Stephen Vincent Benét
Encyclopedia
Stephen Vincent Benét was an American author, poet
, short story
writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War
, John Brown's Body
(1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize
in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1937) and "By the Waters of Babylon
". In 2009, The Library of America selected Benét’s story “The King of Cats” for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales, edited by Peter Straub
.
to James Walker Benét, a colonel in the United States Army
, and his wife. His grandfather and namesake was a Minorcan descendant born in St. Augustine, Florida
, who led the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, 1874–1891, with the rank of brigadier general
; he was a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served in the American Civil War
. The younger Benét's paternal uncle, Laurence Vincent Benét, a graduate of Yale, was an ensign in the United States Navy
and later manufactured the French-Hotchkiss machine gun.
At about age ten, Benét was sent to the Hitchcock Military Academy. He graduated from The Albany Academy
in Albany, New York
and Yale University
, where he was "the power behind the Yale Lit
", according to Thornton Wilder
, a fellow member of the Elizabethan Club
. Benét published his first book at age 17. He was awarded an M.A. in English upon submission of his third volume of poetry in lieu of a thesis. Benét was also a part-time contributor for the early Time magazine.
and the Yale University Press
during his decade-long judgeship of the competition. Benét published the first volumes of James Agee
, Muriel Rukeyser
, Jeremy Ingalls
, and Margaret Walker
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
in 1931.
Benét's fantasy short story about a devil, The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937) won an O. Henry Award
. He furnished the material for Scratch, a one-act opera by Douglas Moore. The story was filmed in 1941 and shown originally under the title All That Money Can Buy
. Benét also wrote a sequel, Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent, in which the man Daniel Webster encounters the Leviathan of biblical legend.
Benét maintained a home (commonly referred to as Benét House
), in Augusta, Georgia
. Part of Augusta College (now Augusta State University
), it was declared a National Historic Landmark
in 1971.
, on March 13, 1943, at the age of 44 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Stonington, Connecticut
, where he had owned the historic Amos Palmer House
. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize
in 1944 for Western Star, an unfinished narrative poem on the settling of the United States.
He adapted the guardian myth of the rape of the Sabine Women into the story "The Sobbin' Women". It was adapted as the movie musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
His play John Brown's Body was staged on Broadway
in 1953, in a three-person dramatic reading featuring Tyrone Power
, Judith Anderson
, and Raymond Massey
, and directed by Charles Laughton
.
Benét fathered three children. His brother, William Rose Benét
, was a poet, anthologist and critic who is largely remembered for his desk reference Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia
(1948).
These works were published posthumously:
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
, short story
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
writer, and novelist. Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, John Brown's Body
John Brown's Body (poem)
John Brown's Body is an epic American poem written by Stephen Vincent Benet. Its title references the radical abolitionist John Brown, who raided Harpers Ferry in West Virginia in the fall of 1859. He was captured and hanged later that year, and his name and rebellion inspired the civil war song...
(1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in 1929, and for two short stories, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1937) and "By the Waters of Babylon
By the Waters of Babylon
"By the Waters of Babylon" is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen Vincent Benét first published July 31, 1937, in The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods"...
". In 2009, The Library of America selected Benét’s story “The King of Cats” for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales, edited by Peter Straub
Peter Straub
Peter Francis Straub is an American author and poet, most famous for his work in the horror genre. His horror fiction has received numerous literary honors such as the Bram Stoker Award, World Fantasy Award, and International Horror Guild Award, placing him among the most-honored horror authors in...
.
Early life
Benét was born in Bethlehem, PennsylvaniaBethlehem, Pennsylvania
Bethlehem is a city in Lehigh and Northampton Counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 74,982, making it the seventh largest city in Pennsylvania, after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Erie,...
to James Walker Benét, a colonel in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, and his wife. His grandfather and namesake was a Minorcan descendant born in St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
, who led the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps, 1874–1891, with the rank of brigadier general
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
; he was a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. The younger Benét's paternal uncle, Laurence Vincent Benét, a graduate of Yale, was an ensign in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
and later manufactured the French-Hotchkiss machine gun.
At about age ten, Benét was sent to the Hitchcock Military Academy. He graduated from The Albany Academy
The Albany Academy
The Albany Academy is an independent college preparatory day school for boys in Albany, New York, USA, enrolling students from Preschool to Grade 12. It was established in 1813 by a charter signed by Mayor Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer and the city council of Albany...
in Albany, New York
Albany, New York
Albany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where he was "the power behind the Yale Lit
Yale Literary Magazine
The Yale Literary Magazine, founded in 1836, is the oldest literary magazine in the United States and publishes poetry and fiction by Yale undergraduates twice per academic year.The magazine is published biannually...
", according to Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He received three Pulitzer Prizes, one for his novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and two for his plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, and a National Book Award for his novel The Eighth Day.-Early years:Wilder was born in Madison,...
, a fellow member of the Elizabethan Club
Elizabethan Club
The Elizabethan Club is a social club at Yale University named for Queen Elizabeth I and her era. Its profile and members tend toward a literary disposition, and conversation is one of the Club's chief purposes....
. Benét published his first book at age 17. He was awarded an M.A. in English upon submission of his third volume of poetry in lieu of a thesis. Benét was also a part-time contributor for the early Time magazine.
Man of letters
Benét helped solidify the place of the Yale Series of Younger Poets CompetitionYale Series of Younger Poets Competition
The Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the first collection of a promising American poet...
and the Yale University Press
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is a book publisher founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day. It became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but remains financially and operationally autonomous....
during his decade-long judgeship of the competition. Benét published the first volumes of James Agee
James Agee
James Rufus Agee was an American author, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S...
, Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser
Muriel Rukeyser was an American poet and political activist, best known for her poems about equality, feminism, social justice, and Judaism...
, Jeremy Ingalls
Jeremy Ingalls
Mildred Dodge Jeremy Ingalls was an American poet.-Life:She grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She graduated from Tufts College and studied Chinese at the University of Chicago Oriental Institute...
, and Margaret Walker
Margaret Walker
Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander was an African-American poet and writer. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, she wrote as Margaret Walker. One of her best-known poems is For My People.-Biography:...
. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
in 1931.
Benét's fantasy short story about a devil, The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937) won an O. Henry Award
O. Henry Award
The O. Henry Award is the only yearly award given to short stories of exceptional merit. The award is named after the American master of the form, O. Henry....
. He furnished the material for Scratch, a one-act opera by Douglas Moore. The story was filmed in 1941 and shown originally under the title All That Money Can Buy
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941 film)
The Devil and Daniel Webster is a 1941 fantasy film, adapted by Stephen Vincent Benét and Dan Totheroh from Benét's short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster". The film's title was changed to All That Money Can Buy to avoid confusion with another film released by RKO that year, The Devil and Miss...
. Benét also wrote a sequel, Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent, in which the man Daniel Webster encounters the Leviathan of biblical legend.
Benét maintained a home (commonly referred to as Benét House
Stephen Vincent Benet House
Stephen Vincent Benét House , also known as President's Home, Augusta College, Commandant's House; Augusta Arsenal, is a house in Augusta, Georgia...
), in Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia
Augusta is a consolidated city in the U.S. state of Georgia, located along the Savannah River. As of the 2010 census, the Augusta–Richmond County population was 195,844 not counting the unconsolidated cities of Hephzibah and Blythe.Augusta is the principal city of the Augusta-Richmond County...
. Part of Augusta College (now Augusta State University
Augusta State University
Augusta State University is a public university located in Augusta, Georgia, United States and is the oldest institution in the state of Georgia ....
), it was declared a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
in 1971.
Death and legacy
Benét died of a heart attack in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, on March 13, 1943, at the age of 44 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Stonington, Connecticut
Stonington, Connecticut
The Town of Stonington is located in New London County, Connecticut, in the state's southeastern corner. It includes the borough of Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Lords Point, Wequetequock, the eastern halves of the villages of Mystic and Old Mystic...
, where he had owned the historic Amos Palmer House
Amos Palmer House
The Amos Palmer House; is a historic Georgian style home located on Main Street in Stonington Borough, Connecticut. The house, listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 18, 1988, was built by Captain Amos Palmer in 1787 to replace his former home on the lot which burned after a...
. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
in 1944 for Western Star, an unfinished narrative poem on the settling of the United States.
He adapted the guardian myth of the rape of the Sabine Women into the story "The Sobbin' Women". It was adapted as the movie musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
His play John Brown's Body was staged on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1953, in a three-person dramatic reading featuring Tyrone Power
Tyrone Power
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...
, Judith Anderson
Judith Anderson
Dame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE was an Australian-born American-based actress of stage, film and television. She won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award.-Early life:...
, and Raymond Massey
Raymond Massey
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
, and directed by Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
.
Benét fathered three children. His brother, William Rose Benét
William Rose Benét
William Rose Benét was an American poet, writer, and editor.He was the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét....
, was a poet, anthologist and critic who is largely remembered for his desk reference Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia
Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia
Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia is a reference work devoted to world literature. The first volume appeared in 1948, edited by Pulitzer Prize-winner William Rose Benét, older brother of the writer Stephen Vincent Benét. It was based on Ebenezer Cobham Brewer's classic Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,...
(1948).
Selected works
- Five Men and Pompey, 1915
- The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun (Yale University Prize Poem), 1917
- Young Adventure, 1918 (full text)
- Heavens and Earth, 1920
- The Beginnings of Wisdom, 1921
- Young People's Pride, 1922
- Jean Huguenot, 1923
- The Ballad of William Sycamore, 1923
- King David, 1923
- Nerves, 1924 (with John Farrar)
- That Awful Mrs. Eaton, 1924 (with John Farrar)
- Tiger Joy, 1925
- The Mountain Whippoorwill: How Hill-Billy Jim Won the Great Fiddler's Prize, 1925 (full text)
- Spanish Bayonet, 1926
- John Brown's Body, 1928
- The Barefoot Saint, 1929
- The Litter of Rose Leaves, 1930
- Abraham Lincoln, 1930 (screenplay with Gerrit Lloyd)
- Ballads and Poems, 1915–1930, 1931
- A Book of Americans, 1933 (with Rosemary Carr Benét)
- James Shore's Daughter, 1934
- The Burning City, 1936 (includes 'Litany for Dictatorships')
- The Magic of Poetry and the Poet's Art, 1936
- By the Waters of BabylonBy the Waters of Babylon"By the Waters of Babylon" is a post-apocalyptic short story by Stephen Vincent Benét first published July 31, 1937, in The Saturday Evening Post as "The Place of the Gods"...
, 1937 - The Headless Horseman, 1937
- Thirteen O'Clock, 1937
- Johnny Pye and the Fool Killer, 1938
- Tales Before Midnight, 1939
- The Ballad of the Duke's Mercy, 1939
- Nightmare at Noon, 1940
- Elementals, 1940-41 (broadcast)
- Freedom's Hard-Bought Thing, 1941 (broadcast)
- Listen to the People, 1941
- A Summons to the Free, 1941
- Cheers for Miss BishopCheers for Miss BishopCheers for Miss Bishop is a film based on the novel Miss Bishop by Bess Streeter Aldrich. It was directed by Tay Garnett and stars Martha Scott in the title role. The other cast members include William Gargan, Edmund Gwenn, Sterling Holloway, Dorothy Peterson, Marsha Hunt, Don Douglas, and Sidney...
, 1941 (screenplay with Adelaide Heilbron, Sheridan Gibney) - They Burned the Books, 1942
- Selected Works, 1942 (2 vols.)
- Short Stories, 1942
- Nightmare at Noon, 1942 (in The Treasury Star Parade, ed. by William A. Bacher)
- A Child is BornA Child Is BornA Child is Born is a poetic Christmas drama in one act by Stephen Vincent Benet. First presented on radio on December 21, 1942 as part of the anthology program Cavalcade of America, , the production starred the famous husband-and-wife team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne...
, 1942 (broadcast) - They Burned the Books, 1942 (broadcast)
These works were published posthumously:
- Western Star, 1943 (unfinished)
- Twenty Five Short Stories, 1943
- America, 1944
- O'Halloran's Luck and Other Short Stories, 1944
- We Stand United, 1945 (radio scripts)
- The Bishop's Beggar, 1946
- The Last Circle, 1946
- Selected Stories, 1947
- From the Earth to the Moon, 1958
External links
- ebooks of works by Stephen Vincent Benét at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Borough of Fountain Hill Official Web Site
- Works by Stephen Vincent Benét (public domain in Canada)