Stephen Vincent Benet :: essays research papers

Stephen Vincent BenetOnly in a time when the pressure of the world amounts to angst and thefight for freedom can a world glide slope in its literary achievements. A writer,just like an artist, builds his creations from the mood and settings of thesurrounding atmosphere. In the first half of the twentieth century, theatmosphere was filled with resources to stimulate literary creativity, such asthe second World War and the Great Depression (Roache 102 14). The socialgenre of the time gave way to the broad appeal to American support and the focus offreedom leading to original stories and historical themes (Folsom 3 953). Ofcourse, the past would remain a constant influence. Some common topics were theCivil War and the settlement of western U.S. frontier life (Magill 1 174).Stephen Vincent Benet took all these factors into mind during his life as atwentieth century writer/poet. Keeping the times, the life, and the literatureof Stephen Vincent Benet a major part of his influence and a chievements, hehelped push America towards a united cultural victory.Stephen Vincent Benet was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to JamesWalker Benet, a career military officer, and Francis Neill Rose Benet on thetwenty-second of July 1898 (Roache 102 11, 13). He described himself as apositive-thinking and modest man, who is thin, attractive, vivacious, whereashis wife and his mother-in-law would consider him a plain, tall, large biter-of-nails who carries a foolish expression, but whose intellect is too much forwords (Parsekian 1).He couldnt have been too foolish of a person due to his positiveupbringing. Benets parents plotted for him to be a success in whatever he choseto do. Their open-mindedness encouraged him to explore books and ideas in aprofessional state., as well as to think and take literature and historyvery seriously (Roache 102 13). Because of this upbringing, all three Benetchildren became poets and authors. (Stephen Vincent Benet was the youngest ofthem.) Much influe nce over the Benets came from love for the country becauseJames military work called for traveling between Georgia, California, Illinois,New York, and Pennsylvania (Griffith 11).Benets education shows how successful he really was. He entered YaleUniversity at 17 years old, when he published his first book. roughly that time,he became professional with New York writers (Roache 102 13). Stephen VincentBenet earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919 and his Master of Arts degreein 1920 at Yale before pass judgment a fellowship to Paris where he could livecheaply and write his first novel and would later find his wife.