author
William Rose Benét
1886–1950
A lively American man of letters, he moved easily between poetry, criticism, editing, and books for younger readers. He is especially remembered for helping shape literary culture through the Saturday Review of Literature and for bringing warmth and wit to everything he wrote.
1 Audiobook
Perpetual Light : a memorial
by William Rose Benét
About the author
Born in Brooklyn, New York, on February 2, 1886, William Rose Benét became an American poet, writer, editor, critic, anthologist, translator, and children's author. He studied at Yale University and grew up in a remarkably literary family: he was the brother of writers Stephen Vincent Benét and Laura Benét.
Benét played an important part in American literary life in the first half of the twentieth century. He helped found the Saturday Review of Literature and became widely known for his long-running column The Phoenix Nest, where his enthusiasm for books and writers reached a broad audience. Alongside his editorial work, he wrote and edited more than thirty books.
Although he published poetry and prose in many forms, his reputation rests as much on his gift for encouraging literature as on his own writing. His work connected readers to new books, new voices, and the larger world of American letters until his death on May 4, 1950.