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Helen Vendler
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<h2 id="life-and-career">Life and career</h2> <p>Helen Hennessy was born on April 30, 1933, in <a href="/facts/Boston/exjfn6xf">Boston, Massachusetts</a>, to George Hennessy and Helen <a href="/facts/Birth_name/FctFJcbg">née</a> Newman Hennessy.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> She was the second of three children.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> 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 <a href="/facts/Primary_school/cIoH1x09">primary school</a> before marriage.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6"><sup>6</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7"><sup>7</sup></a> Vendler attended <a href="/facts/Emmanuel_College_(Massachusetts)/2KRq42kA">Emmanuel College</a> over the Boston <a href="/facts/Girls%2527_Latin_School/nUMUb1NN">Girls' Latin School</a> and <a href="/facts/Radcliffe_College/kBmjyYHq">Radcliffe College</a> because her parents would not let her enroll in "secular education".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8"><sup>8</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9"><sup>9</sup></a> She received an A. B. from Emmanuel, majoring in chemistry.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10"><sup>10</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11"><sup>11</sup></a> </p><p>In 1954, Vendler was awarded a <a href="/facts/Fulbright_Fellowship/94E6ee46">Fulbright Fellowship</a> for mathematics at the <a href="/facts/Universit%25C3%25A9_catholique_de_Louvain/LVrne0wU">Université catholique de Louvain</a> 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.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:12" href="#fn:12"><sup>12</sup></a> Upon returning to the U.S., Vendler took 12 undergraduate courses in English at <a href="/facts/Boston_University/Vcyr2qAh">Boston University</a> in a year. In 1956, she enrolled at <a href="/facts/Harvard_University/Lhy9L1cx">Harvard University</a> as a graduate student in English. She recalled that the department's chair told her within a week of entry that "we don't want any women here",<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:13" href="#fn:13"><sup>13</sup></a> while <a href="/facts/Perry_Miller/zt4FfAlp">Perry Miller</a> refused to admit her to a seminar he led on <a href="/facts/Herman_Melville/Jdu6YsGY">Herman Melville</a> despite viewing her as his "finest student".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:14" href="#fn:14"><sup>14</sup></a> Other Harvard professors offered her more support, notably <a href="/facts/I._A._Richards/lLCDnF0c">I. A. Richards</a>. 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.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:15" href="#fn:15"><sup>15</sup></a> </p><p>Vendler graduated with a Ph.D. in <a href="/facts/English_Literature/7YWg6vJf">English</a> and <a href="/facts/American_Literature/uFaeT5D6">American literature</a> the next year.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:16" href="#fn:16"><sup>16</sup></a> She began teaching English at <a href="/facts/Cornell_University/FGyXuXeI">Cornell University</a> in 1960, after her husband at the time, <a href="/facts/Zeno_Vendler/Yxxz4Bn6">Zeno Vendler</a>, moved to teach there.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:17" href="#fn:17"><sup>17</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:18" href="#fn:18"><sup>18</sup></a> She left Cornell in 1963 and spent several years at various other institutions, including a year (1963–64) teaching at <a href="/facts/Haverford_College/KWQ8JSIw">Haverford College</a> and <a href="/facts/Swarthmore_College/QIbYLFx2">Swarthmore College</a>, two years (1964–66) as an assistant professor at Boston University, and another two (1966–68) as full professor. Vendler spent a year as a <a href="/facts/Fulbright_Lecture/94E6ee46">Fulbright Lecturer</a> at the <a href="/facts/University_of_Bordeaux/xDuz6GjJ">University of Bordeaux</a>. After that, she was Boston University's director of graduate studies in the English department from 1970 to 1975 and again from 1978 to 1979.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:19" href="#fn:19"><sup>19</sup></a> </p><p>Vendler was a professor of English at Harvard University from 1984 until her death; from 1981 to 1984 she taught alternating semesters at Harvard and Boston University.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:20" href="#fn:20"><sup>20</sup></a> 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.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:21" href="#fn:21"><sup>21</sup></a> In 1985, Vendler was named the <a href="/facts/William_R._Kenan/gljYvrSw">William R. Kenan</a> 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.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:22" href="#fn:22"><sup>22</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:23" href="#fn:23"><sup>23</sup></a> In 1992, Vendler received an honorary Litt. D. from <a href="/facts/Bates_College/tXSn7cwJ">Bates College</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:24" href="#fn:24"><sup>24</sup></a> She was a <a href="/facts/Charles_Stewart_Parnell/A6yB6GY8">Charles Stewart Parnell</a> fellow at <a href="/facts/Magdalene_College%2c_Cambridge/VupzzJPF">Magdalene College, Cambridge</a>, in 1995, and was elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalene in 1997.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:25" href="#fn:25"><sup>25</sup></a> </p><p>Vendler delivered the 2000 <a href="/facts/Thomas_Warton/2KcCzQXQ">Warton Lecture on English Poetry</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:26" href="#fn:26"><sup>26</sup></a> In 2004, the <a href="/facts/National_Endowment_for_the_Humanities/JV09yPKC">National Endowment for the Humanities</a> selected her for the <a href="/facts/Jefferson_Lecture/nbVvS4zb">Jefferson Lecture</a>, the federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:27" href="#fn:27"><sup>27</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:28" href="#fn:28"><sup>28</sup></a> Her lecture, "The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar",<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:29" href="#fn:29"><sup>29</sup></a> used poems by <a href="/facts/Wallace_Stevens/VKGuLjlr">Wallace Stevens</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:30" href="#fn:30"><sup>30</sup></a> to argue for the role of the arts (as opposed to history and philosophy) in the study of humanities.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:31" href="#fn:31"><sup>31</sup></a> In 2006, <i><a href="/facts/The_New_York_Times/T9marWVX">The New York Times</a></i> called Vendler "the leading poetry critic in America" and credited her work with helping "establish or secure the reputations" of poets including <a href="/facts/Jorie_Graham/4TXbnE0z">Jorie Graham</a>, <a href="/facts/Seamus_Heaney/TYnGK5IP">Seamus Heaney</a>, and <a href="/facts/Rita_Dove/MRYU4HVU">Rita Dove</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:32" href="#fn:32"><sup>32</sup></a> </p><p>Vendler wrote books on <a href="/facts/Emily_Dickinson/fzcaosRM">Emily Dickinson</a>, <a href="/facts/W._B._Yeats/0Py55eU3">W. B. Yeats</a>, <a href="/facts/Wallace_Stevens/VKGuLjlr">Wallace Stevens</a>, <a href="/facts/John_Keats/lImImXhl">John Keats</a>, and <a href="/facts/Seamus_Heaney/TYnGK5IP">Seamus Heaney</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:33" href="#fn:33"><sup>33</sup></a> She was a member of the <a href="/facts/Norwegian_Academy_of_Science_and_Letters/wdPBt2tA">Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters</a>, the <a href="/facts/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences/KptWYgz4">American Academy of Arts and Sciences</a>, and the <a href="/facts/American_Philosophical_Society/auqTbV2C">American Philosophical Society</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:34" href="#fn:34"><sup>34</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:35" href="#fn:35"><sup>35</sup></a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:36" href="#fn:36"><sup>36</sup></a> She was also a judge for the <a href="/facts/Pulitzer_Prize_for_Poetry/8eVtMSWb">Pulitzer Prize for Poetry</a> (1974, 1976, 1978, 1986) and the <a href="/facts/National_Book_Award_for_Poetry/k5eKJk04">National Book Award for Poetry</a> (1972).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:37" href="#fn:37"><sup>37</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="personal-life-and-death">Personal life and death</h2> <p>Helen Vendler was married to Zeno Vendler from 1960 to 1963;<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:38" href="#fn:38"><sup>38</sup></a> the couple had one child.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:39" href="#fn:39"><sup>39</sup></a> </p><p>Vendler died at her home in <a href="/facts/Laguna_Niguel%2c_California/FQ9eahhe">Laguna Niguel, California</a>, on April 23, 2024, at the age of 90.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:40" href="#fn:40"><sup>40</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="publications">Publications</h2> <ul><li><i>Yeats's Vision and the Later Plays</i> (1963)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:41" href="#fn:41"><sup>41</sup></a></li> <li><i>On Extended Wings: Wallace Stevens' Longer Poems</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674634367 (1969)</li> <li><i>I. A. Richards: Essays in His Honor</i> (1973) editor with Reuben Brower and <a href="/facts/John_Hollander/A2A7LGj5">John Hollander</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:42" href="#fn:42"><sup>42</sup></a></li> <li><i>The Poetry of George Herbert</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674679597 (1975)</li> <li><i>Part of Nature, Part of Us: Modern American Poets</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674654761 (1980)</li> <li>"What We have Loved, Others Will Love" (1980)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:43" href="#fn:43"><sup>43</sup></a></li> <li><i>Modern American Poets</i> (1981)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:44" href="#fn:44"><sup>44</sup></a></li> <li><i>The Odes of John Keats</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674630765 (1983)</li> <li><i>The Harvard Book of Contemporary American Poetry</i> (1985), editor<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:45" href="#fn:45"><sup>45</sup></a></li> <li><i>Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen out of Desire</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674945753 (1986)</li> <li><i>The Faber Book of Contemporary American Poetry</i> (1987)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:46" href="#fn:46"><sup>46</sup></a></li> <li><i>Voices and Visions: The Poet in America</i> (1987)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:47" href="#fn:47"><sup>47</sup></a></li> <li><i>The Music of What Happens: Poems, Poets, Critics</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674591530 (1988)</li> <li><i>Poems by W. B. Yeats</i> (1990)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:48" href="#fn:48"><sup>48</sup></a></li> <li><i>Stevens: Poems</i> <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780679429111 (1993)</li> <li><i>The Given and the Made: Strategies of Poetic Redefinition</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674354326 (1995)</li> <li><i>Herman Melville: Selected Poems</i> (1995), editor<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:49" href="#fn:49"><sup>49</sup></a></li> <li><i>John Keats, 1795–1995: With a Catalogue of the Harvard Keats Collection</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780914630173 (1995) with Leslie A. Morris and William H. Bond</li> <li><i>The Breaking of Style: <a href="/facts/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins/SS4BWzWw">Hopkins</a>, Heaney, Graham</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674081215 (1995)</li> <li><i>The Given and the Made: Strategies of Poetic Redefinition</i> (1995)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:50" href="#fn:50"><sup>50</sup></a></li> <li><i>Soul Says: On Recent Poetry</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674821477 (1996) essays</li> <li><i>The Art of <a href="/facts/Shakespeare/ohI96JTv">Shakespeare</a>'s Sonnets</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674637122 (1997)</li> <li><i>Seamus Heaney</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674637122 (1998)</li> <li><i>Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology</i> (2002)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:51" href="#fn:51"><sup>51</sup></a></li> <li><i>Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry</i> (2003), editor<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:52" href="#fn:52"><sup>52</sup></a></li> <li><i>Coming of Age as a Poet: Milton, Keats, Eliot, <a href="/facts/Plath/EThUabbj">Plath</a></i> <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674013834 (2003)</li> <li><i>Poets Thinking: <a href="/facts/Alexander_Pope/Tj8QDdeV">Pope</a>, <a href="/facts/Walt_Whitman/dGugaxdb">Whitman</a>, <a href="/facts/Emily_Dickinson/fzcaosRM">Dickinson</a>, Yeats</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674021105 (2004)</li> <li><i>Invisible Listeners: Lyric Intimacy in <a href="/facts/George_Herbert/4HP7YPsx">Herbert</a>, Whitman, and <a href="/facts/John_Ashbery/z44SY1L4">Ashbery</a></i> (2005)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:53" href="#fn:53"><sup>53</sup></a></li> <li><i>Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form</i>, <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674026957 (2007)</li> <li><i>Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill</i> (2010)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:54" href="#fn:54"><sup>54</sup></a></li> <li><i>Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries</i> <a href="/facts/ISBN_(identifier)/15AdSPa9">ISBN</a> 9780674066380 (2010)</li> <li><i>The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry</i> (2015)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:55" href="#fn:55"><sup>55</sup></a></li></ul> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://www.pupress.princeton.edu/titles/8016.html">Invisible Listeners Book (Princeton University Press)</a></li> <li><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html?ref=review&pagewanted=all">"The Closest Reader." (<i>New York Times</i> Profile)</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/authors/184">Helen Vendler author page and archive</a> from <i><a href="/facts/The_New_York_Review_of_Books/jvHxU3fn">The New York Review of Books</a></i></li> <li><a href="http://media.nybooks.com/110308-vendler.mp3">Vendler audio interview on the friendship and correspondence</a> between poets <a href="/facts/Elizabeth_Bishop/zB4rAD7g">Elizabeth Bishop</a> and <a href="/facts/Robert_Lowell/CeYg2bbS">Robert Lowell</a></li> <li>Henri Cole (Winter 1996). <a href="http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1324/the-art-of-criticism-no-3-helen-vendler">"Helen Vendler, The Art of Criticism No. 3"</a>. <i>The Paris Review</i>. Winter 1996 (141).</li> <li><a href="http://podcast.lannan.org/2009/08/06/helen-vendler/">Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on January 22, 2003.</a> Audio file 1 hr 20 mins. Discussion on <a href="/facts/W._B._Yeats/0Py55eU3">W. B. Yeats</a> and poetic forms</li> <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110425181734/http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/the-finite-furnished-with-the-infinite/">'The Finite Furnished with the Infinite'</a>[<i>usurped</i>], review of <i>Dickinson</i> in <i><a href="/facts/The_Oxonian_Review/vxtV0jCR">The Oxonian Review</a></i></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Grimes, William (April 24, 2024), "Helen Vendler, 'Colossus' of Poetry Criticism, Dies at 90", The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved April 26, 2024 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/books/helen-vendler-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/books/helen-vendler-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>Grimes, William (April 24, 2024), "Helen Vendler, 'Colossus' of Poetry Criticism, Dies at 90", The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved April 26, 2024 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/books/helen-vendler-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/books/helen-vendler-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Helen Vendler". The National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography" target="_blank">https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Helen Vendler". The National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography" target="_blank">https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:6"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:7"><p>Simic, Charles. "The Incomparable Critic". The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/08/13/helen-vendler-incomparable-critic/" target="_blank">https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/08/13/helen-vendler-incomparable-critic/</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:8"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:9"><p>Simic, Charles. "The Incomparable Critic". The New York Review of Books. ISSN 0028-7504. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/08/13/helen-vendler-incomparable-critic/" target="_blank">https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2015/08/13/helen-vendler-incomparable-critic/</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:10"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:11"><p>Grimes, William (April 24, 2024), "Helen Vendler, 'Colossus' of Poetry Criticism, Dies at 90", The New York Times, ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved April 26, 2024 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/books/helen-vendler-dead.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/24/books/helen-vendler-dead.html</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:12"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:12" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:13"><p>Keller, Morton; Keller, Phyllis (November 15, 2001), Making Harvard Modern: The Rise of America's University, Oxford University Press, p. 242, ISBN 978-0-19-803301-1 <a href="978-0-19-803301-1" target="_blank">978-0-19-803301-1</a> <a href="#fnref:13" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:14"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:14" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:15"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:15" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:16"><p>"Helen Vendler". The National Endowment for the Humanities. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography" target="_blank">https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography</a> <a href="#fnref:16" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:17"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:17" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:18"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:18" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:19"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:19" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:20"><p>Joel A. Getz, "Vendler Accepts English Dept. Appointment," Archived October 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Harvard Crimson, December 10, 1984. <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/12/10/vendler-accepts-english-dept-appointment-pleading/" target="_blank">http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/12/10/vendler-accepts-english-dept-appointment-pleading/</a> <a href="#fnref:20" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:21"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:21" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:22"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:22" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:23"><p>Harvard Gazette, "Faust named University Professor" Archived December 18, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Harvard Gazette, December 17, 2018. <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/12/drew-faust-named-harvard-university-professor/" target="_blank">https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/12/drew-faust-named-harvard-university-professor/</a> <a href="#fnref:23" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:24"><p>"List of Honorary Degree Recipients". April 5, 2016. Archived from the original on January 11, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2018. <a href="https://www.bates.edu/president/list-of-honorary-degree-recipients/" target="_blank">https://www.bates.edu/president/list-of-honorary-degree-recipients/</a> <a href="#fnref:24" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:25"><p>"Honorary Fellows". Archived from the original on February 4, 2023. Retrieved August 7, 2023. <a href="https://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/honorary-fellows" target="_blank">https://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/honorary-fellows</a> <a href="#fnref:25" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:26"><p>Vendler, Helen (2001). "Wallace Stevens: Hypotheses and Contradictions" (PDF). Proceedings of the British Academy. 111: 225–244. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2021. (See Wallace Stevens.) <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2092/111p225.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/2092/111p225.pdf</a> <a href="#fnref:26" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:27"><p>Jefferson Lecturers Archived October 20, 2011, at the Wayback Machine at NEH Website (retrieved January 22, 2009). <a href="http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/jefflect.html" target="_blank">http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/jefflect.html</a> <a href="#fnref:27" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:28"><p>Joshua D. Gottlieb, "Vendler Tapped for National Lecture," Harvard Crimson, March 12, 2004. <a href="/wiki/Harvard_Crimson" target="_blank">/wiki/Harvard_Crimson</a> <a href="#fnref:28" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:29"><p>Helen Vendler, "The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar" Archived April 12, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, text of Jefferson Lecture at NEH website. <a href="https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography" target="_blank">https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/helen-vendler-biography</a> <a href="#fnref:29" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:30"><p>See for example her remarks about Stevens's Harmonium and its various poems, such as Le Monocle de Mon Oncle and Bantam in Pine Woods <a href="/wiki/Harmonium_(poetry_collection)" target="_blank">/wiki/Harmonium_(poetry_collection)</a> <a href="#fnref:30" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:31"><p>Sam Teller, "Vendler Advocates Larger Role for Arts in Academia," Archived February 16, 2006, at the Wayback Machine Harvard Crimson, March 15, 2005. <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506425" target="_blank">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=506425</a> <a href="#fnref:31" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:32"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:32" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:33"><p>Joel A. Getz, "Vendler Accepts English Dept. Appointment," Archived October 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Harvard Crimson, December 10, 1984. <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/12/10/vendler-accepts-english-dept-appointment-pleading/" target="_blank">http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1984/12/10/vendler-accepts-english-dept-appointment-pleading/</a> <a href="#fnref:33" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:34"><p>"Gruppe 4: Litteraturvitenskap" (in Norwegian). Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved January 10, 2011. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110927171604/http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40106" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20110927171604/http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40106</a> <a href="#fnref:34" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:35"><p>"Helen Hennessy Vendler". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on March 28, 2022. Retrieved March 28, 2022. <a href="https://www.amacad.org/person/helen-hennessy-vendler" target="_blank">https://www.amacad.org/person/helen-hennessy-vendler</a> <a href="#fnref:35" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:36"><p>"APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved March 28, 2022. <a href="https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Helen+Hennessy+Vendler&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced" target="_blank">https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Helen+Hennessy+Vendler&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced</a> <a href="#fnref:36" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:37"><p>Matthews, Tracey (2005), "Vendler, Helen", Contemporary Authors, vol. 136, Gale, pp. 399–409, ISBN 978-1-4144-0538-4 <a href="978-1-4144-0538-4" target="_blank">978-1-4144-0538-4</a> <a href="#fnref:37" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:38"><p>Current Biography Yearbook. H.W. Wilson Company. 1986. p. 584. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=xwdaAAAAYAAJ&q=%22zeno+vendler%22+%22helen%22" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=xwdaAAAAYAAJ&q=%22zeno+vendler%22+%22helen%22</a> <a href="#fnref:38" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:39"><p>Donadio, Rachel (December 10, 2006). "The Closest Reader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on September 12, 2022. Retrieved September 12, 2022. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/review/Donadio.t.html</a> <a href="#fnref:39" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:40"><p>Marquard, Bryan. "Helen Vendler, a towering presence in poetry criticism, dies at 90". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved April 23, 2024. <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/metro/helen-vendler-towering-presence-poetry-criticism-dies-90/" target="_blank">https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/metro/helen-vendler-towering-presence-poetry-criticism-dies-90/</a> <a href="#fnref:40" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:41"><p>O'Donoghue, Bernard. "Helen Vendler. Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form". Oxford Academic. Retrieved April 24, 2024. <a href="https://academic.oup.com/res/article-abstract/59/241/648/1534358" target="_blank">https://academic.oup.com/res/article-abstract/59/241/648/1534358</a> <a href="#fnref:41" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:42"><p>Donoghue, Denis (1974). "Review of I. A. Richards: Essays in His Honor". Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review. 63 (251): 319–321. ISSN 0039-3495. JSTOR 30088106. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30088106" target="_blank">https://www.jstor.org/stable/30088106</a> <a href="#fnref:42" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:43"><p>Farr, Cecilia Konchar (2015). A Wizard of Their Age: Critical Essays from the Harry Potter Generation. State University of New York Press. p. 3. ISBN 978-1-4384-5448-1 – via Google Books. <a href="978-1-4384-5448-1" target="_blank">978-1-4384-5448-1</a> <a href="#fnref:43" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:44"><p>Perloff, Marjorie (1981). Vendler, Helen (ed.). "Modern American Poets". Contemporary Literature. 22 (1): 96–103. doi:10.2307/1208224. ISSN 0010-7484. JSTOR 1208224. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1208224" target="_blank">https://www.jstor.org/stable/1208224</a> <a href="#fnref:44" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:45"><p>"Vendler, Helen (Hennessy) 1933–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/vendler-helen-hennessy-1933" target="_blank">https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/vendler-helen-hennessy-1933</a> <a href="#fnref:45" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:46"><p>"Vendler, Helen (Hennessy) 1933–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/vendler-helen-hennessy-1933" target="_blank">https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/vendler-helen-hennessy-1933</a> <a href="#fnref:46" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:47"><p>"Helen Vendler's Publications on Stevens: A Selected Chronological Survey". Wallace Stevens Journal. 38 (2): 126–127. 2014. doi:10.1353/wsj.2014.0040. ISSN 2160-0570 – via Johns Hopkins University. <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/559610" target="_blank">https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/559610</a> <a href="#fnref:47" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:48"><p>"Diebenkorn and Yeats". Princeton University. November 18, 2014. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/11/17/diebenkorn-and-yeats/" target="_blank">https://graphicarts.princeton.edu/2014/11/17/diebenkorn-and-yeats/</a> <a href="#fnref:48" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:49"><p>Melville, Herman (1995). Selected Poems. Arion Press – via Google Books. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=a07ezQEACAAJ" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=a07ezQEACAAJ</a> <a href="#fnref:49" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:50"><p>"Helen Vendler". Harvard University. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication" target="_blank">https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication</a> <a href="#fnref:50" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:51"><p>"Vendler, Helen (Hennessy) 1933–". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/vendler-helen-hennessy-1933" target="_blank">https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/vendler-helen-hennessy-1933</a> <a href="#fnref:51" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:52"><p>Vendler, Helen (2003). The Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry. I. B. Taurus. ISBN 978-1-86064-837-3 – via Google Books. <a href="978-1-86064-837-3" target="_blank">978-1-86064-837-3</a> <a href="#fnref:52" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:53"><p>"Helen Vendler". Harvard University. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication" target="_blank">https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication</a> <a href="#fnref:53" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:54"><p>"Helen Vendler". Harvard University. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication" target="_blank">https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication</a> <a href="#fnref:54" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:55"><p>"Helen Vendler". Harvard University. Retrieved April 29, 2024. <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication" target="_blank">https://scholar.harvard.edu/vendler/publication</a> <a href="#fnref:55" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>