smith, Jackie Windsor, John Coplans, Lynn Yamamoto at PS 1, "Selected Works," Art News, October 2001.
• "Ellen Zimmerman at Gagosian," Art News, December 2001.
• "Vermeer and the Delft School," Art News, December 2001.
• "John Coplans at Andrea Rosen Gallery," Art News, December 2001.
• "Jewish Artists on the Edge at Yeshiva University," Art News, April 2002.
• "Pierre Klossoski's Large-Scale Drawings," Art in America, January 2003.
• "Marina Karella Retrospective: The Benaki Museum Annex for Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece," Art in America, April 2005.
• "Claude and François Lalanne: Sculpture," Art News, November 2006.
• "Victorian Best Sellers: The Morgan Library," Art News, January 2007.
• "Edward Hopper's Etchings: 1915–1923," Art News, May 2008.
• "Delpire & Cie., Maison Européenne de la Photogrpaphie, Paris," Art in America, 2010.

Arts and Literature Journalism in France

• "Susan Sontag," l'Express (Paris), 1984.
• "Norman Mailer," Interview, Contre Ciel: Le magazine de lecture (Paris), December 1984.
• "Tennessee Williams, la Jungle," Interview, l'Express (Paris), May 1984.
• "Paul Theroux," Interview, l'Express (Paris), July 1984.
• "Truman Capote,'Comme j'étais gentil!,'" Interview, l'Express (Paris), August 1984.
• "Michel Foucault," Interview, Magazine littéraire (Paris), July–August 1985.

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)
• Better, Stronger (1978), written and directed by Ed Bowes. With Karen Achenbach and Charles Ruas. Camera by Tom Bowes. Video Feature Film, Walsung Productions.
• How to Fly (1980), written and directed by Ed Bowes. With Tom Bowes and Karen Achenbach. Video Feature Film, Walsung Productions. (consultant)
• 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)

External links

• Conversations With Writers, PS1
• Pacifica Radio Archives
• Clocktower
• Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas
• The Writers Room New York City
• PEN American Center
• Charles Ruas Papers and Audio Archives, Princeton University Firestone Library
• Charles Ruas Archives - The Allen Ginsberg Project
• Charles Ruas Interviews, Columbia University
• The Queens Public Library Memory Project : The United Nations Community
• East Asian Library Princeton University The Ruas China Archives 1860-1946