Witter Bynner

Wilfred Funk Bynner, better known as Witter Bynner, was an American poet, writer, and translator who had a wide-ranging literary career and was known for his frank and often ribald works. Born in 1881 in New Hampshire, Bynner attended Harvard from 1899 to 1903, followed by an extended tour through Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa with his friend Robert Hawthorn.

Bynner’s literary career began in 1912 when he published his first book, The New World, and Other Poems. Following this, Bynner published a collection of poems every two or three years, including several volumes of translations of Chinese poetry.

In 1917, Bynner traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he became a familiar face in the local art and literary circles. Several of his poems, such as “New Mexico”, reflected his admiration of the region and its culture.

From 1916 to 1917, Bynner was a member of a special editorial team from The Atlantic Monthly. He recruited new poetry and prose for publication, and also wrote several pieces of his own. These works, mostly lyric poetry and fiction, appeared under the banner “From the Atlantic to the Pacific”. Bynner’s most famous short story “The Great Kiva” was originally published in The Atlantic.

Bynner’s most acclaimed work, Emblems of Conduct, was published in 1926. The collection primarily consisted of lyric and narrative poems associated with nature, immortality, and morality. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, though it didn’t win.

Also in 1926, Bynner published The New American Anthology, which featured a selection of contemporary American poets, including Langston Hughes, Carl Sandburg and Robinson Jeffers. Bynner was widely credited with helping to launch the careers of these writers.

In the mid-1920s, Bynner held the position of consulting editor for The Saturday Review and contributed several stories, poems and book reviews. He also continued to write satire, and frequently sent humorous, playful pieces to The New Yorker and other magazines.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Bynner worked on translations and adaptations of Chinese poetry and literature. His translations of the works of Li Po, Tu Fu and Mei Sheng received critical acclaim and helped to make Chinese poetry more accessible to Western readers.

Bynner’s body of work is quite diverse, and includes books of poetry, translations, adaptations, satire, and children’s stories. His work often explored the bond between America and Asia, as well as various moral and philosophical issues. His career was remarkable for its relentless experimentation and the constant push to make new forms of literature.

In 1947, Bynner was awarded the Gold Medal for Poetry by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He died in 1968 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.