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DeWitt Henry

American writer

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 19, 2025
Entity authorityQ5244184
Source-derived summary

DeWitt Henry is an American author and editor.

Born in 1941 in Wayne, Pennsylvania, Henry earned his A.B. from Amherst College in 1963 and his MA and PhD from Harvard University. He is a founding editor of Ploughshares, a literary journal, and served as its editor and director from its inception in 1971 to 1995. Henry taught at Emerson College from 1983 until his retirement in 2014.

Bibliography

Works authored

Sweet Marjoram: Notes and Essays, Plume Editions/MadHat Press, 2018

Visions of a Wayne Childhood, Create Space, 2012

Sweet Dreams: A Family History, Hidden River Press, 2011

Safe Suicide: Essays, Narratives, and Mediations, Red Hen Press, 2008

The Marriage of Anna Maye Potts, University of Tennessee Press, 2001 (winner of the Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel)

Foundlings, Poems, Artwork: Ruth Henry | ISBN 978-1953136572 | Pierian Springs Press, 2023

Trim Reckonings, Poems | ISBN 978-1953136411 | Pierian Springs Press, 2023

The Marriage of Anna Maye Potts,'’ 2nd Ed | ISBN 978-1953136657 | Pierian Springs Press, 2024

Do I Dream Or Wake?, Poems | ISBN 978-1965784075 | Pierian Springs Press, 2025

Top Cop Kills, A Novel | ISBN 978-1953136992 | Pierian Springs Press, 2025

Works edited

Sorrow's Company: Writers on Loss and Grief, Beacon Press, 2001

Breaking Into Print: Early Stories and Insights Into Getting Published, Beacon Press, 2000

Fathering Daughters: Reflections by Men (with James Alan McPherson), Beacon Press 1998, pb. 1999

Other Sides of Silence: New Fiction from Ploughshares, Faber and Faber, 1993, o.p.

The Ploughshares Reader: New Fiction for the 80s, Pushcart Press, 1984, NAL, 1985 (winner of the Third Annual Editors Book Award)

References

External links

dewitthenry.com

Ploughshares

Interview with the author at Pif Magazine.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “DeWitt Henry” as american writer. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around DeWitt, Henry and American.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1941, 1963, 1971, 1995—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1941-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with DeWitt, Henry and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “DeWitt Henry”, the useful work is to connect “american writer” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 19, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5244184. VIAF identifies the subject as 279255989. The Library of Congress control number is n85139242. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1941, 1963, 1971 and 1995.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “DeWitt Henry”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow DeWitt Henry primary sources, DeWitt Henry archive and DeWitt research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from DeWitt Henry” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.