Bynner, Witter, 1881-1968

Variant names

Hide Profile

American poet.

From the description of Autograph letter signed : Berkeley, California, to Frank Deering, 1919 June 18. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270131470

Poet. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., 1881; graduated from Harvard University. Began writing poetry full-time in 1908. Moved to Santa Fe where he died in 1968.

From the description of Witter Bynner papers, 1917-1943. (University of New Mexico-Main Campus). WorldCat record id: 35920677

American poet and scholar.

From the description of Autograph letter signed : New York, to Isadora Duncan, 1915 Mar. 17. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 501182099

Harvard-educated poet, author of more than twenty-five books, and resident of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for forty-six years. Bynner was a central figure in the arts communities of Santa Fe and Taos.

From the description of Witter Bynner papers, 1874-1981. (New Mexico State University). WorldCat record id: 45864128

Witter Bynner was an American poet, known as much for his tireless support of poets and poetry in America as for his own verse. Born in Brooklyn and raised in New York and New England, he graduated from Harvard and worked briefly for McClure's before turning his attention to writing full-time. He published several books of poetry, and earned notoriety for the Spectra Hoax, perpetrated to lampoon the contemporary emphasis on poetry schools at the expense of poems. During his travels through the Orient, Bynner became influenced by Chinese and Japanese poetry, and he produced a number of important translations into English, notably of works by Kiang Kang-hu. He continued to write his own verse, admired by fellow poets; he also worked as an editor, advocated numerous social causes, and wrote a memoir of his travels with his friend, D.H. Lawrence.

From the description of Witter Bynner letter to R.F. Perotti and pamphlets, 1924-1952. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 155847695

Bynner was an American poet and translator.

From the description of Additional letters from various correspondents, 1905-1948. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122590335

From the description of Witter Bynner compositions, 1915-1957. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612837010

From the description of An immigrant and other compositions, 1907-1923. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 77698895

From the description of Witter Bynner collection of literary manuscripts, 1870-1918. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 83767230

From the description of Letters : from various correspondents, 1900-1958. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122521002

From the description of Witter Bynner papers, 1829-1965. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612367129

From the guide to the An immigrant and other compositions, 1907-1923., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Witter Bynner additional compositions, 1925-1927., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Witter Bynner papers, 1829-1965., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Witter Bynner collection of literary manuscripts, 1870-1918., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Witter Bynner letters from various correspondents, 1900-1958., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Witter Bynner letters from various correspondents and other material, 1904-1962., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Witter Bynner compositions, 1915-1957., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the guide to the Additional letters from various correspondents, 1905-1948., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

From the description of Additional compositions, 1925-1927. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 80256552

From the description of Additional papers, 1900-1964. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 80053045

Santa Fe, New Mexico, poet.

From the description of Witter Bynner letters to George Kirgo, 1949-1953. (New Mexico State University). WorldCat record id: 45400787

Author, editor, and poet.

From the description of Witter Bynner papers, 1919. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79455161

Harold Witter Bynner was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1881, but at age 7 his family moved to Brookline, MA. In 1898 he began his studies at Harvard University where he served on the editorial board of the HARVARD ADVOCATE (1900-1902). After graduating in 1902, Bynner worked for four years as associate editor of MCCLURE'S MAGAZINE before retreating from the pressures of the New York literary world and devoting himself to writing. His first book, AN ODE TO HARVARD AND OTHER POEMS (1907), was written while he lived in Cornish, N.H. It was only mildly successful, but he went on to publish several plays and seventeen other volumes of poetry. He is perhaps best remembered for the SPECTRA HOAX (1916), a spoof on literary "schools." Bynner was elected President of the Poetry Society of America (1921-1923) and traveled extensively in the Orient, where he became influenced by Chinese poetry. In fact, THE JADE MOUNTAIN, an anthology of T'ang Dynasty poems, is considered Bynner's "greatest contribution to twentieth-century literature." He died in 1968.

From the description of Witter Bynner papers, 1905-1962. (Manchester City Library). WorldCat record id: 29015527

Bynner was an American poet and translator. Chauvenet was Bynner's secretary.

From the description of Witter Bynner correspondence with Dorothy Chauvenet, 1948-1961. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 612739433

From the guide to the Witter Bynner correspondence with Dorothy Chauvenet, 1948-1961., (Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University)

Witter Bynner (1881-1968), poet, editor, and translator of French and Chinese poetry.

From the description of Letters from Witter Bynnter to Harrison Ford, 1924. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122446147

Bynner was an American author.

From the description of Letter, 1924. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84522403

Witter Bynner (1881-1968) graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude in 1902, and in 1907, was the Phi Beta Kappa poet for "Young Harvard." He continued publishing until the release of "New Poems, 1960." He was a lively part of the social and cultural life of Santa Fe, New Mexico, until his health failed in the mid-1960's. He passed away in 1968.

From the description of Witter Bynner's poem, "To need no sky," 1937. (Denver Public Library). WorldCat record id: 212433187

American writer and editor.

From the description of Letter to Walter Pritchard Eaton [manuscript], 1929 February 10. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647812930

Harold Witter Bynner (1881-1968) was an American poet, writer and scholar. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was widely traveled and spent most of his life in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The home he shared there with long-time partner Robert Hunt became a gathering place for the creative and artistic elite; among their friends and guests were Clara Bow, D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Oppenheimer, Georgia O'Keef and many other notable names. The house today is a bed and breakfast called The Inn of the Turquoise Bear.

From the guide to the Witter Bynner Papers, circa 1963, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)

Harold Witter Bynner (1881-1968), an American poet, writer, and scholar, graduated from Harvard in 1902 and pursued a career in jounalism before becoming a writer. He lived for many years in Santa Fe, N.M., where he knew D.H. Lawrence and Mabel Dodge Luhan. Bynner's circle included some of the most prominent writers, artists, and personalities of the day, including Willa Cather, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Arthur Davison Ficke, Rose O'Neill, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

From the description of Witter Bynner correspondence and research archive, 1889-1984 compiled by Evelyn Ortner. 1889-1984. (Drew University Library). WorldCat record id: 609634755

Witter Bynner, poet, was born August 10, 1888 in Brooklyn, N.Y. He graduated from Harvard University in 1902 then worked for McClure's Magazine as an assistant editor. Byner quit regular employment and began writing poetry full-time in 1908. After an extensive tour of the Orient, he moved to Santa Fe, N.M., where he continued to write poetry. Bynner died in Santa Fe in 1968.

From the guide to the Witter Bynner Papers, 1917-1943, (University of New Mexico. Center for Southwest Research.)

American poet, editor, lecturer, and translator Witter Bynner became widely known through a literary hoax, a parody of free verse titled Spectra , which he created with Arthur Ficke. Bynner was literary editor and assistant editor for McClure's Magazine from 1902-1906 and later was a lecturer on poetry throughout the United States. His work, The Jade Mountain , was the first complete volume of Chinese poetry to be translated by an American.

Witter Bynner was born August 10, 1881, in Brooklyn, New York, and died in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on June 1, 1968.

Helen Bramble was an editor at The Forum magazine.

"Witter Bynner." Contemporary Authors Online (reproduced in Biography Resource Center). http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (accessed July 2010). Biographical note about Helen Bramble derived from the letter.

From the guide to the Witter Bynner letter to Helen Bramble, 1928 October 20, (University of Delaware Library - Special Collections)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

George Sterling was born in Sag Harbor, N.Y. on December 1, 1869. He was educated on the East Coast and attended St. Charles College in Maryland. In 1896 he married Carrie Rand of Oakland, California, and from 1898 to 1908 he was private secretary to Frank C. Havens of that city.

Sterling's first volume of poems, “ Testimony of the Suns and Other Poems, was published in 1903. After that time, there were nine other volumes and a number of separate poems published. From 1908 to 1915, Sterling was one of the leaders of the artist colony at Carmel, California. He died on November 18, 1926, by his own hands.

From the guide to the George Sterling collection, Bulk, 1920-1926, 1909-1942, (Department of Special Collections and University Archives)

  • 1881: Born August 10 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Thomas Edgarton and Annie Louise (Brewer) Bynner
  • 1902: A.B. (Magna cum laude), Harvard University
  • 1902 - 1906 : Literary editor, McClure, Phillips and Company, New York
  • 1902 - 1906 : Assistant editor, McClure's Magazine, New York
  • 1907: An Ode to Harvard and Other Poems published by Small, Maynard; reissued as Young Harvard, Knopf, 1928
  • 1907 - 1915 : Advisory editor, Small, Maynard and Company, Boston, Massachusetts
  • 1911: Phi Beta Kappa poet, Harvard University
  • 1911 - 1922 : Lecturer on poetry and kindred subjects throughout the United States
  • 1913: Tiger (play)
  • 1914: The Little King (play)
  • 1915: The New World (verse)
  • 1915: Iphenia in Tauris (play)
  • 1916: Spectra (verse, under pseudonym Emanuel Morgan, with Anne Knish, pseudonym of Arthur Davison Ficke)
  • 1917: Grenstone Poems
  • 1918: A Canticle of Praise (verse)
  • 1918 - 1919 : English instructor, Students' Army Training Corps, University of California, Berkeley
  • 1919: Phi Beta Kappa poet, University of California
  • 1919: The Beloved Stranger (verse)
  • 1919: Snickerty Nick (play)
  • 1920: A Canticle of Pan (verse)
  • 1920: Pins for Wings (verse, under pseudonym Emanuel Morgan)
  • 1920 - 1922 : President, Poetry Society of America
  • 1922: Moved to New Mexico (Santa Fe)
  • 1922: A Book of Plays
  • 1922 - 1923 : Toured Mexico with D.H. and Frieda Lawrence
  • 1923: Translated Charles Vildrac's A Book of Love from French
  • 1925: Caravan (verse)
  • 1926: Cake (play)
  • 1926: Ran for New Mexico legislature against Bronson Cutting
  • 1927: The Pamphlet Poets
  • 1929: The Persistence of Poetry (prose)
  • 1929: Indian Earth (verse)
  • 1929: The Jade Mountain (verse translation, with Kiang Kang-Hu, from the Chinese of Three Hundred Pearls of the T'ang Dynasty)
  • 1930: Robert Hunt arrived in Santa Fe, began lifelong partnership with Bynner
  • 1931: Phi Beta Kappa poet, Amherst College
  • 1931: Edited The Sonnets of Frederick Goddard
  • 1931: Eden Tree (verse)
  • 1935: Guest Book (verse)
  • 1936: Selected Poems
  • 1940: Against the Cold (verse)
  • 1944: The Way of Life According to Laotzu (verse translation of the Tao te ching)
  • 1945 - 1947 : Member, Santa Fe City Planning Commission
  • 1946 - 1968 : Chancellor, Academy of American Poets
  • 1947: Take Away the Darkness (verse)
  • 1951: Journey with Genius, Recollections and Reflections Concerning the D.H. Lawrences
  • 1954: Received the Alexander Troubetzkoy Award and Gold Medal of the Poetry Society of America
  • 1955: Book of Lyrics
  • 1956: Iphigenia in Tauris, re-written and revised in Euriphides II
  • 1960: New Poems 1960
  • 1962: Litt. D., University of New Mexico
  • 1962 - 1968 : Member, National Institute of Arts and Letters
  • 1964: Robert Hunt died
  • 1968: Died June 1 in Santa Fe, New Mexico

From the guide to the Witter Bynner Papers, 1874-1981, (Archives and Special Collections, New Mexico State University Library)

Archival Resources

Person

Birth 1881-08-10

Death 1968-06-01

Americans

Information

Permalink: http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zk5gc0

Ark ID: w6zk5gc0

SNAC ID: 47949198