Stephen Vincent Benét, the Poetic Phantom of Yale University Press

One alumni ghost is Stephen Vincent Benét (1898-1943) who in life and in death is devoted to his alma mater.  He received both a B.A. and M.A. from the college.  His master’s thesis was unique – the third volume of poetry that he published.  He was Yale University Press’s first judge of its famous poetry competition.

Stephen Vincent Benét is best known for his book-length narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown’s Body (1928), for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1929, and for two short stories, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” (1936) and “By the Waters of Babylon” (1937).

Apparently, he is still on the job at Yale University Press at 302 Temple Street because his successors as the poetry judge report their papers at their desks now and then are disturbed as if someone is reviewing what they have commented on.  He is an up-to-date ghost who even turns on and off the computers!

Ghosts of New Haven Blog 24 Stephen Vincent Benét, the Poetic Phantom of Yale University Press © 2019 by Philip Ernest Schoenberg, Ghost with a Blog # Ghost