Steven Vincent Benet - Definition and Overview

Stephen Vincent Benét (July 22, 1898–March 13, 1943) was a United States author, poet, short story writer and novelist, best known for his narrative poem of the American Civil War, John Brown's Body (1928, awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1929), and for his fantasy short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster", which won an O. Henry award and furnished the material for a one-act opera by Douglas Moore.

Benét was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. A graduate of Yale University, he was awarded a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for "Western Star" (1943), an unfinished narrative poem on the settling of America.

His brother, William Rose Benét (1886–1950), was a poet, anthologist and critic who is largely remembered for his desk reference, The Reader's Cyclopedia (1948), which remains useful.