Helen Vendler

Helen Hennessy Vendler (born 1933) is a leading American critic of poetry. ["the leading poetry critic in America", according to a "New York Times" article. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html?ref=review] ]

Life and career

Vendler has written books on W. B. Yeats, Wallace Stevens, John Keats and Seamus Heaney. She is the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University, where she has had a position since 1981. She has taught at Smith and Boston University. She married (then later divorced) the philosopher Zeno Vendler with whom she had one son. In 1992 Vendler received a Litt. D. from Bates College.

Vendler did not major in English as an undergraduate. She earned an A.B. in chemistry at Emmanuel College. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for mathematics, before earning her Ph.D. in English & American Literature from Harvard.

Bibliography

*"Yeats's Vision and the Later Plays" (1963)
*"On Extended Wings: Wallace Stevens' Longer Poems," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENEXX.html Harvard University Press] (1969)
*"I. A. Richards: Essays in His Honor" (1973) editor with Reuben Brower and John Hollander
*"The Poetry of George Herbert," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENPOE.html Harvard University Press] (1975)
*"Part of Nature Part of Us: Modern American Poets," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENPAR.html Harvard University Press] (1980)
*"Modern American Poets" (1981)
*"Stevens: Poems" (1982)
*"The Odes of John Keats," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENODE.html Harvard University Press] (1983)
*"The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry," Harvard University Press (1985) editor
*"The Faber Book of Contemporary American Poetry" (1986)
*"Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen out of Desire," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENWAX.html Harvard University Press] (1986)
*"Voices and Visions: The Poet in America" (1987)
*"Music of What Happens: Poems, Poets, Critics," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENMUS.html Harvard University Press] (1988)
*"Poems by W. B. Yeats" Selected and with an introduction by Helen Vendler, ( [http://www.arionpress.com/catalog/031.htm] Arion Press (1990)
*"The Given and the Made: Strategies of Poetic Redefinition," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENGIV.html Harvard University Press] (1995)
*"Herman Melville: Selected Poems" selected and with an introduction by Helen Vendler, [http://www.arionpress.com/catalog/047.htm Arion Press] (1995)
*"John Keats, 1795-1995: With a Catalogue of the Harvard Keats Collection," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/WENJOH.html Harvard University Press] (1995) with Leslie A. Morris and William H. Bond
*"The Breaking of Style: Hopkins, Heaney, Graham," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENBRE.html Harvard University Press] (1995)
*"The Given and the Made: Strategies of Poetic Redefinition" (1995)
*"Poems - Poets - Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology" (1996)
*"Soul Says: On Recent Poetry," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENSOU.html Harvard University Press] (1996) essays
*"The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENART.html Harvard University Press] (1997)
*"Seamus Heaney," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENSEA.html Harvard University Press] (1998)
*"Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry" (2003) editor
*"Coming of Age as a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENCOM.html Harvard University Press] (2003)
*"Poets Thinking: Pope, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENPOT.html Harvard University Press] (2004)
*"Invisible Listeners: Lyric Intimacy in Herbert, Whitman, and Ashbery" (2005)
*"Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form," [http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/VENOUR.html Harvard University Press] (2007)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2008/2152350.htm] Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval on ABC Radio National The Book Show, 7 February 2008
* [http://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2004-05/criticscraft.html Conversation with Vendler (NEH)]
* [http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8016.html Invisible Listeners Book (Princeton University Press)]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html?ref=review&pagewanted=all "The Closest Reader." (New York Times Profile)]
* [http://www.nybooks.com/authors/184 Helen Vendler archive] from "The New York Review of Books"