The Poetry of Stephen Vincent Benét
"Benét was born on 22nd July in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. His father was a serving Army colonel and his first decade dictated that family life and education was centered at the base his father was serving from. From ten it became a little more stable when he was dispatched for a traumatic year to the Hitchcock Military Academy in San Rafael, California before graduating from the Summerville Academy in Augusta, Georgia and thence to Yale University, at age 17, where he quickly established himself in its deep literary traditions. He edited as well as contributed a selection of light verse to the campus humor magazine, The Yale Record, and gave freely and generously of his time thereafter to keep Yale producing new literary talents. Prodigiously his first book was published at 17 and for he obtained his M.A. in English when he submitted a poetry volume as his thesis.Whilst travelling in France, in the early 20s, he met and quickly married a fellow writer and poet, Rosemary Carr. She would also collaborate with him on several works. In Paris he wrote the book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War 'John Brown's Body', for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.Benét was immensely gifted. A mere glance at his literary CV dazzles with literary gems. Some of his poems seem to foretell both the rise of machines and of Fascism. He won the O'Henry Award on three occasions, for his short stories as well as an incredible four Pulitzers; two for poetry and two for short stories. Add in his several novels, speech-writing, radio scripts and various other pursuits and you have some measure of the man. In 1930, Benét was hit with debilitating attacks of arthritis of the spine which made the rest of his life one of much pain and discomfort.Stephen Vincent Benét died in his wife's arms on 13th March 1943 of a heart attack in New York City. He was 44. He was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for Western Star, an ambitious and projected five, six or nine book narrative poem (there are various accounts of its projected length) on the settling of the United States, for which he only finished the first book.- 1 - The Poetry of Stephen Vincent Benét - An Introduction2 - A Minor Poet by Stephen Vincent Benét3 - Difference by Stephen Vincent Benét4 - Music by Stephen Vincent Benét5 - The Quality of Courage by Stephen Vincent Benét6 - Love in Twilight by Stephen Vincent Benét7 - The Lover in Hell by Stephen Vincent Benét8 - Breaking Point by Stephen Vincent Benét9 - Nightmare Number 3 by Stephen Vincent Benét10 - The Innovator by Stephen Vincent Benét11 - For City Lovers by Stephen Vincent Benét12 - The City Revisited by Stephen Vincent Benét13 - Rain After A Vaudeville Show by Stephen Vincent Benét14 - Minor Litany by Stephen Vincent Benét15 - Days Pass, Men Pass by by Stephen Vincent Benét16 - For All Blasphemers by Stephen Vincent Benét17 - Poor Devil! by Stephen Vincent Benét18 - Judgement by Stephen Vincent Benét19 - Lonely Burial by Stephen Vincent Benét20 - Litany for Dictatorships by Stephen Vinvcent Benét21 - The Hemp by Stephen Vincent Benét22 - Colors by Stephen Vincent Benét23 - Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum by Stephen Vincent Benét24 - Portrait of a Baby by Stephen Vincent Benét25 - Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benét26 - Campus Sonnets by Stephen Vincent Benét27 - Elegy For An Enemy by Stephen Vincent Benét28 - Architects by Stephen Vincent Benét"
Stephen Vincent Benét (Author), Christopher Ragland, Eric Meyers, Laurel Lefkow (Narrator)
Audiobook
