Ben Downing (writer)

Ben Downing (born April 17, 1967) is an American writer, editor, and teacher. Specializing in nineteenth- and twentieth-century British social life and literature (with a particular emphasis on travel writing), he has written essays, articles, and reviews on figures such as Robert Louis Stevenson,[1] Duff Cooper,[2] Robert Byron,[3] Anthony Powell,[4] Peter Fleming,[5] Wilfred Thesiger,[6] and Patrick Leigh Fermor.[7] His biography of Janet Ross, who for many years was the doyenne of Florence’s Anglo-American colony, was published in 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.[8]

Downing also writes poetry. His collection The Calligraphy Shop appeared in 2003, and he continues to publish poems in The Atlantic,[9] The New Criterion,[10] The Yale Review,[11] and elsewhere.

Since 1993 Downing has worked at Parnassus: Poetry in Review, of which he is currently the co-editor.[12] He has taught literary seminars and workshops at Columbia,[8] Bryn Mawr,[13] and the 92nd St. Y,[14] and he currently teaches a small private class, known as The English Salon, for advanced non-native speakers of English. He lives in New York City and graduated from Harvard University.[15]

Works

Books
  • Queen Bee of Tuscany: The Redoubtable Janet Ross (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), biography
  • The Calligraphy Shop (Zoo Press, 2003), poetry

Poems

Articles

References
  1. "An Old Gypsy Nature," The New Criterion, June 1998
  2. "Duff Cooper's Game Book," The New Criterion, March 2006
  3. "Insolent Humanism," The New Criterion, March 2004
  4. "Of Osberts and Evelyns," The New Criterion, May 2001
  5. "Peter Fleming at 100," The New Criterion, May 2007
  6. ""On the Outlandish Life of Wilfred Thesiger," The New Criterion, November 2006". Archived from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  7. "Philhellene's Progress: Patrick Leigh Fermor," The New Criterion, January 2001
  8. Author page, Irene Skolnick Literary Agency
  9. Author page at The Atlantic
  10. Author page at The New Criterion
  11. "Contributors page at The Yale Review". Archived from the original on 2013-02-01. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  12. Staff at Parnassus: Poetry in Review
  13. "Classes at Bryn Mawr". Archived from the original on 2013-10-19. Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  14. Classes at the 92nd St. Y
  15. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ben-downing
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