Stephen Vincent Benét : essays on his life and work / edited by David Garrett Izzo and Lincoln Konkle.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Benét, Stephen Vincent, 1898-1943.

Izzo, David Garrett.

Konkle, Lincoln.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Benét, Stephen Vincent, 1898-1943.

Authors, American--20th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

x, 244 pages : portraits ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, [2003]

Summary:

When Stephen Vincent Benet died in 1943 at the age of 44, all of America mourned the loss. Benet was then one of the country's best known poets, and as a fiction writer, he had an even larger audience. Yet today few American readers take note of this once-acclaimed writer -- the winner of two Pulitzer prizes. This book is a collection of essays celebrating Benet and his writing. Thomas Carr Benet reminisces about his father in the first essay; others consider Benet's marriage to his wife Rosemary and his friendships with other American literary greats such as Archibald MacLeish and Thornton Wilder. Essays focusing on Benet's work consider such topics as Benet's role in the development of historical poetry in America, the adaptation of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" to drama and then to film, Benet's use of fantasy and science fiction, and Benet as a dramatist for stage, screen and radio.

Contents:

Life, Times, People

1. A Son Remembers / Thomas Carr Benet 19

2. Stephen and Rosemary: A Love Story / Patricia McAndrew 37

3. The Yale Club of Stephen Vincent Benet, Archibald MacLeish, and Thornton Wilder: The Writer as Liberal Humanist and Public Activist / David Garrett Izzo 72

4. The Charmed Circle of Stephen Vincent Benet: Philip Barry, Jed Harris, Thornton Wilder / Laura Shea 92

Poetry, Fiction, Drama

5. 123 College Street: Stephen Vincent Benet and the Development of an Historical Poetry for America / Jared Lobdell 107

6. John Brown's Body and the Meaning of the Civil War / Gary Grieve-Carlson 128

7. American History in the Short Stories of Stephen Vincent Benet and Nathaniel Hawthorne / Nancy Bunge 142

8. Waking from Nightmares: Stephen Vincent Benet's Faustian America / Robert Combs 150

9. American Reincarnations: "The Devil and Daniel Webster" from Fiction to Drama to Film / Lincoln Konkle 167

10. Stephen Vincent Benet in the Twilight Zone: Fantasy and Science Fiction / Toby Johnson 206

11. Benet as Dramatist for Stage, Screen, and Radio / David Garrett Izzo, Lincoln Konkle 215.

Notes:

"Stephen Vincent Benét bibliography": pages 235-240.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0786413646

OCLC:

50695055