John Brown's Body: Stephen Vincent Benet. Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928. [Review]

John Brown's Body: Stephen Vincent Benet. Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928. [Review]

The Messenger Vol. 55, No. 3 February , 1929

Page 19 (1 of 2)

The poem "John Brown's Body" was written by Stephen Vincent Benet in 1928 and is described in a book review by a Richmond College student. John Brown was an abolitionist who eventually was hanged for his assistance in freeing slaves and especially for his involvement in the Harper's Ferry raid in 1859. The poem was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1929, which is a possible reason that the student decided to review the poem. It was later performed as one performance staged dramatic reading and recorded and entered into the "Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the recording's 'cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy'" in 2015. The student conducting the review described the poem as having "brought back the days of the Civil War in a style which is reminiscent of the old South itself. Every line breathes romanticism, heroism, courage, and chivalry. His portrait of Lee particularly is a fine work..." indicating the celebratory memories of those who supported the confederacy of the Antebellum South during the Civil War. For many Southerners, there was a feeling of romantic nostalgia of the easy and elegant times of the plantation era, something which many Confederates hoped to return to one day.

Virginia Baptist Historical Society

Richmond, VA

1929

Caroline Weber