John Brown's Body (poem)

First edition cover
(Doubleday, Doran)
Tyrone Power in the Broadway production directed by Charles Laughton (1953)

John Brown's Body (1928) is an epic American poem written by Stephen Vincent Benét. Its title references the radical abolitionist John Brown, who raided Harpers Ferry in Virginia in the fall of 1859. He was captured and hanged later that year. Benét's poem covers the history of the American Civil War.[1][2] It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1929.

The poem was performed on Broadway in 1953 in a staged dramatic reading starring Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson, and Raymond Massey, and directed by Charles Laughton. In 2015 it was announced that the recording of the performance will be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for the recording's "cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American society and the nation’s audio legacy".[3]

References

  1. ↑ Peterson, Merrill D. (2002). John Brown: The Legend Revisited. University of Virginia Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-8139-2132-7.
  2. ↑ Blight, David W. "John Brown: Triumphant Failure". The American Prospect. Retrieved 19 September 2010.
  3. ↑ "National Recording Registry To "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive"". the Library of Congress. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
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