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When Stephen Vincent Benet died in 1943 at the age of 44, all of America mourned the loss. Benet was one of the country's most well known poets of the first half of the twentieth century and as a fiction writer, he had an even larger audience. This book is a collection of essays celebrating Benet and his writing. The first group of essays addresses Benet's life, times, and personal relationships. Thomas Carr Benet reminisces about his father in the first essay, and others consider Benet's marriage to his wife Rosemary; Archibald MacLeish, Thornton Wilder and Benet as friends, liberal humanists and public activists; and his friendships with Philip Barry, Jed Harris, and Thornton Wilder. The second group contains essays about Benet's poetry, fiction, and drama. They discuss Benet's role in the development of historical poetry in America, John Brown's Body and the Civil War, Hawthorne, Benet and historical fiction, Benet's Faustian America, the adaptation of "The Devil and Daniel Webster" to drama and then to film, Benet's use of fantasy and science fiction, and Benet as a dramatist for stage, screen and radio.
A critical analysis of Ben.
This Is A New Release Of The Original 1918 Edition.
Biography of the author as a person, with few critical references to his work.
THE STORY: Jabez Stone, young farmer, has just been married, and the guests are dancing at his wedding. But Jabez carries a burden, for he knows that, having sold his soul to the Devil, he must, on the stroke of midnight, deliver it up to him. Shortly before twelve Mr. Scratch, lawyer, enters and the company is thunderstruck. Jabez bids his guests begone; he has made his bargain and will pay the price. His bride, however, stands by him, and so will Daniel Webster, who has come for the festivities. Webster takes the case. But Scratch is a lawyer himself and out-argues the statesman. Webster demands a jury of real Americans, living or dead. Very well, agrees the Devil, he shall have them, and ghosts appear. Webster thunders, but to no avail, and at last realizing Scratch can better him on technical grounds, he changes his tactics and appeals to the ghostly jury, men who have retained some love of country. Rising to the height of his powers, Webster performs the miracle of winning a verdict of Not Guilty.