During her long career as a poet and essayist, Adrienne Rich has graced us with collections that looked at the works of dozens of writers, and with A Human Eye: Essays on Art in Society 1997-2008 (W.W. Norton, $24.95), Rich offers seasoned commentary about poets Muriel Rukeyser and LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), poetry of contemporary Iraqi poets, and gay and lesbian poets. She also includes an appreciation of James Baldwin, a writer whom she (like Chinua Achebe; see his new book of essays, below) admires and was influenced by. This essay began with Rich receiving a letter bearing a Baldwin postage stamp. The first question she asked was why, in the midst of the Bush fils years, were we commemorating this critic’s life? As she updated the piece for this book, she wondered what, if anything, had changed, even as the country was poised to elect its first African-American president.