Awards & Winners

Richard B. Sewall

Date of Birth 11-February-1908
Place of Birth Albany
(Albany County, United States of America, New York)
Nationality United States of America
Also know as Richard Sewall, Richard Benson Sewall
Profession Professor, Writer, Author
Richard B. Sewall was a professor of English at Yale University, and author of the influential works The Life of Emily Dickinson and The Vision of Tragedy. He was born in Albany, New York to a family with a long Congregational tradition: his father, Reverend Charles G. Sewall, was the thirteenth son in an unbroken chain of Congregational ministers. His mother, Kate Strong, was the daughter of Reverend Augustus Hopkins Strong, president of the Rochester Theological Seminary. Sewall attended Philips Exeter Academy, graduated from Williams College and received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1933. He taught initially at Clark University, then at Yale for 42 years, from 1934 to 1976. For much of that period he taught "English 61", a course on tragedy that became so popular it was held in Yale's largest lecture hall. He also taught, from 1941, "Daily Themes", a writing class that was a training ground for many authors, including William F. Buckley, Calvin Trillin, and Bob Woodward. He was popular with both the students he taught and those he dealt with in his various administrative roles, which included stints as a member of the Committee on Manners and Morals and as first master of Ezra Stiles College. During the Vietnam Era he supported the activities of peace activists on campus, making William Sloane Coffin and Allard Lowenstein fellows of Ezra Stiles College. He played a key role in preventing campus violence during the New Haven Black Panther trials by persuading Yale President Kingman Brewster to take a conciliatory rather than oppositional approach to campus demonstrations. One of Yale's awards named for him, the Harwood F. Byrnes/Richard B. Sewall Teaching Prize, is presented each year to the professor who "has given the most time, energy and effective effort” to educating undergraduates.

Awards by Richard B. Sewall

Check all the awards nominated and won by Richard B. Sewall.

1975


National Book Award for Biography
Honored for : The life of Emily Dickinson

Nominations 1975 »

Award Nominated Nominated Work
National Book Award for Biography The life of Emily Dickinson