Ben Belitt

Infobox Writer
name = Ben Belitt


imagesize = 200px
caption =Ben Belitt in 1999
birthdate = birth date|1911|5|2|mf=y
birthplace = New York City, New York
deathdate = death date and age|2003|8|17|1911|5|2
deathplace =
occupation = Poet, Translator

Ben Belitt (born New York, May 2, 1911 - Bennington, Vermont, August 17, 2003) was an American poet and translator. Besides writing poetry, he also translated several books of poetry by Pablo Neruda and Federico García Lorca from Spanish to English. [ [http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/memoriam_sp04.html In Memoriam ] ] [ [http://www.linnbenton.edu/library/latinamerican3.htm Latin American Titles in English ] ]

Life

Ben Belitt was born in New York City. He was educated at the University of Virginia, receiving a B.A. in 1932 and an M.A. in 1934, and he was a doctoral student at that university from 1934 to 1936. By the early 1940s he had taken up an appointment at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, where he remained for the rest of his life. A bachelor, he became a good friend of the dancer (and fellow teacher at Bennington) Bill Bales, of his wife, the actress Jo Van Fleet, and of their son, Michael Bales, and regularly spent the important holidays of the year with this family at Bennington or in New York City.

Career

Belitt was the author of eight books of poems; his complete poems, "This Scribe, My Hand", was published in 1998 by Louisiana State University Press. [ [http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/memoriam_sp04.html In Memoriam ] ] He wrote two books of essays and over thirteen books of translations. He taught for many decades at Bennington College. After retiring from Bennington College, he continued to live in North Bennington and held the position of Professor Emeritus of Language and Literature at the college. He died in Bennington on August 17, 2003, at the age of 92 and was buried in Manchester, Vermont.

His papers are held by the University of Virginia. [http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/uva-sc/viu01986.frame]

Influence

The 1962 ballet "A Look at Lightning", by the American choreographer Martha Graham, was titled after a poem by Belitt.

Books

As author

*Belitt, Ben (1998). "This scribe, my hand: The Complete Poems of Ben Belitt". Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press. ISBN 0807123242. ISBN 0807123234.

As translator

*García Lorca, Federico (1963). "Joy of the Day"
*García Lorca, Federico (1964). "Ode to Salvador"
*Neruda, Pablo (1961). "Selected Poems" Edited and translated by Ben Belitt. Introduction by Luis Monguio.
*Neruda, Pablo (1963). "Poems for the Mind"

Recordings

*c. 1965 - Belitt, Ben. "The Poetry of Ben Belitt". Recorded at the Poetry Center of the New York YM-YWHA in November 1965. Audio cassette. Audio Forum series. New York: Jeffrey Norton.

References

Awards

*1937: Belitt shared the Shelley Memorial Award for Poetry for 1936-1937 with Charlotte Wilder.

External links

* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00182168(197408)54%3A3%3C550%3ANP1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D Ben Belitt Translations]
* [http://s50780.sites40.storefront-hosting.com/detail.aspx?ID=852 The Complete Poems of Ben Belitt]
* [http://www.poetrysociety.org/journal/articles/memoriam_sp04.html Ben Belitt tribute]
* [http://reginaldshepherd.blogspot.com/2007/01/in-memoriam-ben-belitt-1911-2003.html In Memoriam: Ben Belitt, 1911-2003]
* [http://godine.com/isbn.asp?isbn=0879236264 Richard Eberhart, New York Times Book Review]
* [http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/published/uva-sc/viu01986.frame Ben Belitt Papers] at University of Virginia