Carl Van Doren
Van Doren as the commencement speaker for theUniversity of Kentucky in 1929
Born	Carl Clinton Van Doren (1885-09-10)September 10, 1885 Hope, Illinois, US
Died	July 18, 1950(1950-07-18) (aged 64) Torrington, Connecticut, US
Education	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (BA) Columbia University (PhD)
Spouses	Irita Bradford (1912–1935), Jean Wright Gorman (1939–1945)

Carl Clinton Van Doren (September 10, 1885 – July 18, 1950) was an American critic and biographer. He was the brother of critic and teacherMark Van Doren and the uncle ofCharles Van Doren.

He won the1939Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography forBenjamin Franklin.

Van Doren was born on September 10, 1885, inHope,Vermilion County,Illinois, the son of Eudora Ann (Butz) and Charles Lucius Van Doren, a country doctor. He and his younger brotherMark Van Doren (born 1894), were raised on the family farm.

Van Doren earned a Bachelor of Arts from theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1907 and a doctorate fromColumbia University in 1911. He continued to teach there until 1930. He was aworld federalist and once said, "It is obvious that no difficulty in the way of world government can match the danger of a world without it".^[1] In 1939, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography forBenjamin Franklin.^[2] In 1942, he was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society.^[3]

Van Doren's studyThe American Novel, published in 1921, is generally credited with helping to re-establishHerman Melville's critical status as first-rate literary master.^[4] He was book section editor forThe Nation from 1920 to 1922.^[5]

In 1912, Van Doren marriedIrita Bradford, editor of theNew York Herald Tribune book review. They had three daughters together: Ann born in 1915, Margaret born in 1917, and Barbara (Bobby) born in 1920. The couple divorced in 1935.^[6] Van Doren married Jean Wright Gorman in 1939, but they divorced in 1945.

Van Doren worked closely withHoward Henry Peckham onSecret History of the American Revolution (1941), editing documents from the Sir Henry Clinton (British Army Headquarters) Papers that revealedBenedict Arnold's treason during the American Revolutionary War.^[7]

Van Doren died inTorrington, Connecticut, on July 18, 1950.^[8]

A residence hall at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is named after Carl Clinton Van Doren.^[9]

• The Life of Thomas Love Peacock (1911)
• The American Novel (1921 & 1940 expanded)
• American and British Literature Since 1890 (1925), co-written with Mark Van Doren
• Why I Am an Unbeliever (1926)
• Benjamin Franklin (1938),^[10] winner of the 1939Pulitzer Prize for Biography or AutobiographyISBN 978-0517625323
• The Secret History of the American Revolution (1941)
• Mutiny in January: The Story of a Crisis in the Continental Army now for the first time fully told from many hitherto unknown or neglected sources both American and British. New York: The Viking Press, 1943.
• The Great Rehearsal (1948)ISBN 978-0809436194
• Jane Mecom: the Favorite Sister of Benjamin Franklin (1950)ISBN 978-0670405633

• Media related toCarl Van Doren at Wikimedia Commons
• Quotations related toCarl Van Doren at Wikiquote
• Works by or aboutCarl Van Doren atWikisource
• Works by Carl Van Doren atProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about Carl Van Doren at theInternet Archive

• 1885 births
• 1950 deaths
• American people of Dutch descent
• Columbia University alumni
• Columbia University faculty
• Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners
• Van Doren family
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
• People from Vermilion County, Illinois
• People from Cornwall, Connecticut
• American literary critics
• 20th-century American biographers
• The Nation (U.S. magazine) people
• Writers from Illinois
• Members of the American Philosophical Society

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