Helen Vendler
American poetry critic (1933–2024) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Helen Vendler (née Hennessy; April 30, 1933 – April 23, 2024) was an American academic, writer and literary critic. She was a professor of English language and history at Boston University, Cornell, Harvard, and other universities. Her academic focus was critical analysis of poetry and she studied poets from Shakespeare and George Herbert to modern poets such as Wallace Stevens and Seamus Heaney. Her technique was close reading, which she described as "reading from the point of view of a writer".[1]
Helen Vendler | |
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Born | Helen Hennessy (1933-04-30)April 30, 1933 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Died | April 23, 2024(2024-04-23) (aged 90) |
Occupation | Professor |
Spouse | Zeno Vendler (m. 1960 div. 1963) |
Children | 1 |
Awards | Fulbright Scholarship, 1954
James Russell Lowell Prize of the Modern Language Association (MLA), 1969 American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, 1970 Metcalf Cup & Prize, Boston University, 1975 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism, 1980 Charles Homer Haskins Lecture, American Council of Learned Societies, 2001 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2004 Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2013 Gold Medal for Belles Lettres and Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2023 |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Emmanuel College (AB) Harvard University (PhD) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | English |
Sub-discipline | Poetics |
Institutions | Harvard University Boston University Cornell University Swarthmore College Smith College |
Main interests | Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, John Keats, Seamus Heaney, Wallace Stevens, W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare |
Vendler reviewed poetry regularly for periodicals including The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. She was also a regular judge for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize and so was influential in determining writers' reputation and success.[1]