On Monday, April 17, Austin High School will be honoring one of its most famous alumni, one of Austin’s literary sons, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Ghormley Eberhart. There will be an unveiling of a Literary Landmark at the school, where Eberhart graduated in 1921.

Austin High School has partnered with Friends of the Austin Library and the Minnesota Association of Library Friends for the unveiling.

Richard Eberhart published his first book of poetry, “A Bravery of Earth,” in 1930. Throughout his life, he published many volumes of poetry, several plays, and was a professor of English at Dartmouth College. He is best known for his poem “The Groundhog.”

He received numerous awards for his work, including the Pulitzer Prize for “Selected Poems, 1930-1965” in 1966, a National Book Award for “Collected Poems, 1930-1976” in 1977, and a Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America in 1962. He was a fellow in the Academy of American Poets and was the Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress from 1959 to 1961.

Eberhart has been praised by critics for the honest emotions in his poetry, influenced by death, human morality, and the loss of childhood innocence through experience.

But his love of poetry began in Austin.

Eberhart was born on April 4, 1904, at 811 North Kenwood Avenue (now Fourth Street) in Austin, the son of Alpha LaRue and Lena Lowenstein Eberhart. His father was one of the first directors of the young George A. Hormel Company, later becoming its vice president. His mother worked to ensure a love of reading in her son.

The Eberhart family moved to their home, Burr Oaks, in 1916.  He later named one of his poetry volumes “Burr Oaks” in its honor.

As a child, Eberhart spent many playful hours with his older brother, Dryden, and best friend Roger Catherwood. They frequently spent time by the Cedar River, seeking adventures they read about in books like “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.”

While a student at Austin High School, Eberhart joined the Duodecim Literary Society, of which his older brother was a member. In a journal entry dated Dec. 11, 1918, Eberhart wrote about signing the Society’s constitution: “I wrote my name, or rather scribbled it, because I was so excited I couldn’t write straight.” Being a member of the group, which acted as both a social and intellectual club, was a source of pride for Eberhart throughout his life.

During his senior year, he was elected the Duodecim Literary Society’s president.

Eberhart was active in other organizations at Austin High School. He was a member of the choir and played saxophone in the orchestra. He was class president during his junior year.

During his senior year, he was captain of the football team, president of the Debating League, and editor-in-chief of the school yearbook.

During his years at Austin High School, Eberhart wrote several poems. His work was greatly influenced by issues both at home and abroad. One example was his post-World War I poem “The Shell Vase,” published in the 1921 “Austinian,” in which he wrote:

“They’re dying now, the shell-vase more

Is called to play its bloody part.

The acid taint of bitter war

Has crushed them-crushed them to its heart.”

In 1922, shortly before leaving Austin, Eberhart’s father lost many financial assets when a co-worker embezzled money from the Hormel Company. Later that year, Eberhart watched his mother pass away after a long struggle with cancer. He later said it was her death that made him a poet.

Twenty-seven years later, he wrote of her death in the poem “The Day-Bed”:

“It is green, it is made of willow.

I am baffled: I cannot think about it.

An obsession of twenty-seven years.

I am brutalized to look upon it.”

Eberhart passed away on June 9, 2005, in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The Literary Landmark at Austin High School will be the eighth of its kind in Minnesota. Other Literary Landmarks in the state include F. Scott Fitzgerald’s St. Paul birth home and the boyhood home of Sinclair Lewis.

A night of poetry

The Eberhart Night of Poetry will be held at 6 p.m. on April 17, at the Hormel Historic Home. The finalists of this year’s Eberhart Poetry Contest will be reading their poems during the event.

The finalists for this year are:

•Lucas Vaquez Beckman, Banning Brooks Korfhage, and Valery Noriega Martinez of Woodson Kindergarten Center

•Olivia Felten, Emma Stanley, and Ariel Weideman of Banfield Elementary School

•Izaak Belden, Carly Flaherty, and Alivia Hemry of Neveln Elementary School

•Nadia Hummel, Lucas Myers, and Reese Norton of Southgate Elementary School

•Kathy Garcia, Emma MacKay, and Enar Zaki of Sumner Elementary School

•Ajulo Awow, Nora Tweeten, and Nawras Zaki of I.J. Holton Intermediate School

•Wren Clinefelter, Jackson Goetz, and Denni Heimer of Ellis Middle School

•Sarah Bachmeier, Nora Curtis, and Shaina Ryhther of Austin High School

The winners will be announced after all poems are shared, followed by an awards ceremony.