Robert Silliman Hillyer (June 3, 1895 – December 24, 1961) was an American

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and professor of English literature. He won a

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for poetry in 1934.

Early life

Hillyer was born in

East Orange, New Jersey East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 69,612, an increase of 5,342 (+8.3%) from the 2010 United States ...

to an old Connecticut family. He attended Kent School in

Kent, Connecticut Kent is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located alongside the border with New York (state), New York, the town's population was 3,019 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The town is part of the Northwe ...

. After high school, he attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, graduating

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

in 1917. While there, he was the editor of the literary magazine '' The Harvard Advocate, and was'' affiliated with the group known as the Harvard Aesthetes. When

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

began, he went to

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and volunteered for the Norton-Harjes Ambulance Corps, along with Harvard classmate

John Dos Passos John Roderigo Dos Passos (; January 14, 1896 – September 28, 1970) was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. (trilogy), ''U.S.A.'' trilogy. Born in Chicago, Dos Passos graduated from Harvard College in 1916. He traveled widely as a ...

. Once the United States entered the war, he joined the American forces. After serving as an ambulance driver, Hillyer later returned to France to work in the US Ordnance Department. After the Armistice, Hillyer worked as a military courier for the 1919 peace conference in Paris. For a while Hillyer and

shared a flat in Paris and even collaborated on an unpublished novel which they called "Great Novel" (or "G.N.", or "Seven Times round the Walls of Jericho"). Eventually the novel was abandoned in 1921 even though Dos Passos said that Hillyer's contributions had "genuineness" and "more ''tone'' than mine."

Career

Academic

Hillyer became a professor of English at

in 1919. In the late 1920s, he taught at Trinity College and was made a member of the Epsilon chapter of the literary fraternity

St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. The fraternity is a non–religious, nonsectar ...

in 1927. From 1937 to 1944, he was named to the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard. From 1948 to 1951 Hillyer was a visiting

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Kenyon College Kenyon College ( ) is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1824 by Episcopal Bishop Philander Chase. It is the oldest private instituti ...

. He also taught at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

from 1952 until his death. While at Delaware Hillyer did various regular poetry readings between 1953-1960 which were recorded and are now available for listening through the university's archives. Over his academic life, Hillyer taught a number of writers (and poets) who later became well-known such as Theodore Roethke, James Gould Cozzens,

Howard Nemerov Howard Nemerov (February 29, 1920 – July 5, 1991) was an American poet. Nemerov was the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of English and Distinguished Poet in Residence at Washington University in St. Louis. He was twice ...

James Agee James Rufus Agee ( ; November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was an American novelist, journalist, poet, screenwriter and film critic. In the 1940s, writing for ''Time'', he was one of the most influential film critics in the United States. His autob ...

Norman Mailer Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American writer, journalist and filmmaker. In a career spanning more than six decades, Mailer had 11 best-selling books, at least ...

Robert Fitzgerald Robert Stuart Fitzgerald (12 October 1910 – 16 January 1985) was an American poet, literary critic and translator whose renderings of the Greek classics "became standard works for a generation of scholars and students".Mitgang, Herbert (Januar ...

and John Simon.

Poet

In 1919, Hillyer described himself as “a conservative and religious poet in a radical and blasphemous age." In 1934, he received a

Pulitzer Prize for Poetry The Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually for Letters, Drama, and Music. The award came five years after the first Pulitzers were awarded in other categories; Joseph Pulitzer's will had not ment ...

for his book ''The Collected Verse of Robert Hillyer''. His work is in meter and often rhyme and he tended to write about death, love and nature. He is known for his sonnets and for poems such as "Theme and Variations" (on his war experiences) and the light "Letter to Robert Frost." He became president of the Conservative Poetry Society of America. In this capacity, he attacked modernist poets such as

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

Awards and honors

for "Collected Verse" in 1934. * He was named to the Boylston Professorship of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University in 1937. * His papers are housed at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

Works

Poetry

* ''Pre-Pulitzer Poetry'' (Ebook, Personville Press, 2023). Includes the full text of 6 poetry books published by Hillyer before winning the Pulitzer Prize. * ''The Collected Poems'' (Alfred Knopf, 1961) * '' The Relic & Other Poems'' (Knopf, 1957). * ''The Suburb by the Sea: New Poems'' (Knopf, 1952) * ''The Death of Captain Nemo: A Narrative Poem'' (A.A. Knopf, 1949) * ''Poems for Music, 1917–1947''. (1947) * ''Pattern of a Day'' (1940) * ''In a Time of Mistrust'' (1939) * ''A Letter to Robert Frost and Others (1937)''. * '' The Collected Verse of Robert Hillyer''. (A. A. Knoft, 1933) * '' The Gates of the Compass: A Poem in Four Parts Together with Twenty-Two Shorter Pieces'' (Viking Press, 1930) * '' The Seventh Hill'' (Viking Press, 1928) * ''The Halt in the Garden'' (Elkin Matthews,1925) * ''The Coming Forth by Day: An Anthology of Poems from the Egyptian Book of the Dead'' (B.J. Brimmer Company, 1923) *
Hills Give Promise, a Volume of Lyrics, Together with Carmus: A Symphonic Poem
' (B.J. Brimmer Company, 1923) * '' Alchemy: A Symphonic Poem'' (Brentano's, 1920) * '' The Five Books of Youth'' (Brentano's, 1920) * Sonnets and Other Lyrics (Harvard University Press, 1917) * '' Eight Harvard Poets'' (1917), which included works by E. E. Cummings and

Novels

*
Riverhead
' (Alfred Knopf, 1932) *
My Heart for Hostage
' (Random House, 1942) In 2022 this novel was digitized and made available for free download by Personville Press.

Criticism and scholarship

* ''In Pursuit of Poetry'' (McGraw-Hill, 1960)* * '' First Principles of Verse.'' (The Writer, Inc., 1938). * '' Some Roots of English Poetry'' (Wheaton College Press, 1933)

Editor and/or translator

* * Kahlil Gibran. ''A Tear and a Smile''. Introduction by Robert Hillyer. (A. A. Knopf, 1959). * ''Eight More Harvard Poets''. Edited by Samuel Foster Damon and Robert Hillyer. (Brentano, 1923)Damon, S. Foster, Robert Hillyer, Dorian Abbott, Norman Cabot, Grant Code, Malcolm Cowley, Jack Mereten, Joel T. Rogers, Royall H. Snow, and John Brooks. 1923.
Eight more Harvard poets
'.
Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne and The Complete Poetry of William Blake
Introduction by Robert Hillyer, Random House: New York, 1941. pages xv-lv.

Personal

In 1926, he married Dorothy Hancock Tilton. They had one son, but divorced in 1943. He was 66 when he died in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

References

External links

* Robert Hillyer: '' Recordings of Poets Reading their Own Poems'' *
MSS 0696 - University of Delaware audio recordings of poetry readings
Audio of various poetry readings Hillyer gave between 1953-1960.
Digital Works by Robert Hillyer on Project Gutenberg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillyer, Robert 1895 births 1961 deaths Kent School alumni Harvard University alumni Harvard Advocate alumni American Field Service personnel of World War I 20th-century American poets Danish–English translators 20th-century American translators Harvard University faculty Trinity College (Connecticut) faculty St. Anthony Hall Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners Kenyon College faculty University of Delaware faculty Writers from East Orange, New Jersey