William Benton

William Benton may refer to:

See also

William Benton (senator)

William Burnett Benton (April 1, 1900 – March 18, 1973) was a U.S. senator from Connecticut (1949–1953) and publisher of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1943–1973).

Early life

Benton was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was educated at Shattuck Military Academy, Faribault, Minnesota, and Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota until 1918, at which point he matriculated at Yale University, where he contributed to campus humor magazine The Yale Record and was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity.

Advertising and civic life

He graduated in 1921 and began work for advertising agencies in New York City and Chicago until 1929, after which he co-founded Benton & Bowles with Chester Bowles in New York. He moved to Norwalk, Connecticut in 1932, and served as the part-time vice president of the University of Chicago from 1937 to 1945. In 1944, he had entered into unsuccessful negotiations with Walt Disney to make six to twelve educational films annually.

Public and elected office life

William Benton (writer)

Life

William Benton is an American poet and novelist. Born 1939, in Houston, Texas, he grew up in a small town on Galveston Bay. He received his early training in music and worked as a jazz piano player before becoming a writer. In the mid-1960s he moved to New York City, where he edited riverrun magazine and press. He is not associated with a specific school of poetry, although Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, as well as the Black Mountain School, influence his work. In 1970 he was hired as assistant dean of Pacific Northwest College of Art (then The Museum Art School) in Portland, Oregon, where he remained as acting dean for three years. He has read and lectured at various universities. His poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and other magazines. James Salter described his novel, Madly, as “Beautiful, intense, and utterly absorbing.” He lives in New York City.

Published Works