Stephen Vincent Benet
Fountain Hill, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
STEPHEN / VINCENT BENET // This talented author was born here July 22, 1898; died in New York March 13, 1943. "John Brown's Body" and his other poems and stories give vivid expression to the best in American spirit and tradition.
The Story
In a house on this Fountain Hill hillside in 1898, the writer Stephen Vincent Benét was born into a literary family that would produce several published authors. He grew up steeped in books and history, and by the 1920s and '30s had become one of America's most celebrated poets and storytellers. His verse epic of the Civil War, "John Brown's Body," won wide acclaim for the way it wove ordinary soldiers, statesmen, and everyday Americans into a sweeping national portrait. He died in 1943, still in his prime, having spent his final years urging his countrymen to hold fast to their founding ideals.
Why it matters
Benét belongs to a generation of writers who tried to distill a shared American identity from the nation's own history, giving lasting literary voice to the Civil War and the democratic ideals it tested.
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