Stephen Vincent Benet

David Garrett Izzo (Fayetteville State University)
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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…

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 19 March 2024.]

354 Stephen Vincent Benet 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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