Stephen Vincent Benet Collection

by Stephen Vincent Benét

Stephen Vincent Benet (July 22, 1898 – March 13, 1943) 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" (1936) and "By the Waters of Babylon" (1937). In 2009, The Library of America selected Benét’s story “The King of the Cats” (1929) for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American Fantastic Tales, edited by Peter Straub.Thirteen O' Stories of Several Worlds (1937)Blossom and FruitA Death in the CountryEverybody Was Very Nice Glamour Daniel Webster and the Sea SerpentThe Devil and Daniel WebsterThe Sobbin' WomenThe Curfew TollsThe Treasure of Vasco GomezA Story by Angela Poe The King of the Cats The Blood of the MartyrsBy the Waters of BabylonJohn Brown's BodyYoung Adventure, A Book of PoemsYoung People's Pride

594 pages, Paperback

First published May 22, 2014

About the author

Stephen Vincent Benét, best known brother of William Rose Benét, also wrote John Brown's Body , his narrative poem of Civil War, in 1928. See John Brown.

A mother bore Stephen Vincent Benét into a military family. His father and Laura Benét, his sibling, also widely appreciated literature.

Benét attended Yale University and published Five Men and Pompey in 1915 and The Drug-Shop , collection, in 1917. A year of military service interrupted his studies; he worked as a cipher clerk in the same department as James Grover Thurber. He submitted his third volume of in place of a thesis, and Yale graduated him in 1919.

Stephen Vincent Benét published The Beginning of Wisdom , his first novel, in 1921. Benét then moved to France to continue his studies at the Sorbonne and returned to the United States in 1923 with the Rosemary Carr, his new wife.

Benét succeeded in many different literary forms, which included novels, short stories, screenplays, radio broadcasts, and a libretto for an opera, which Douglas Moore based on "The Devil and Daniel Webster." For his most famous long work, which interweaves historical and fictional characters to relate important events, from the raid on Harper's Ferry to surrender of Robert Edward Lee at Appomattox, he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1929.

During lifetime, Benét received the story prize of O. Henry, the Roosevelt Medal, and a second Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for the posthumously-published Western Star, the first part of an epic, based on American history. At the age of 44 years, Benét suffered a heart attack and died in New York City.

Reviews

[Abby Libby · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a copy of The Western Star that doesn’t exist in goodreads. This was the next best thing. HUGE fan of Benet.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read:

The King of the Cats - 3/5