Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner

The Dust Which Is God

by William Rose Benét

Summary

This autobiographical novel in verse follows a writer's coming of age, literary friendships, and the wreck of his marriage to a brilliant, unstable poet. Benét uses flexible blank verse and shifting registers to braid memoir, social portrait, and elegy. The result is a candid record of early twentieth-century American literary life from inside its circles.

Historical Context & Significance

William was the older brother of Stephen Vincent Benét; this win solidified the Benét family's unique dominance in mid-century American letters.