Biography for
Stephen Vincent Benet More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

22 July 1898, Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania, USA

Date of Death

13 March 1943, New York City, New York, USA (heart seizure)

Mini Biography

American poet and writer, several of whose short stories were filmed. The son of a U.S. Army officer who inculcated in Benet and his brother, famed poet William Rose Benet, an appreciation for excellence in literature, Benet was raised around military posts. He attended Yale University, then traveled to Paris, where he met his wife, Rosemary Carr, and began to write professionally. While in Paris again on a Guggenheim Fellowship, he published the story, The Sobbin Women, which later became the basis for the musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929 for his narrative poem on the American Civil War, "John Brown's Body." He also wrote numerous radio dramas and a few screenplays before his early death at 44.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

Spouse

Rosemary Carr

(26 November 1921 - 13 March 1943) (his death) 3 children

Trivia

Pictured on a 32¢ US commemorative postage stamp in the Literary Arts series, issued 22 July 1998.

Children: son Thomas; daughters Stephanie and Rachel.

His book-length poem "John Brown's Body" was given a successful dramatic reading on Broadway in 1953, in a production starring Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson and Raymond Massey, and directed by Charles Laughton. It was subsequently recorded on LP, but as of 2002, remains unreleased on CD.