Laura Benet – Military Daughter & Author

Born at Fort Hamilton, New York, on June 1, 1884, the daughter of Colonel James Walker and Frances Neill Rose Benet. She graduated from the Emma Willard School, Troy, New York; received a B.A. degree from Vassar College, 1907; Litt.D degree from Moravian College, Bethelem, Pennsylvania.

She worked as a settlement worker at the Spring Street Settlement in New York City, 1915-17; placement worker at the Children’s Aid Society, New York City, 1917; sanitary inspector, American Red Cross, Augusta, Georgia, 1917-19; worker at St. Bartholomew’s House, 1924-25; secretary and assistant book page editor, New York Evening Post, 1927-28; editorial department at the New York Sun, 1928-29; book review editor’s assistant and book review substitute, the New York Times, summer of 1930; and a free-lancewriter from 1930 until her death.

She received a medal as an honor poet, National Poetry Center, 1936. Her poems were recorded at the Library of Congress in 1958. She was a Democrat and an Episcopalian. She was the author of: Fair Bred (poems), 1921; Noah’s Dove (poems), 1929; Goods and Chattels (fiction), 1930; A Basket For A Fair (poems), 1934; The Boy Shelley (biography), 1937; The Hidden Valley (fiction),1938; Enchanting Jenny Lind (biography), 1939; Roxana Ramphant (fiction), 1940; Young Edgar Allen Poe (biography), 1941; Come Slowly, Eden: A Novel About Emily Dickinson, 1942; Caleb’s Luck (for children), 1942; Washington Irving, Explorer of American Legend, 1944; Is Morning Sure (poems), 1947; Thackeray of the Great Heart and Humorous Pen (biography), 1947; Barnum’s First Circus and Other Stories (for children), 1949; Famous American Poets, 1950; Coleridge, Poet of Wild Enchantment, 1952; Stanley, Invincible Explorer (biography), 1955; Famous American Humourists, 1959; In Love With Time (poems), 1959; Horseshoe Nails, 1965; Famous Poets for Young People, 1964; Famous English and American Essayists, 1966; Famous Storytellers, 1968; Famous New England Poets, 1970; Introductions To Classics, Verse to Periodicals. A member of the Poetry Society Association, Women Poets Ctaftsmen P.E.N. Club and Brush Club (honorary).

She lived in New York City and died on February 17, 1979 and was buried with her parents in Section 6 of Arlington National Cemetery.

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