Helen Smith Bevington (1906 – March 16, 2001) was an American poet, prose writer, and educator. Her most noted book, ''Charley Smith's Girl'' (1965), was "banned by the library in the small town of Worcester, N.Y., where she grew up, because the book tells of her minister father's having been divorced by her mother for affairs that he was carrying on with younger female parishioners."

Life and works

Born in

Afton, New York Afton is a town in Chenango County, New York, United States. The population was 2,851 at the 2010 census. Afton is situated in the southeast corner of the county and lies wholly within the original Township of Clinton. It was formed from the to ...

, Bevington was reared in

Worcester, New York Worcester is a town in Otsego County, New York, United States. The population was 2,220 at the 2010 census. Worcester is on the southeastern border of the county and is northeast of Oneonta. The Worcester Central School District presently has 36 ...

, where her father was a Methodist minister. She attended the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

and earned a degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. She proceeded to write a thesis about

Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and hi ...

, earning a master's degree in English from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. In 1928, she married Merle M. Bevington (1900–64). The couple travelled abroad, returning in 1929 in response to the

Stock Market Crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

. Both Bevingtons taught English at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

starting in the 1940s, Helen retiring in 1976. They had two sons: the elder,

David Bevington David Martin Bevington (May 13, 1931 – August 2, 2019) was an American literary scholar. He was the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and in English Language, English Language & Literature, Comparative ...

, was a pre-eminent Shakespeare scholar until his death in 2019; the second son, Philip, died in the 1980s. In addition to her 12 books of poetry and essays, Bevington's work appeared in ''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' and ''

The American Scholar "The American Scholar" was a speech given by Ralph Waldo Emerson on August 31, 1837, to the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College at the First Parish in Cambridge in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was invited to speak in recognition of his gr ...

''. Bevington was a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

, a

diarist A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

, and an

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

. She was also a winner of the Roanoke-Chowan Award for Poetry (1956) and the Mayflower Cup (1974) both given by the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association; and the North Carolina Award for Literature (1973). ''Charley Smith's Girl'' (1965) was runner-up for the

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

. Helen Bevington died on March 16, 2001, in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Bibliography

* ''Dr. Johnson’s Waterfall, and Other Poems''. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1946 * ''Nineteen Million Elephants, and Other Poems''. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1950 * ''A Change of Sky, and Other Poems''. Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 1956 * ''When Found, Make a Verse of''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1961 * ''Charley Smith’s Girl: A Memoir''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1965 * ''A Book & A Love Affair''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968 * ''The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971 * ''Beautiful Lofty People''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974 * ''Along Came the Witch: A Journal in the 1960s''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976. * ''The Journey Is Everything: A Journal of the Seventies''. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1983 * ''The World and the Bo Tree''. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1991 * ''The Third and Only Way: Reflections on Staying Alive''. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1996

References

External links

Helen Bevington Poems
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bevington, Helen Poets from New York (state) University of Chicago alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Duke University faculty 1906 births 2001 deaths American diarists American humorous poets American women poets 20th-century American poets People from Afton, New York People from Worcester, New York American women memoirists American women essayists 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American essayists Women diarists 20th-century American memoirists American women academics 20th-century diarists