Helen Hennessy Vendler (born April 30, 1933) is an American literary critic and is Porter University Professor Emerita at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

Life and career

Helen Hennessy Vendler was born on April 30, 1933, in Boston, Massachusetts, to George Hennessy and Helen Hennessy. She was the second of three children. Her parents encouraged her to read poems as a child. Vendler's father taught Spanish, French, and italian at a high school, while her mother had taught in a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

before marriage. Vendler attended Emmanuel College over the Boston Girls' Latin School and

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and h ...

because her parents would not let her enroll in "secular education". She received an A. B. from Emmanuel. Vendler was awarded a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

, attending the Université catholique de Louvain from 1954 to 1955, for mathematics. But while traveling to the university, she decided that she would rather study English than math and the Fulbright commission allowed her to switch her focus to literature. Upon returning to the U.S., Vendler took 12 undergraduate courses in English at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original cam ...

in a year and in 1956 entered

as a graduate student in English. The department's chair told her within a week of entry that "we don't want any women here", while

Perry Miller Perry Gilbert Eddy Miller (February 25, 1905 – December 9, 1963) was an American intellectual historian and a co-founder of the field of American Studies. Miller specialized in the history of early America, and took an active role in a revi ...

refused her entry in a seminar he led on

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are '' Moby-Dick'' (1851); '' Typee'' (1846), a ...

despite viewing her has his "finest student", according to ''The New York Times''. Other Harvard professors offered her more support, notably I. A. Richards. Vendler was offered a job teaching in Harvard's English department in 1959, making her the first woman the department offered a job as an instructor. She declined. Vendler graduated with a Ph.D. in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and

American literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...

the next year. She began teaching English at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1960, after her husband at the time, Zeno Vendler, moved teach there. She left Cornell in 1963 and spent several years at various other institutions, including a year (1963-1964) teaching at

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), began accepting non-Quakers in 1849, and became coeducationa ...

and

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as ...

, two years (1964-1966) as an assistant professor at Boston University, and another two (1966-1968) as full professor. Vendler spent a year as a Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Bordeaux. After this, she was Boston University's director of graduate studies in the English department from 1970 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1979. Vendler has been a professor of English at Harvard University since 1984; from 1981 to 1984 she taught alternating semesters at Harvard and Boston University.Joel A. Getz
"Vendler Accepts English Dept. Appointment,"
''

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than a ...

'', December 10, 1984. She has said that she retained her affiliation with BU for several years to ensure that she wasn't "some little token person" at Harvard. In 1985, Vendler was named the William R. Kenan Professor of English and American Literature and Language. From 1987 to 1992, she served as associate dean of arts and sciences. In 1990, she was appointed the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor, the first woman to hold this position. In 1992, Vendler received an honorary Litt. D. from Bates College. Vendler delivered the 2000 Warton Lecture on English Poetry. In 2004, the

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

selected her for the Jefferson Lecture, the federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities.Jefferson Lecturers
at NEH Website (retrieved January 22, 2009). Her lecture, "The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar", used poems by

Wallace Stevens Wallace Stevens (October 2, 1879 – August 2, 1955) was an American modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and spent most of his life working as an executive for an insurance compa ...

to argue for the role of the arts (as opposed to history and philosophy) in the study of humanities. In 2006, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called Vendler "the leading poetry critic in America" and credited her work with helping "establish or secure the reputations" of poets including

Jorie Graham Jorie Graham (; born May 9, 1950) is an American poet. The Poetry Foundation called Graham "one of the most celebrated poets of the American post-war generation." She replaced poet Seamus Heaney as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at ...

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

, and Rita Dove. Vendler has written books on Emily Dickinson,

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculos ...

, and

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

. She is a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters ( no, Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway. History The Royal Frederick Unive ...

, the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

, and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. She has also been a judge for the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1974, 1976, 1978, 1986) and the National Book Award for Poetry (1972).

Personal life

Helen Vendler was married to Zeno Vendler from 1960 to 1963; the couple had one child.

Bibliography

*''Yeats's Vision and the Later Plays'' (1963) *''On Extended Wings: Wallace Stevens' Longer Poems,'
Harvard University Press
(1969) *''I. A. Richards: Essays in His Honor'' (1973) editor with Reuben Brower and

John Hollander John Hollander (October 28, 1929 – August 17, 2013) was an American poet and literary critic. At the time of his death, he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University, having previously taught at Connecticut College, Hunter ...

*''The Poetry of George Herbert,'
Harvard University Press
(1975) *''Part of Nature, Part of Us: Modern American Poets,'
Harvard University Press
(1980) * "What We have Loved, Others Will Love" (1980) *''Modern American Poets'' (1981) *''Stevens: Poems'' (1982) *''The Odes of John Keats,'
Harvard University Press
(1983) *''The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry,''

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retir ...

(1985) editor *''The Faber Book of Contemporary American Poetry'' (1986) *''Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen out of Desire,'
Harvard University Press
(1986) *''Voices and Visions: The Poet in America'' (1987) *''The Music of What Happens: Poems, Poets, Critics,'
Harvard University Press
(1988) *''Poems by W. B. Yeats'' Selected and with an introduction by Helen Vendler

, Arion Press (1990) *''The Given and the Made: Strategies of Poetic Redefinition,'
Harvard University Press
(1995) *''Herman Melville: Selected Poems'' selected and with an introduction by Helen Vendler

(1995) *''John Keats, 1795–1995: With a Catalogue of the Harvard Keats Collection,'
Harvard University Press
(1995) with Leslie A. Morris and William H. Bond *''The Breaking of Style:

Hopkins Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". ''Hob'' was a diminutive of ''Robert'', itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name ''Hrod-berht'', translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spe ...

, Heaney, Graham,'
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,'
Harvard University Press
(1996) essays *''The Art of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's Sonnets,'
Harvard University Press
(1997) *''Seamus Heaney,'
Harvard University Press
(1998) *''Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry'' (2003) editor *''Coming of Age as a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath'
Harvard University Press
2003) *''Poets Thinking:

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, Whitman, Dickinson, Yeats,'
Harvard University Press
(2004) *''Invisible Listeners: Lyric Intimacy in Herbert, Whitman, and Ashbery'' (2005) *''Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form,'
Harvard University Press
(2007) *''Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill'' (2010) *
Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries
(2010) *''The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry'' (2015)

Notes

External links

* ttp://www.nybooks.com/authors/184 Helen Vendler author page and archivefrom ''

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

''
Vendler audio interview on the friendship and correspondence
between poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell *
Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 22, 2003.
Audio file 1 hr 20 mins. Discussion on

and poetic forms
'The Finite Furnished with the Infinite'
review of ''Dickinson'' in '' The Oxonian Review'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Vendler, Helen Hennessy 1933 births Living people American literary critics Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Harvard University faculty Emmanuel College (Massachusetts) alumni Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Women literary critics American women non-fiction writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers American women academics American women critics Members of the American Philosophical Society Presidents of the Modern Language Association