by George J. Dance
Lew R. Sarett (May 16, 1888 - August 17, 1954) was an American poet, academic, and lecturer.[1][2]
Lew Sarett (1888-1954). Photo by J.D. Toloff, from The Collected Poems of Lew Sarett, 1920. Courtesy Internet Archive.
Life[]
Youth and education[]
Sarett was born Lewis Saretsky in Chicago, the only child of Jeanette (Block) and Rudolph Saretsky, immigrants from Lithuania and Poland respectively.[1]
The family moved in 1895 to Marquette, Michigan, and in 1902 to Benton Harbor, Michigan, where Sarett graduated high school.[1]
He attended the University of Michigan (1907-1908), Beloit College (receiving a B.A. in 1911), Harvard Law School (1911-1912) and the University of Illinois Law School (which awarded him an LL.B. in 1916).[1]
Marriage and career[]
From 1912 to 1920 Sarrett taught English and public speaking at the University of Illinois. In 1914 he married Margater Husted, who would bear him 2 children.[3]
He began to write poetry during this time, and published his debut collection, Many Many Moons, in 1920.[1] In 1921 he briefly served as an advisory editor of Poetry magazine.[3]
Lew Sarett, circa 1930. Courtesy Laona History.
In 1920 Sarett transferred to Northwestern University, where he would teach for the next 30 years. In 1925 he moved to the wilderness of Wisconsin, commuting 300 miles to Northwestern to teach for a semester per year.[1]
Serving as an adviser on Native affairs for the Department of the Interior, he lived among the Chippewa of the Lake Superior region, who adopted him and gave him the name Lone Caribou. He also worked as a part-time National Parks ranger in Montana and Wyoming, and as a wilderness guide in northern Minnesota and Canada. In addition, he worked as a horticulturist, and produced 6 new varieties of dahlia.[3]
In his time at Northwestern Sarett published 5 more collections of poetry, 3 of which had forewords by Carl Sandburg. (Sandburg ranked Sarett among America's most perceptive poets.)[2] Sarett also co-authored the college textbook Basic Principles of Speech, which ran through 4 editions between 1936 and 1966, and the secondary-level text, Speech: A High School Course.[1]
Margaret Sarett died in 1941. In 1943 Lew Sarett married Juliet Baxter, who died in 1945; and in 1946 he married Alma E. Johnson.[1]
In 1950, due to ill health, he took a 3-year leave of absence from Northwestern, and retired in 1953 at its end. He died a year later.[1]
Recognition[]
Sarett won Poetry magazine's Levinson Prize in 1921, and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America in 1925.[3]
He was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by Baylor University in 1926, and an honorary Doctor of Letters of Humanity by Beloit College in 1946.[1]
On his retirement, Northwestern University established the Lew Sarett Chair of Speech.[1]
Publications[]
Poetry[]
- Many Many Moons: A book of wilderness poems. New York: Holt, 1920.
- The Box of God. New York: Holt, 1922.
- Slow Smoke. New York: Holt, 1925.
- Wings Against the Moon. New York: Holt, 1931.
- Collected Poems (with foreword by Carl Sandburg). New York: Holt, 1941.
- Covenant with Earth: A selection from the poetry of Lew Sarett, including six poems not previously published.. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1966.
Non-fiction[]
- Basic Principles of Speech (with William Trufant Foster), Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1936
- (with William Trufant Foster & Alma Johnson Sarett). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1958.
- Speech: A High School Course (with William Trufant Foster & James Howard McBurney). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1943.
Edited[]
- Modern Speeches on Basic Issues (with William Trufant Foster). Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1939.
Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.[4]
Four Little Foxes - Lew Sarett (Animation)
See also[]
References[]
Fonds[]
- Lew Sarett (1888-1954) Papers, Northwestern University
Notes[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Lew Sarett (1888-1954) Papers, Northwestern University Library, Northwestern University. Web, Nov. 26, 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lew Sarett - Laona's Resident Poet, Laona History, Web, Nov. 26, 2012.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lew R. Sarett 1888-1954, Poetry Foundation, Web, Nov. 26, 2012.
- ↑ Search results = au:Lew Sarett, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Feb. 3, 2015.
External links[]
- Poems
- 2 poems by Sarett: "April Rain," "October Snow"
- Lew R. Sarett 1888-1954 at the Poetry Foundation
- Sarett in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "The Blue Duck," "Chippewa Flute Song," "Chief Bear's-Heart Makes Talk," "Little Caribou Makes Big Talk," "Broken Bird," "Whistling Wings," "Talking Waters"
- Poems by Lew Sarett at Black Cat Poems (13 poems)
- Books
- Lew Sarett at Amazon.com
- About
- Lew Sarett - Laona's Resident Poet at LaonaHistory.com (poems and news stories, including obituary).
| Original Penny's Poetry Pages article, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0. |
- This is a signed article by User:George Dance. It may be edited for spelling errors or typos, but not for substantive content except by its author. If you have created a user name and verified your identity, provided you have set forth your credentials on your user page, you can add comments to the bottom of this article as peer review.
|