Richard B. Sewall

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Richard Benson Sewall
Born(1908-02-11)February 11, 1908
Albany, New York
DiedApril 16, 2003(2003-04-16) (aged 95)
Newton, Massachusetts[1]
Alma materPhillips Exeter Academy
Williams College
Yale University (Ph.D)
Spouse
Mathilde Parmelee
​
​
(m. 1940; died 1974)​
[1]
Scientific career
InstitutionsClark University
Yale University


Richard Benson Sewall (11 February 1908 – 16 April 2003) was a professor of English at Yale University, and author of the influential works The Life of Emily Dickinson and The Vision of Tragedy.

He was born in

Rochester Theological Seminary.[2]

Sewall attended

William F. Buckley, Calvin Trillin, and Bob Woodward.[3][a]

He was popular with both the students he taught and those he dealt with in his various administrative roles, which included stints as a member of the Committee on Manners and Morals and as first master of

Kingman Brewster to take a conciliatory rather than oppositional approach to campus demonstrations. One of Yale's awards named for him, the Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize, is presented each year to the professor who "has given the most time, energy and effective effort" to educating undergraduates.[4]

The Life of Emily Dickinson, published in 1974, won the U.S. National Book Award in Biography.[5] It dispelled many myths about the poet, especially her depiction as the "Nun of Amherst," a neurotic lovelorn woman too fragile for the world who turned to poetry as solace for an unhappy life. However, as Sewall was named the executor of Millicent Todd's estate and worked significantly from her papers, the biography has been criticized by Dickinson biographer Lyndall Gordon as being too influenced by the image of Dickinson created by Mabel Loomis and Millicent Todd,[clarification needed] supposedly passing along a skewed perspective of Emily and Susan Dickinson.[6]

Further reading

Notes

  1. ^ He succeeded Professor William Lyon ("Billy") Phelps as teacher; during Phelps's tenure, Sinclair Lewis, Stephen Vincent Benét, Thornton Wilder, Philip Barry, and Walter Millis had passed through the course.

References

  1. ^ a b Rosenheim, Andrew (6 May 2003). "Richard Sewall, Biographer of Emily Dickinson". independent.co.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
  2. New York Times. Archived from the original.
  3. Yale Bulletin & Calendar
    , vol. 31, no. 27.
  4. ^ Reinstein, Gila (May 22, 2005). "Teaching Prizes Awarded at Yale College Class Day" (press release).
  5. ^ "National Book Awards – 1975." National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 17, 2012.
  6. ^ Gordon, Lyndall. "A Bomb in her Bosom: Emily Dickinson's Secret Life." The Guardian (February 12, 2010).

External links

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