Book Description
When Stephen Vincent Benét died in 1943 at the age of 44, all of America mourned the loss. Benét was one of the country’s most well known poets of the first half of the twentieth century and as a fiction writer, he had an even larger audience. This book is a collection of essays celebrating Benét and his writing. The first group of essays addresses Benét’s life, times, and personal relationships. Thomas Carr Benét reminisces about his father in the first essay, and others consider Benét’s marriage to his wife Rosemary; Archibald MacLeish, Thornton Wilder and Benét as friends, liberal humanists and public activists; and his friendships with Philip Barry, Jed Harris, and Thornton Wilder. The second group contains essays about Benét’s poetry, fiction, and drama. They discuss Benét’s role in the development of historical poetry in America, John Brown’s Body and the Civil War, Hawthorne, Benét and historical fiction, Benét’s Faustian America, the adaptation of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" to drama and then to film, Benét’s use of fantasy and science fiction, and Benét as a dramatist for stage, screen and radio.
About the Author
Writer, researcher and teacher David Garrett Izzo is also the author of The Writings of Richard Stern: The Education of an Intellectual Everyman (2002). He lives in Douglassville, Pennsylvania. Lincoln Konkle is a professor at the College of New Jersey where he teaches American drama, modern drama, and creative writing. He lives in Ewing, New Jersey.
Stephen Vincent Benet: Essays on His Life and Work SYNOPSIS
The contributors to this volume include some who teach English at the college level and others who are free-lance writers. The essays are devoted to biographical aspects of Benét's life and to his writings, which include "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and the epic poem John Brown's Body. Other topics include a comparative study of Benét's short stories, John Brown's Body and the Civil War, and Benét's work as a dramatist. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Odd that a writer who won his second Pulitzer Prize little more than a half century ago should be all but forgotten today. But such is the fate of Stephen Vincent Benet, whose Americanist fervor during the Great Depression and the first years of World War II made the panoramic poem John Brown's Body and such short fiction as "The Devil and Daniel Webster" treasured and their author revered. This volume of 11 pro-Benet essays successfully covers all aspects of his life: Ben t as member of a Yale group that also included Thornton Wilder, Philip Barry, Archibald MacLeish, and Jed Harris (who later made a career on Broadway); as husband to Rosemary Carr (who later acted as his collaborator); and as father to Rachel and Thomas (who later edited the San Francisco Examiner). Strangely, only one of these essays examines the Pulitzer Prize-winning epic John Brown's Body, but four treat "The Devil and Daniel Webster," which was made into a play and a successful motion picture. Perhaps Ben t has lost favor with the reading public because of his irrepressible optimism, his faith that, in spite of horrible setbacks, humanity is making progress. If we can ever recapture that faith in ourselves and in our country, Benet's writings will be waiting. For large public libraries with extensive Ben t holdings.-Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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