Mark Van Doren | |
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| Born | (1894-06-13)June 13, 1894 Hope, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | December 10, 1972(1972-12-10) (aged 78) Torrington, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation | |
| Education | University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (BA) Columbia University (MA,PhD) |
| Notable works | Shakespeare (1939) A Liberal Education (1943) |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for Poetry,1940 forCollected Poems 1922–1938 Academy of American Poets' Fellowship (1967) |
| Spouse | Dorothy Van Doren |
| Children | 2, includingCharles Van Doren |
| Relatives | Carl Van Doren (brother) Adam Van Doren (grandson) |
Mark Van Doren (June 13, 1894 – December 10, 1972) was an American poet, writer and critic. He was a scholar and a professor of English atColumbia University for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers includingThomas Merton,Robert Lax,John Berryman,Whittaker Chambers, andBeat Generation writers such asAllen Ginsberg andJack Kerouac. He wasliterary editor ofThe Nation, inNew York City (1924–1928), and its film critic, 1935 to 1938.[1]
Amongst his notable works, many published inThe Kenyon Review,[2] are a collaboration with brotherCarl Van Doren,American and British Literature since 1890 (1939); critical studies,The Poetry of John Dryden (1920),Shakespeare (1939),The Noble Voice (1945) andNathaniel Hawthorne (1949); collections of poems includingJonathan Gentry (1931); stories; and the verse playThe Last Days of Lincoln (1959). A notable student, later a colleague, wasLionel Trilling.David Lehman writes that "Though the differences between them were many – Trilling struck some as patrician in demeanor where Van Doren seemed ever the populist – the two great professors inspired a rare filial devotion in generations of Columbia students. It was inevitably either Mark Van Doren or Lionel Trilling who was the favorite professor of students with a literary vocation, and in time Columbia would name its highest teaching accolade after Van Doren and its major award for scholarship after Trilling."[3] He won the1940Pulitzer Prize for Poetry forCollected Poems 1922–1938.
Van Doren was born inHope, Illinois, the fourth of five sons of the county's doctor, Charles Lucius Van Doren, of remoteDutch ancestry, and wife Eudora Ann Butz. He was raised on his family's farm in eastern Illinois, before his father decided to move to the neighboring town ofUrbana, to be closer to good schools.[4]
He was the younger brother of the academic and biographerCarl Van Doren, starting with whom all five brothers attended the local elementary school and high school. Mark Van Doren eventually studied at theUniversity of Illinois in Urbana,[4] where he earned a B.A. in 1914. In 1920, he earned aPh.D. from what became theColumbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences atColumbia University, while also a member of theBoar's Head Society, a student society at the university devoted to poetry.[5]
Mark Van Doren joined theColumbia University faculty in 1920, having been preceded by his brother Carl. He went on to become one of Columbia's greatest teachers and a "legendary classroom presence"; he became a full professor in 1942, and taught English until 1959, at which point he becameProfessor Emeritus until his death in 1972.[6]
David Lehman writes that "The 1920s were a great decade for Mark. At Columbia, he had remarkable students,Whittaker Chambers andTrilling among them. Van Doren published scholarly books onJohn Dryden andEdwin Arlington Robinson, served as literary editor ofThe Nation (where he metDorothy, née Graffe, also a writer) and edited an anthology of world poetry that sold so well it enabled the Van Dorens to buy their house on Bleecker Street in the West Village in New York City in February 1929, just months before the stock market tumbled and the 'roaring' decade ran out.
At a moment when Ivy League prejudice against Jews was not uncommon, Van Doren acquired a reputation for philo-Semitism with an essay he published in 1927 in theMenorah Journal, the magazine that years later would be rechristenedCommentary. In 'Jewish Students I Have Known,' Van Doren wrote perceptively and it turned out somewhat prophetically about some of the gifted young men he was teaching at Columbia. As Van Doren's student, the great art historianMeyer Schapiro already displayed the 'passion to know and make known.'Louis Zukofsky was 'a subtle poet' with 'an inarticulate soul.'Clifton Fadiman impressed with his tremendous fund of knowledge. About Trilling, who soon joined him on the Columbia faculty, Van Doren was particularly insightful. The young Trilling possessed 'dignity and grace,' Van Doren wrote, and whatever he elects to do 'will be lovely, for it will be the fruit of a pure intelligence slowly ripened in not too fierce a sun.'"[3] From 1953-1971 he appeared weekly oppositeMaurice Samuel on NBC radio's summer program "Eternal Light: The Words We Live By" where the two discussed the literary and cultural impact of the Bible.[7][8][9]
Also among his students were the poetsJohn Berryman andRobert Lax, novelistAnthony Robinson, psychologistWalter B. Pitkin Jr.,JapanologistDonald Keene, writer andTrappist monkThomas Merton and chemistRoald Hoffmann.[6][10] Lehman writes that "His teaching was grounded in the proposition that an intelligent person of good faith needed no special qualifications to readOthello,The Iliad, orThe Divine Comedy. You just needed to be attentive and use your intelligence. And because he treated the students with respect and without condescension, he brought out the best in them." He writes of his of his notable students, who "ranged from ecstatic Zen Beat masters (Allen Ginsberg,Jack Kerouac) to verse sophisticates (Louis Simpson,John Hollander,Richard Howard). It was a decisive encounter for Kerouac; he got an A in Van Doren's Shakespeare course, and decided in consequence to quit the Columbia football team and take up literature instead."[3]
"I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension—the attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds."
He twice served on the staff ofThe Nation from 1924–1928 and again from 1935–1938.[11] He was a member of theSociety for the Prevention of World War III.
In 1940, he was awarded thePulitzer Prize for Poetry forCollected Poems 1922–1938.[12] This came only a year after his elder brother Carl had won thePulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography forBenjamin Franklin.[13] Van Doren helped Ginsberg avoid jail time in June 1949 by testifying on his behalf when Ginsberg was arrested as an accessory to crimes carried out byHerbert Huncke and others, and was an important influence on Merton, both in Merton's conversion to Catholicism and Merton's poetry. He was a strong advocate ofliberal education, and wrote the book,Liberal Education (1943), which helped promote the influential "great books" movement.[14] Starting in 1941, he also didInvitation to Learning, aCBS Radio show, where as one of the experts he discussed great literature.
He was made aFellow in American Letters of the Library of Congress and also remained president of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.[15][16]
He was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting aworld constitution.[17][18] As a result, for the first time in human history, aWorld Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt theConstitution for the Federation of Earth.[19]
In 1922 Mark Van Doren marriedDorothy Graffe, novelist and writer of the memoirThe Professor and I (1959), whom he had earlier met atThe Nation. His successful book,Anthology of World Poetry, enabled the couple to buy a house onBleecker Street inNew York City in February 1929, before markets collapsed.[10]
Their son,Charles Van Doren (1926-2019), briefly achieved renown as the winner of the rigged game showTwenty-One. In the filmQuiz Show (1994), Mark Van Doren was played byPaul Scofield,[20][21] who earned anAcademy Award nomination in theBest Supporting Actor category for his performance.[22] Their second son was John Van Doren who also lived inCornwall, Connecticut, at the farmstead where their father did most of his writing between academic years, and where he moved after retirement.[10]
Mark Van Doren died on December 10, 1972, inTorrington, Connecticut, aged 78, two days after undergoing surgery for circulatory problems at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. He was interred at Cornwall Hollow Cemetery inConnecticut.[23]
His correspondence withAllen Tate is atVanderbilt University.[24] Since 1962, students ofColumbia College have honored a great teacher at the school each year with the "Mark Van Doren Award".John Updike wrote that "Van Doren'sShakespeare got me throughHarry Levin's course back in 1951. Whenever I reread a Shax play, I reread what Van Doren said about it."[25]
Poetry:
Novels:
Short story collection
Nonfiction:
Discography:
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1922–1950) | ||
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