William Rose Benét

William Rose Benét was an influential American poet, editor, and man of letters whose career spanned the first half of the twentieth century. A founding editor of The Saturday Review of Literature, he was a central figure in the New York City literary scene, known for his erudite verse and championing of other writers. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1942 for his autobiographical epic The Dust Which Is God.

Early life and education

He was born in 1886 at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, the son of United States Army Colonel James Walker Benét. His upbringing in a military family provided an early contrast to his literary ambitions. He attended the Albany Academy in New York before enrolling at Yale University, where he graduated in 1907 and contributed to the Yale Literary Magazine. At Yale, he began his lifelong dedication to poetry and formed important early connections within the American literary world.

Literary career

After university, he worked in New York City as a journalist and editor for publications like the New York Evening Post and the New York Tribune. His pivotal role came in 1924 when, with Henry Seidel Canby and Christopher Morley, he co-founded The Saturday Review of Literature, serving as its poetry editor and a columnist for decades. Through this platform, he exerted significant influence, promoting the work of contemporaries such as Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg. His own poetry, collected in volumes like Merchants from Cathay (1913) and The Falconer of God (1914), was noted for its romanticism, technical skill, and often scholarly allusions to mythology and history.

Personal life and family

His personal life was marked by a series of marriages to literary and artistic figures. His first marriage was to Elsie Heimerdinger, followed by unions with Teresa Frances Thompson and the celebrated poet and novelist Elinor Wylie, whose work he vigorously promoted. He later married actress Lora Baxter and, finally, children's author and illustrator Marjorie Flack. He was the older brother of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and author Stephen Vincent Benét and the writer Laura Benét, forming a remarkable American literary family. His son, James Benét, became a noted journalist in San Francisco.

Awards and honors

The apex of his critical recognition came in 1942 when he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his novel-in-verse The Dust Which Is God, a spiritual and intellectual autobiography. His contributions to literature were also honored with membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Throughout his career, his editorial judgment and critical essays in The Saturday Review of Literature were themselves considered an award of honor for the poets and writers he supported.

Selected works

* Merchants from Cathay (1913) * The Falconer of God (1914) * The Great White Wall (1916) * The Burglar of the Zodiac (1918) * Moons of Grandeur (1920) * Man Possessed: Selected Poems (1927) * The Dust Which Is God (1941) * The Spirit of the Scene (1951)

Category:American poets Category:Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Category:Yale University alumni Category:American literary critics Category:Writers from New York City Category:1886 births Category:1950 deaths