John Brown's Body (original 1965; edition 1929)

by Stephen Vincent Benet

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887	14	24,112	(3.78)	58
One of the most widely read poems of our time--a masterful retelling of the American Civil War. Magnificently readable. --New Statesman

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Member:	gslib
Title:	John Brown's Body
Authors:	Stephen Vincent Benet
Info:	Doubleday & Company Inc. (1929), Hardcover
Collections:	Your library
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Work Information

John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét (1965)

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10
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane (jrgoetziii)
jrgoetziii: Both are Civil War stories and Crane loved the Homeric epics. They go together.

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Booker Prize Shortlist: Titles Not Yet Read (32)

Booker Prize (478)

Man Booker Prize Longlist 1970 (2)

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Book Titles Mentioned In Newberry Medal And Honor Books (214)

Publisher's Weekly NON-Fiction list - 1912 - 1975 (117)

Best Books of 1926-1935 (72)

1964 College Preparatory Reading List (154)

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▾Member reviews

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Showing 1-5 of 14 (next | show all)

Never going to read this, but the $10 purchase from Wm James Books in Port Townsend is well justified by the John Steuart Curry illustrations. (

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kcshankd | Feb 5, 2024 |

This is one I don't recall, except rembering I enjoyed it. (

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mykl-s | Nov 25, 2022 |

4/14/22

laplantelibrary | Apr 14, 2022 |

A remarkable poem. Some of it feels very modern, and other parts seem anachronistic even for the time it was written, but always the poem is unexpected in the way these events and these people are portrayed. This poem is one of the few things I've read about the civil war that transcends the expected and manages to make human again an event that has become almost hopelessly entwined with the apocryphal. (

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poingu | Jan 23, 2016 |

An amazing piece of work - to write an epic poem which encompasses the entire Civil War. It was surprising readable and very interesting. I can't imagine how Benet put it all together. Did he write it in chronological order or in bits and pieces and then cobbled it together? Did he maybe write the battles first and then decide on the characters he was going to use to connect them and then write their parts? An immense accomplishment. (

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whymaggiemay | Dec 5, 2015 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Stephen Vincent Benét	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Canby, Henry Seidel	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Chappell, Warren	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Freeman, Douglas Southall	Introduction	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Kredel, Fritz	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Moser, Barry	Illustrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Is abridged in

The Ethnic Image in Modern American Literature, 1900-1950 by Philip Butcher

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Pulitzer Prize (Winner – Poetry – 1929)

Distinctions

Publishers Weekly Bestseller (nonfiction – 1929)

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Canonical title

John Brown's Body

Original title

Alternative titles

Original publication date

1965

1927-1928

People/Characters

Jack Tomelty

John Brown, abolitionist

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

To my mother and to the memory of my father

First words

Marise saw at once that this place was far behind Plummer Court.

American muse, whose strong and diverse heart
So many men have tried to understand
But only made it smaller with their art,
Because you are as varied as your land,...

Note: As this is a poem, not a history, it has seemed unnecessary to me to encumber it with notes, bibliography, and other historical apparatus.

Introduction: The Civil War is a sword cut across American history.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

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Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

Canonical LCC

▾References

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Wikipedia in English (1)

John Brown's Body (poem)

▾Book descriptions

One of the most widely read poems of our time--a masterful retelling of the American Civil War. Magnificently readable. --New Statesman

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Book description

From the book cover:
"Marise Tomelty is a child-wife who dislikes sex and is terrified of open spaces. Ralph Shilling, a dealer in pesticides, lives in the flat above the Tomeltys'. One day, Marise's traveling-salesman husband casually mentions that he recognizes Ralph as John Brown, the suspect who, for lack of evidence, was acquitted in an actrocious double murder. Nevertheless, Marise encourages Ralph's attentions, intoxicated by a heady mix of passion and fear. In this shrewdly-observed novel, A.L. Barker explores the tug between body and soul, life and death, truth and fantasy."

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