In 1925 Stephen Vincent Benét decided to write a long poem. With this proposal he approached the Guggenheim Foundation. He asked for 2 500 dollars and got it. Then he went to France. He settled in Paris and began to write. The poem was published in 1928. At once it became very popular. No American poem gained such popularity earlier. Ever Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's works were not so widely read. 130 000 copies of the book were sold during two years. For this poem the poet received the Pulitzer Prize in 1929. Many years later he got the second Pulitzer Prize for the poem "Western Star".