Editing Stephen Vincent Benét

{{Short description|Poet, short story writer, novelist (1898–1943)}}
{{Distinguish|Stephen Vincent Benét (general)|Vincent Bennett}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Stephen Vincent Benét
| image            = Stephen Vincent Benét Yale College BA 1919.jpg
| caption          = Benét at [[Yale College]] in 1919
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1898|7|22|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1943|3|13|1898|7|22|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[New York City]], U.S.
| occupation       = Writer
| education        = [[Yale University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Master of Arts|MA]])
| period           = 20th century
| genre            = Poetry, short story, novel
| notableworks     = ''[[John Brown's Body (poem)|John Brown's Body]]'' (1929)<br />''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (short story)|The Devil and Daniel Webster]]'' (1936)<br />''[[By the Waters of Babylon]]'' (1937)<br />''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (film)|Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' (1954) (adapted from Benét's story ''The Sobbin' Women'')
| spouse           = {{marriage|Rosemary Carr|1921}}
| children         = 3
| relatives        = [[William Rose Benét]] (brother)<br />[[Laura Benét]] (sister)
| awards           = [[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]] (1929)<br />O. Henry Award (1937)<br />[[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]] (1944, posthumous)
}}
'''Stephen Vincent Benét''' ({{IPAc-en|b|ə|ˈ|n|eɪ}} {{respell|bə|NAY}}; July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) was an American poet, [[short story]] writer, and novelist. He wrote a book-length [[narrative poem]] of the [[American Civil War]], ''[[John Brown's Body (poem)|John Brown's Body]]'', published in 1928, for which he received the [[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]], and for the short stories "[[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]", published in 1936, and "[[By the Waters of Babylon]]", published in 1937. 

In 2009, [[Library of America]] selected his story "The King of the Cats", published in 1929, for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of ''[[American Fantastic Tales]]'', edited by [[Peter Straub]].

==Early life and education==
Benét was born on July 22, 1898, in [[Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania]], in the [[Lehigh Valley]] region of eastern [[Pennsylvania]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=79675|title=Stephen Vincent Benét|website=www.hmdb.org|accessdate= 27 August 2021}}  While some references state that Benet was born in [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], he was actually born in the adjacent borough of Fountain Hill.</ref> to James Walker Benét, a colonel in the [[United States Army|U.S. Army]]. His [[Stephen Vincent Benet (Army General)|grandfather and namesake]] led the Army Ordnance Corps from 1874 to 1891 as a brigadier general and served in the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. His paternal uncle Laurence Vincent Benét was an ensign in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] during the [[Spanish–American War]] who later manufactured the French [[Hotchkiss M1909 Benét–Mercié machine gun|Hotchkiss machine gun]].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Milestones, May 31, 1948 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798722,00.html |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=May 31, 1948 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091014174044/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798722,00.html |archive-date=October 14, 2009}}</ref>

Around the age of ten, Benét was sent to the Hitchcock Military Academy in [[San Rafael, California]]. He graduated at the top of his class from Summerville Academy in [[Augusta, Georgia]], and from [[Yale University]], where he was "the power behind the ''[[Yale Literary Magazine|Yale Lit]]''", according to [[Thornton Wilder]], a fellow member of the [[Elizabethan Club]]. As a Yale University student, he also edited<ref>{{cite web |title=Stephen Vincent Benét |work=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1942–1943 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University |date=January 1, 1944 |page=123 |url=http://mssa.library.yale.edu/obituary_record/1925_1952/1942-43.pdf}}</ref> and contributed light verse to the campus humor magazine ''[[The Yale Record]]''.<ref>Bronson, Francis W., Thomas Caldecott Chubb, and Cyril Hume, eds. (1922) ''The Yale Record Book of Verse: 1872–1922''. New Haven: Yale University Press. pp. 16–17, 24, 42–43, 50–51, 67–68, 82–83.</ref> 

His first book was published when he was aged 17, and he was awarded an [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] in English upon submission of his third volume of poetry in lieu of a thesis.<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica,'' Vol. 12, Micropaedia, 15th edition, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. c. 1989</ref> He was also a part-time contributor to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine in the magazine's early years.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trivia-library.com/c/history-of-time-magazine-part-1.htm|title=History of Time Magazine Part 1|website=www.trivia-library.com}}</ref>

In 1920 and 1921, Benét was in France on a Yale traveling fellowship, where he met Rosemary Carr; the couple married in [[Chicago]] in November 1921.<ref>{{cite web |website=[[Poetry Foundation]] |title=Stephen Vincent Benét |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/stephen-vincent-benet |first=John |last=Griffith|date=15 December 2022 }}</ref> Carr was also a writer and poet, and they collaborated on some works.  

In 1926, he received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] award and, while living in Paris, wrote ''John Brown's Body''.<ref name="Parini 2004 p. 164">{{cite book | last=Parini | first=J. | title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature  | series= Oxford reference library | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-19-515653-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nMhMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA164 | access-date=August 6, 2019 | page=164}}</ref>

==Career==
Benét helped solidify the place of the [[Yale Series of Younger Poets|Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition]] and [[Yale University Press]] during his decade-long judgeship of the competition.<ref>Bradley, George. ''The Yale Younger Poets Anthology'', [[Yale University Press]], New Haven and London, pp. 23–53</ref> He published the first volumes of [[James Agee]], [[Muriel Rukeyser]], [[Jeremy Ingalls]], and [[Margaret Walker]]. 

In 1929, Benét was elected a member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Letters]].<ref name="arts_Sear">{{Cite web |title=Search Results for "Stephen Vincent Benet" – American Academy of Arts and Letters |work=[[American Academy of Arts and Letters]] |access-date=May 21, 2019 |url= https://artsandletters.org/?s=Stephen+Vincent+Benet&restype=all |quote=Member: Stephen Vincent Benet – Regular / Year Elected: 1929 / b. 1898 / d. 1943 / Gold Medal in Literature 1943 }}</ref> 

Two years later, in 1931, he was awarded a fellowship by the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=22 April 2011}}</ref>
{{quote box | align = right | width = 22em | salign = right
| quote = <poem>
Out of John Brown's strong sinews the tall skyscrapers grow,
Out of his heart the chanting buildings rise,
Rivet and girder, motor and dynamo,
Pillar of smoke by day and fire by night,
The steel-faced cities reaching at the skies,
The whole enormous and rotating cage
Hung with hard jewels of electric light,
Smoky with sorrow, black with splendor, dyed
Whiter than damask for a crystal bride
With metal suns, the engine-handed Age,
The genie we have raised to rule the earth,
Obsequious to our will
But servant-master still,
The tireless serf already half a god --
</poem>
| source = —Stephen Vincent Benét, "[[John Brown's Body (poem)|John Brown's Body]]" (1928)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700461.txt|title=''John Brown's Body''|publisher=Project Gutenberg Australia|access-date=5 March 2021}}</ref>}}
Benét won the [[O. Henry Award]] three times: in 1932, for his short stories ''An End to Dreams''; in 1937, for ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]''; and in 1940, for ''Freedom's a Hard-Bought Thing''.

His fantasy short story "[[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]" inspired several unauthorized dramatizations by other writers after its publication, which prompted Benét to adapt his own work for the stage.<ref name="MLA">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=soYHkRcq0r4C&dq=%22The+Devil+and+Daniel+Webster%22+%22Douglas+Moore%22&pg=PA420|title=Douglas Moore: A Bio-bibliography|first=Jerry L.|last=McBride|year=2011|pages=24–28|isbn=9780895796660|publisher=[[Music Library Association]]}}</ref> Benét approached composer [[Douglas Moore]] to create an opera of the work with Benét serving as librettist in 1937.<ref name="MLA"/> 

''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (opera)|The Devil and Daniel Webster: An Opera in One Act]]'', published by [[Farrar & Rinehart]] in 1939, premiered on [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] that same year.<ref name="MLA"/> The opera version of Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" was created from 1937 through 1939, and its [[libretto]] served as the basis for a 1938 play adaptation of the work, ''The Devil and Daniel Webster: A Play in One Act'', published by Dramatists Play Service in 1938.<ref name="MLA"/>  The play, in turn, was used as the source for a screenplay adaptation co-written by Benét, which was released in 1941 as ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (film)|All That Money Can Buy]]''.<ref name="MLA"/>

Benét also wrote a sequel, "Daniel Webster and the Sea Serpent", in which Daniel Webster encounters [[Leviathan]].

==Death==
[[File:Evergreen Cemetery, Stephen Vincent Benét.jpg|thumb|Benét's gravesite at Evergreen Cemetery in [[Stonington, Connecticut]]]]
Benét died of a [[Myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in New York City on March 13, 1943, at age 44.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Benet__Stephen_Vincent.html|title=Stephen Vincent Benét|author=Weicksel, Amanda|year=2001|work=Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania|publisher=Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Penn State University|access-date=May 24, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611124143/http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Benet__Stephen_Vincent.html|archive-date=June 11, 2010}}</ref> He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in [[Stonington, Connecticut]], where he owned the historic [[Amos Palmer House]].

==Legacy==
On April 17, 1943, [[NBC Radio Network|NBC Radio]] broadcast a special tribute to his life and works, which included a performance by [[Helen Hayes]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.helenhayes.com/about/radio5.html |title=Radio |website=The Official Web Site of Helen Hayes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121826/http://www.helenhayes.com/about/radio5.html |archive-date=March 4, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2018/New%20York%20NY%20PM%20%20Daily/New%20York%20NY%20PM%20Daily%201943/New%20York%20NY%20PM%20Daily%201943%20-%201953.pdf |title=Heard and Overheard |location=New York |newspaper=[[PM (newspaper)|PM]] |date=April 19, 1943 |page=22 |first=Judy |last=Dupuy}}</ref> He was awarded a posthumous [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1944 for ''Western Star'', an unfinished narrative poem on the settling of the United States.

Benét adapted the Roman myth of [[The Rape of the Sabine Women|the rape of the Sabine Women]] into the story "The Sobbin' Women". That story was adapted as the musical film ''[[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers]]'' (1954), then as a [[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (musical)|stage musical]] (1978) and then [[Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (TV series)|TV series]] (1982). 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]], directed by [[Charles Laughton]]. The book was included in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–44.<ref>Canby, Henry Seidel. "The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924–1944". ''Life Magazine'', 14 August 1944. Chosen in collaboration with the magazine's editors.</ref>

[[Dee Brown (writer)|Dee Brown]]'s ''[[Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee]]'' takes its title from the final phrase of Benét's poem "American Names": <poem>"You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmédy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee."</poem>
The last two lines are used as an epigram at the beginning of Brown's book.

==Selected works==
* ''Five Men and Pompey, a series of dramatic portraits'', Poetry, 1915
* ''The Drug-Shop, or, Endymion in Edmonstoun'', his Yale University Prize Poem, written in 1917<ref>{{cite book|title=The Drug-shop, Or Endymion in Edmonstoun|author=Stephen Vincent Benét, Nathan Wallach|year=1917|publisher=Yale University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eyMWGQAACAAJ}}</ref>
* ''Young Adventure: A book of Poems'', 1918
* ''Heavens and Earth'', 1920
* ''The Beginnings of Wisdom: A Novel'', 1921
* ''Young People's Pride: A Novel'', 1922
* ''Jean Huguenot: A Novel'', 1923
* ''The Ballad of William Sycamore: A Poem'', 1923
* ''King David: A two-hundred-line ballad in six parts'', 1923
* ''Nerves'', 1924, a play co-authored with [[John C. Farrar]]
* ''That Awful Mrs. Eaton'', 1924, a play co-authored with John C. Farrar
* ''Tiger Joy:  A Book of Poems'', 1925
* ''The Mountain Whippoorwill: How Hill-Billy Jim Won the Great Fiddler's Prize: A Poem.'', 1925
* ''[[The Bat (play)|The Bat]]'', 1926, ghostwritten novelization of the play by [[Mary Roberts Rinehart]] and [[Avery Hopwood]]
* ''Spanish Bayonet'', 1926<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/spanishbayonet00ben|title=Spanish bayonet|first=Stephen Vincent|last=Benét|date=May 14, 1926|publisher=New York, George H. Doran Co|via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
* ''[[John Brown's Body (poem)|John Brown's Body]]'', 1928
* ''The Barefoot Saint: A Short Story'', 1929
* ''The Litter of Rose Leaves: A Short Story'', 1930
* ''[[Abraham Lincoln (1930 film)|Abraham Lincoln]]'', 1930, a screenplay co-authored with Gerrit Lloyd
* ''Ballads and Poems'', 1915–1930, 1931
* ''A Book of Americans'', 1933, co-authored with Rosemary Carr Benét, his wife
* ''James Shore's Daughter: A Novel'', 1934
* ''The Burning City'', 1936, includes 'Litany for Dictatorships'
* ''The Magic of Poetry and the Poet's Art'', 1936
* ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster]]'', 1936
* ''[[By the Waters of Babylon]]'', 1937
* ''The Headless Horseman: one-act play'', 1937
* ''Thirteen O'Clock'', 1937
* ''We Aren't Superstitious'', 1937, an essay on the [[Salem Witch Trials]]
* ''Johnny Pye and the Fool Killer: A Short Story'', 1938
* ''Tales Before Midnight: Collection of Short Stories'', 1939
* ''The Ballad of the Duke's Mercy'', 1939
* ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (opera)|The Devil and Daniel Webster]]'', 1939, an opera [[libretto]] with [[Douglas Moore]]
* ''A Song of Three Soldiers'', 1940
* ''Elementals'', 1940–41 (broadcast)
* ''Freedom's Hard-Bought Thing'', 1941, a broadcast
* ''Listen to the People'', 1941
* ''A Summons to the Free'', 1941
* ''William Riley and the Fates'', 1941
* ''[[Cheers for Miss Bishop]]'', 1941, a screenplay written with Adelaide Heilbron and Sheridan Gibney
* ''[[The Devil and Daniel Webster (film)|The Devil and Daniel Webster]]'', 1941, a screenplay written with [[Dan Totheroh]]
* ''Selected Works'', 1942 (2 vols.) {{oclc|22177930}}
* ''Short Stories'', 1942
* ''Nightmare at Noon: Short Poem'', 1942, in ''The Treasury Star Parade'', edited by William A. Bacher
* ''[[A Child Is Born (radio play)|A Child is Born]]'', 1942, a broadcast
* ''They Burned the Books'', 1942 {{oclc|925056}}
* ''They Burned the Books'', 1942, a broadcast

'''These works were published [[List of works published posthumously|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, a series of radio scripts
* ''The Bishop's Beggar'', 1946
* ''The Last Circle'', 1946
* ''Selected Stories'', 1947
* ''From the Earth to the Moon'', 1958

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book |last=Bleiler |first=Everett |author-link=E. F. Bleiler |title=The Checklist of Fantastic Literature |location=Chicago |publisher=Shasta Publishers |pages=46–47 |year=1948}}
* {{cite book |last=Fenton |first=Charles A. |title=Stephen Vincent Benét: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters, 1898–1943 |orig-year=1958 |year=1978 |publisher=Greenwood Press |location=Westport, Conn. |isbn=0-313-20200-1}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
{{commons category}}
{{Wikisource author}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=174|name=Stephen Vincent Benét}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Benét, Stephen Vincent|name=Stephen Vincent Benét|author=yes}}
* [http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-a-m.html#benet Works by Stephen Vincent Benét] at [[Project Gutenberg Australia]]
* [http://www.miracostahigh.org/ourpages/users/jwesterberg/documents/English%205-6/Benet.pdf "We Aren't Superstitious"], an essay by Stephen Vincent Benét 
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Stephen Vincent Benét |sopt=t}}
* {{Librivox author |id=3008}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20230328155453/https://wikilivres.org/wiki/Stephen_Vincent_Ben%C3%A9t Works by Stephen Vincent Benét] (public domain in Canada)
* {{ISFDB name|id=762|name=Stephen Vincent Benét}}
* {{LCAuth|n50007691|Stephen Vincent Benét|169|}}
* [[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.svbenet|Stephen Vincent Benét and Rosemary Benét Papers]] at Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

{{PulitzerPrize PoetryAuthors 1922–1950}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benet, Stephen Vincent}}
[[Category:Stephen Vincent Benét| ]]
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1943 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century American poets]]
[[Category:20th-century American short story writers]]
[[Category:American fantasy writers]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American male short story writers]]
[[Category:American opera librettists]]
[[Category:American people of Catalan descent]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Poets from Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:O. Henry Award winners]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners]]
[[Category:The Yale Record alumni]]
[[Category:The Saturday Evening Post people]]
[[Category:Writers of Gothic fiction]]
[[Category:Mythopoeic writers]]