Walter Benton Books In Order

Publication Order of Poetry Collections

Walter Benton
Walter Benton was a writer and poet. He was born on October 27, 1904 to Russian immigrant parents living in Austria. The dad left Europe in 1913 in order to relocate to the United States during World War I. The rest of the family joined him eight years later.

Benton worked various odd jobs during the Great Depression (working as a steel plant worker, window washer, and a salesman), which allowed him to attend Ohio University, where he was able to graduate in 1934, earning a BA for himself.

After, he was employed as a social investigator by New York City and during World War II, he served in the United States Army. Walter was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps in 1942, later on he was promoted to Captain. He returned to his job in New York City after the war’s end as he pursued a career as a writer. Walter’s work was published in Esquire, Yale Review, Saturday Review of Literature, The New Republic, and several other publications.

Around 1965, he suffered a massive stroke and was cared for by Jeannette, his niece, until he needed to be placed in a nursing home, where he died on March 7, 1976 at the age of 71.

“This is My Beloved” is a poetry collection that was released in 1943. This is a book of poems addressed to “Lillian” and was written in diary form.

The book is a remarkable diary in verse which has become one of the most popular books of poetry, was his first published volume, even though his work was familiar already to readers of Poetry, Fantasy, the New Republic, the Yale Review.

Walter, through these poems, tells such a poignant and tragic tale. It is a love story, during the war, where these two souls are united in need, his to last an entire lifetime, while hers to end once he recognizes that she’s marketing his love.

In 1949 it was described as being forthright love poems and it was said to be the bestselling poetry volume of recent years and sold 350,000 copies at the time. Atlantic Records even issued it as the company’s very first 33 1/ 3 rpm long playing album in March of 1949, with the poem being narrated by John Dall and scored for a 28 piece orchestra and a 16 voice chorus.

During its original publication, the book was highly controversial because of the graphic intensity of his prose. Some even referred to it as pornography. The volume has since been hailed as being a remarkable journey of love lost, love, and love unrequited. It’s seen as being an American classic.

Arthur Prysock (the jazz musician) read verses from his book of poetry against a jazz instrumental backdrop for his album “This is My Beloved”.

Other recorded versions were a 1956 narration done by Alfred Ryder with musical score done by Vernon Duke and then another by Laurence Harvey accompanied by Herbie Mann in 1962.

Rod McKuen (American singer and poet) said that his most romantic of poetry was influenced by Walter’s two poetry collections.

These poems bring you right into the middle of Walter and Lillian’s passionate relationship, all of which is revealed through meditations upon the lover’s body using images of the changing seasons, nature, and cityscapes, and then through break up and wistful longing after the lover’s gone and another partnership (one that’s less satisfying) is entered into.

The writing is incredibly powerful, and his descriptions of Lillian are so filled with love. How could she possibly have left? It is easy to feel his tragic pain and love every time you read from this book.

These poems are direct and free, warm with remembered passion and quick with life. The imagery is both exact and sensuous, yet no more graphic (or even pornographic) than the images in the “Song of Songs”. It’s remarkable how Walter’s varied the erotic theme and the overtones of physical love. His verse seems to be filled with real poetic feeling. He sometimes has these splendid images.

Both hauntingly beautiful and beautifully haunting, the verse in this short volume could have only flowed from someone with an epically open heart. His sensual description is just as tender as the man’s heartbreak is real. It’s almost too rending to read. Walter gave us such a beautiful book with love etched onto each page. This is moving, beautiful, and heartbreaking all at the same time.

Walter’s work is relatable, and it is empowering the way he talks about his lady love. Even while he talks about her chin hair and her pubic hair.

This is erotic love poetry that does not ever border on the silly or lewd. It’s an idealized love, love comes in the first part, in the second, third, and by the fourth, love has left, without any drama, without fights, and without any of the ugliness. There is a veil drawn right to reminiscence, the opportunity encounter, and the longing. Spending a cozy afternoon wrapped in a blanket reading these poems is time pretty well spent, all things considered.

This is the anthem for anybody that has ever experienced unrequited love in their life.

This is a rare volume that is filled with wonder and delight that is experienced in young love, in which is implicit physical discovery having been conveyed with such touching honesty or with rhapsody that so involves unconscious pathos. Those that seek to drag any such honest writing through the gutters of their own minds are going to do the same with such a volume like this. Those that are not afraid of the odd miracle of life are going to understand such a brave verse.

Arthur Prysock reads these poems in a smooth and rich voice and vocalizes the book’s most salient lines. He magnifies the poetry instantly just by reading the book out loud.

In 1948, Walter released a second volume of love poems, called “Never A Greater Need”. It is full of all the best poems that he had written since his first explosive book of poetry was released.