Stephen Vincent Benet

Stephen Vincent Benét , 1898-1943, American poet and author, b. Bethlehem, Pa., grad. Yale, 1919; brother of William Rose Benét. After graduating from college, Benét published several volumes of verse, including A Ballad of William Sycamore (1923), and several novels, of which Jean Huguenot (1923) and The Spanish Bayonet (1926) are the best. He is most famous for John Brown's Body (1928), a long narrative poem of the Civil War (Pulitzer Prize, 1929), and his short story, "The Devil and Daniel Webster." Western Star, a long narrative poem about the westward migration left unfinished at his death, was published in 1943 (Pulitzer Prize, 1944).

Bibliography: See his selected works (2 vol., 1942); letters, ed. by C. A. Fenton (1960); studies by C. A. Fenton (1978) and W. R. Benét (1979).

Benét, Stephen Vincent (1898–1943), American poet, is best known for his narrative poem of the Civil War, John Brown's Body (1928), and for some of the poems in Ballads and Poems (1931), including the popular ‘American Names’, with its resounding last line, ‘Bury my heart at Wounded Knee’.

Benét, Stephen Vincent (1889–1943), brother of W.R. Benét, was born in Pennsylvania, and graduated from Yale (1919). As an undergraduate he wrote two books of poetry, Five Men and Pompey (1915), dramatic monologues, and Young Adventure (1918); shortly after graduation he wrote his first novel, The Beginning of Wisdom (1921), a college story in the vein of F. Scott Fitzgerald. The poems in Heavens and Earth (1920), King David (1923), The Ballad of William Sycamore (1923), and Tiger Joy (1925) show a growing maturity, and the Ballad particularly indicates his interest in the American scene. He reached his full power with John Brown's Body (1928, Pulitzer Prize), a long narrative poem of the Civil War. His Ballads and Poems, 1915–30 were collected in 1931. Nightmare at Noon (1940) is a poem warning the U.S. to meet the fascist challenge. Western Star (1943, Pulitzer Prize), a section of a projected epic poem on the westward migration, depicts the settling of Jamestown and Plymouth. America (1944) is a short U.S. history written for distribution abroad by the Office of War Information. In addition to such novels as Young People's Pride (1922), Jean Huguenot (1923), and Spanish Bayonet (1926), he wrote librettos for two one‐act folk operas. The Headless Horseman (1937) and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1939), with music by Douglas Moore. Collections are Tales Before Midnight (1939), stories; Selected Works (1942); and Selected Letters (1960).