The MLA is deeply saddened by the passing of the writer, teacher, reviewer, and critic Helen Vendler, who died on 23 April 2024 at her home in Laguna Niguel, California. Considered by many to be a titan of modern poetry criticism, Vendler’s analysis and reviews influenced the views of generations of readers, publishers, and scholars.
Vendler majored in chemistry at Emmanuel College, but when she received a Fulbright Scholarship to study mathematics, she switched course, taking classes instead in French and Italian literature at the University of Louvain in Belgium. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1960, publishing her dissertation, Yeats’s Vision and the Later Plays, in 1963. She went on to teach at Cornell University, Haverford College, Swarthmore College, Smith College, and Boston University before returning to Harvard as a visiting professor in 1981. Vendler joined the Harvard faculty in 1985 as a full professor and was named the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor in 1990, holding the position for the rest of her life. She became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1972, and in 2004, Vendler was named a Jefferson lecturer by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the highest honor a humanities scholar can receive from the federal government.
One of the most prominent poetry critics in the United States, Vendler wrote about the works of Seamus Heaney, George Herbert, John Keats, Wallace Stevens, and others. She became known for her incredible attention to detail and her striking ability to offer novel interpretations of classic works, abilities that are both on display in her 1997 book The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. In addition to writing or contributing to dozens of books, Vendler served as The New Yorker’s poetry critic from 1978 to 1996 and frequently wrote reviews for The Massachusetts Review, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, and The New Republic. Her criticism, as well as her work as a judge and nominator for the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and MacArthur Foundation grants, shaped the modern poetry landscape.
A member of the MLA since 1962, Vendler served on the MLA Executive Council from 1971 to 1975. She was elected second vice president in 1978 and became president of the organization in 1980. Read the presidential address Vendler gave at the 1980 MLA Annual Convention.