Stephen Vincent Benet

David Garrett Izzo (Fayetteville State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 22 Jul 1898
Died 13 Mar 1943
Activity 1918-1943

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Genres and Modes

Science Fiction/ Speculative

Activities

Primary

Librettist
Poet
Story-writer

Other

Historian / Chronicler

Resources

Benet's Works

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Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943) was once the most popular writer of poetry and fiction in the United States, particularly from 1928 to his untimely death. When the

Saturday Evening Post

was the premier weekly in America, Benet was its premier writer. Benet was a viscerally emotive writer who wore his heart – and pen – on his sleeve. He achieved both critical esteem and popular acclaim. His 1937 classic, “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, may be the most well known short story in American literature, in which the great lawyer and orator defends a farmer, Jabez Stone, who had sold his soul to the devil. In 1928 his epic long poem of the American Civil War,

John Brown's Body

, was a bestseller and took the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Benet wrote with a social consciousness and he…

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2301 words

Citation: Garrett Izzo, David. "Stephen Vincent Benet". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 February 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=354, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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