Laura Benét (13 June 1884 – 17 February 1979), was an American

social worker Social work is an academic discipline and practice-based profession concerned with meeting the basic needs of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society as a whole to enhance their individual and collective well-being. Social work ...

, biographer and newspaper editor.

Early life and education

Laura Benét was born at Fort Hamilton,

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, on June 13, 1884. Her brothers, the writer

William Rose Benét William Rose Benét (February 2, 1886 – May 4, 1950) was an American poet, writer, and editor. He was the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét. Early life and education He was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Col. James Walker Benét a ...

and the poet Stephen Vincent Benét, both won 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 ...

. She graduated from the

Emma Willard School The Emma Willard School, originally called Troy Female Seminary and often referred to simply as Emma, is an independent university-preparatory day and boarding school for young women, located in Troy, New York, on Mount Ida, offering grades 9–1 ...

in 1903 and, four years later, from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

with an

A.B. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree.

Career

Benét was a settlement worker in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from 1913 to 1916 and then became an inspector for the Red Cross Sanitary Commission]during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After the war, she returned home in 1919 to help care for her brother William's three children after the death of his first wife, Teresa Thompson, sister of the novelist Kathleen Thompson Norris, during the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

. Benét occasionally wrote for the '' Literary Review'' and then began writing biographies for children and adults while working as a newspaper editor for ''

The New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American online newspaper published in Manhattan; from 2002 to 2008 it was a daily newspaper distributed in New York City. It debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of the earlier New York ...

'' and ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. She mostly wrote literary biographies, including ones on both of her brothers, and also compiled biographies like ''Famous English and American Essayists''. She wrote her memoir, ''When William Rose, Stephen Vincent, and I Were Young'', in 1976.

Death

Benét died in New York on February 17, 1979.Scanlon & Cosner, pp. 16–17 She is buried at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

with her parents, U.S. Army Colonel James Walker Benét (1857-1928) and Frances Neill Rose Benét (1860-1940).

Selected works

* ''Fairy Bread'', 1921 * ''Noah's Dove'', 1929 * ''Goods And Chattels'', 1930 * ''Basket for a Fair'', 1934 * ''The Boy Shelley'', 1937 * ''Caleb's Luck'', 1938 * ''The Hidden Valley'', 1938 * ''Enchanting Jenny Lind'', 1939 * ''Roxana Rampant'', 1940 * ''Young Edgar Allan Poe'', 1941 * ''Come Slowly, Eden'', 1942 * ''Washington Irving: Explorer of American Legend'', 1944 * ''Is Morning Sure?'', 1947 * ''Thackeray of the Great Heart and Humorous Pen'', 1947 * ''Barnum's First Circus and Other Stories'', 1949 * ''Famous American Poets'', 1950 * ''Coleridge: Poet of Wild Enchantment'', 1952 * ''Stanley: Invincible Explorer'', 1955 * ''In Love With Time: Poems'', 1959 * ''Famous American Humorists'', 1959 * ''Famous Poets for Young People'', 1964 * ''Horseshoe Nails'', 1965 * ''Famous English and American Essayists'', 1966 * ''Famous Biographies for Young People'', 1966 * ''Washington Irving: Explorer Of American Legend'', 1966 * ''Famous New England Authors'', 1970 * ''The Mystery of Emily Dickinson'', 1973 * ''Bridge of a Single Hair: A Book of Poems'', 1974 * ''When William Rose, Stephen Vincent, and I Were Young'', 1976

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benét, Laura 1884 births 1979 deaths Vassar College alumni 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 20th-century American women writers Emma Willard School alumni