Category: Stephen Vincent Benét

Stephen Vincent Benét’s Short Story, ‘By the Waters of Babylon’: Fatal Forward Progress

Today we continually build more buildings, update new electronics, create better platforms, invent different cars. We seem to be dominated by a craze for continual forward progress, keeping ourselves forever busy. How often do we pause this frenetic forward motion to consider where we are heading? Two years before World War II and as the…


Stephen Vincent Benét’s Essay, ‘Freedom From Fear’: Author Illuminates Norman Rockwell’s Painting, ‘Freedom From Fear’

In 1943, The Saturday Evening Post commissioned the eminent American poet Stephen Vincent Benét to write an essay to accompany Norman Rockwell’s painting “Freedom From Fear.” In Rockwell’s painting, we see a husband and wife tucking their son and daughter into bed. This picture seems to represent safety and comfort. The children look peaceful in…