Mark Van Doren
Encyclopedia
Mark Van Doren was an American poet, writer and a critic, apart from being a scholar and a professor of English at Columbia University
for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton
, Robert Lax
, John Berryman
, and Beat Generation
writers such as Allen Ginsberg
and Jack Kerouac
. He remained literary editor of The Nation, in New York City
(1924–28), and its film critic, 1935 to 1938.
Amongst his notable works, many published in The Kenyon Review
, include a collaboration with brother Carl Van Doren, American and British Literature since 1890 (1939), the play The Last Days of Lincoln; critical studies, The Poetry of John Dryden (1920), Shakespeare (1939), The Noble Voice (1945) and Nathaniel Hawthorne (1949), collections of poems like three book-length narrative poems: Jonathan Gentry (1931), stories, and the verse play The Last Days of Lincoln (1959).
. The fourth of five sons of the county's doctor, Charles Lucius Van Doren, of remote Dutch ancestry, and wife Eudora Ann Butz, he was raised on his family's farm in eastern Illinois, before his father decided moved to the neighboring town of Urbana
, to be closer to good schools.
He was the younger brother of the academic and biographer Carl Van Doren, and starting with whom, all his five brothers attended the local elementary school and high school, and eventually joining the University of Illinois also in the town.
Mark Van Doren earned a B.A. from the University of Illinois
in 1914 and a Ph.D.
from what became the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
at Columbia University
in 1920.
faculty in 1920, his entry was easy as he was preceded by his brother and noted author, Carl Van Doren, though he went on to become one of its greatest teachers, and a "legendary classroom presence". He attained full professorship in 1942, and taught English until 1959, and later he remained Professor Emeritus, 1959–72 His students at Columbia included the poets and writers John Berryman
, Allen Ginsberg
, Jack Kerouac
, Louis Simpson
, Richard Howard
, Lionel Trilling
(later a colleague), Robert Lax
, Anthony Robinson
, as well as the Japanologist and interpreter of Japanese literature
Donald Keene
, author and activist Whittaker Chambers
, writer and Trappist
monk Thomas Merton
, Walter B Pitkin Jr
and poet-critic John Hollander
.
He twice served on the staff of The Nation during the 1920s and 1930s. He was a member of the Society for the Prevention of World War III
.
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 by Herbert 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 of liberal education
, and wrote the book, The Liberal Education (1943), which helped promote the influential "great books" movement. Starting 1941, he also did Invitation to Learning a CBS
radio show, where as one of the experts he discussed great literature.
He was made a Fellow in American Letters of the Library of Congress
and also remained president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
in 1922, whom he had earlier met at The Nation. His successful book, Anthology of World Poetry, enabled the couple to buy a house on Bleecker Street
in the New York City
in February 1929, before markets collapsed.
Their son, Charles Van Doren
(born February 12, 1926), briefly achieved renown as the winner of the rigged game show Twenty-One
. In the film Quiz Show (1994), Mark Van Doren was played by Paul Scofield
, who earned an Academy Award nomination in Best Supporting Actor
category for his performance. Their second son is John Van Doren who also lives in Cornwall, Connecticut
at the farmstead, where their father did most of his writing between academic years, and where he moved after retirement.
Mark Van Doren died on December 10, 1972, in Torrington, Connecticut
, aged 78; two days after undergoing surgery for circulatory problems at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, and was interred at Cornwall Hollow Cemetery in Connecticut
. Lion: A Memoir of Mark Van Doren (1991), by Dan Wakefield
won the 1992 Cohen Awards
.
is at Vanderbilt University
. Since 1962, students of Columbia College
have honored a great teacher at the school each year with the "Mark Van Doren Award".
A Canadian alternative rock band named themselves "Our Lady Peace
", which was in honor of Mark van Doren's poem, "Our Lady Peace".
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
for nearly 40 years, where he inspired a generation of influential writers and thinkers including Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
, Robert Lax
Robert Lax
Robert Lax was an American poet, known in particular for his association with famed 20th century Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton. A third friend of his youth, whose work sheds light on both Lax and Merton, was Ad Reinhardt. During the latter period of his life, Lax resided on the island of...
, John Berryman
John Berryman
John Allyn Berryman was an American poet and scholar, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and was considered a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry...
, and Beat Generation
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
writers such as Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
. He remained literary editor of The Nation, in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
(1924–28), and its film critic, 1935 to 1938.
Amongst his notable works, many published in The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review
The Kenyon Review is a Literary magazine based in Gambier, Ohio, USA, home of Kenyon College. The Review was founded in 1939 by John Crowe Ransom, critic and professor of English at Kenyon College, who served as its editor until 1959...
, include a collaboration with brother Carl Van Doren, American and British Literature since 1890 (1939), the play The Last Days of Lincoln; critical studies, The Poetry of John Dryden (1920), Shakespeare (1939), The Noble Voice (1945) and Nathaniel Hawthorne (1949), collections of poems like three book-length narrative poems: Jonathan Gentry (1931), stories, and the verse play The Last Days of Lincoln (1959).
Early life and education
He was born in the town of Hope in Vermilion County, IllinoisVermilion County, Illinois
Vermilion County is a county located in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Illinois, between the Indiana border and Champaign County. It was established in 1826 and was the 45th of Illinois' 102 counties...
. The fourth of five sons of the county's doctor, Charles Lucius Van Doren, of remote Dutch ancestry, and wife Eudora Ann Butz, he was raised on his family's farm in eastern Illinois, before his father decided moved to the neighboring town of Urbana
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana is the county seat of Champaign County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 41,250. Urbana is the tenth-most populous city in Illinois outside of the Chicago metropolitan area....
, to be closer to good schools.
He was the younger brother of the academic and biographer Carl Van Doren, and starting with whom, all his five brothers attended the local elementary school and high school, and eventually joining the University of Illinois also in the town.
Mark Van Doren earned a B.A. from the University of Illinois
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
in 1914 and a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from what became the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University is the branch of the university that grants academic degrees, including M.A.'s and Ph.D.'s., in fields not covered by the university's professional or other schools....
at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1920.
Career
Van Doren joined Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
faculty in 1920, his entry was easy as he was preceded by his brother and noted author, Carl Van Doren, though he went on to become one of its greatest teachers, and a "legendary classroom presence". He attained full professorship in 1942, and taught English until 1959, and later he remained Professor Emeritus, 1959–72 His students at Columbia included the poets and writers John Berryman
John Berryman
John Allyn Berryman was an American poet and scholar, born in McAlester, Oklahoma. He was a major figure in American poetry in the second half of the 20th century and was considered a key figure in the Confessional school of poetry...
, Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
, Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
, Louis Simpson
Louis Simpson
Louis Aston Marantz Simpson is an American poet. He won the 1964 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his work At The End Of The Open Road.-Life:...
, Richard Howard
Richard Howard
Richard Howard is an American poet, literary critic, essayist, teacher, and translator. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio and is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied under Mark Van Doren, and where he now teaches...
, Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling
Lionel Trilling was an American literary critic, author, and teacher. With wife Diana Trilling, he was a member of the New York Intellectuals and contributor to the Partisan Review. Although he did not establish a school of literary criticism, he is one of the leading U.S...
(later a colleague), Robert Lax
Robert Lax
Robert Lax was an American poet, known in particular for his association with famed 20th century Trappist monk and writer Thomas Merton. A third friend of his youth, whose work sheds light on both Lax and Merton, was Ad Reinhardt. During the latter period of his life, Lax resided on the island of...
, Anthony Robinson
Anthony Robinson (novelist)
Anthony Robinson is an American novelist and short story writer, and for many years a professor of creative writing at SUNY New Paltz.-Personal life:...
, as well as the Japanologist and interpreter of Japanese literature
Japanese literature
Early works of Japanese literature were heavily influenced by cultural contact with China and Chinese literature, often written in Classical Chinese. Indian literature also had an influence through the diffusion of Buddhism in Japan...
Donald Keene
Donald Keene
Donald Lawrence Keene is a Japanologist, scholar, teacher, writer, translator and interpreter of Japanese literature and culture. Keene was University Professor Emeritus and Shincho Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Columbia University, where he taught for over fifty years...
, author and activist Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
, writer and Trappist
TRAPPIST
TRAPPIST is Belgian robotic telescope in Chile which came online in 2010, and is an acronym for TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, so named in homage to Trappist beer produced in the Belgian region. Situated high in the Chilean mountains at La Silla Observatory, it is actually...
monk Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. was a 20th century Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion...
, Walter B Pitkin Jr
Walter B Pitkin Jr
Walter Boughton Pitkin was an American publisher, author, andliterary agent.-Biography:Pitkin was born and raised in Dover, New Jersey in what was then a rural area. He was the youngest son of Walter B. Pitkin and Mary Gray Pitkin. He was the youngest of 5 brothers...
and poet-critic John Hollander
John Hollander
John Hollander is a Jewish-American poet and literary critic. As of 2007, he is Sterling Professor Emeritus of English at Yale University...
.
He twice served on the staff of The Nation during the 1920s and 1930s. He was a member of the Society for the Prevention of World War III
Society for the Prevention of World War III
The Society for the Prevention of World War III was an organization set up in the U.S. in 1944 during World War II that advocated a harsh peace for Germany in order to completely remove Germany as a future military threat....
.
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 by Herbert Huncke
Herbert Huncke
Herbert Edwin Huncke was a writer and poet, and active participant in a number of emerging cultural, social and aesthetic movements of the 20th century in America...
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 of liberal education
Liberal education
A Liberal education is a system or course of education suitable for the cultivation of a free human being. It is based on the medieval concept of the liberal arts or, more commonly now, the liberalism of the Age of Enlightenment...
, and wrote the book, The Liberal Education (1943), which helped promote the influential "great books" movement. Starting 1941, he also did Invitation to Learning a CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
radio show, where as one of the experts he discussed great literature.
He was made a Fellow in American Letters of the Library of Congress
Fellows in American Letters of the Library of Congress
The Fellows in American Letters of the Library of Congress are awarded by the Library of Congress.-History:In 1943, during his tenure as Librarian of Congress , poet Archibald MacLeish appointed poet Alan Tate as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress...
and also remained president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Personal life
Mark Van Doren married novelist and the writer of memoir, The Professor and I (1959), Dorothy Graffe Van DorenDorothy Graffe Van Doren
Dorothy Graffe was an American novelist.In 1922 she married Pulitzer Prize-winner Mark Van Doren. Their eldest son Charles Van Doren became famous after winning the rigged game show Twenty-One...
in 1922, whom he had earlier met at The Nation. His successful book, Anthology of World Poetry, enabled the couple to buy a house on Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street
Bleecker Street is a street in New York City's Manhattan borough. It is perhaps most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightclub district. The street is a spine that connects a neighborhood today popular for music venues and comedy, but which was once a major center for American bohemia.Bleecker...
in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in February 1929, before markets collapsed.
Their son, Charles Van Doren
Charles Van Doren
Charles Lincoln Van Doren is an American intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s...
(born February 12, 1926), briefly achieved renown as the winner of the rigged game show Twenty-One
Twenty One (game show)
Twenty One is an American game show which aired in the late 1950s. While it included the most popular contestant of the quiz show era, it became notorious for being a rigged quiz show which nearly caused the demise of the entire genre in the wake of United States Senate investigations...
. In the film Quiz Show (1994), Mark Van Doren was played by Paul Scofield
Paul Scofield
David Paul Scofield, CH, CBE , better known as Paul Scofield, was an English actor of stage and screen...
, who earned an Academy Award nomination in Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
category for his performance. Their second son is John Van Doren who also lives in Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall, Connecticut
Cornwall is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 1,434 at the 2000 census.In 1939 poet Mark Van Doren wrote "The Hills of Little Cornwall", a short poem in which the beauties of the countryside were portrayed as seductive:The town was also home to the Foreign...
at the farmstead, where their father did most of his writing between academic years, and where he moved after retirement.
Mark Van Doren died on December 10, 1972, in Torrington, Connecticut
Torrington, Connecticut
Torrington is the largest city in Litchfield County, Connecticut and the northwestern Connecticut region. It is also the core city of the largest micropolitan area in the United States. The city population was 36,383 according to the 2010 census....
, aged 78; two days after undergoing surgery for circulatory problems at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital, and was interred at Cornwall Hollow Cemetery in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
. Lion: A Memoir of Mark Van Doren (1991), by Dan Wakefield
Dan Wakefield
Dan Wakefield is an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. His best-selling novels, Going All the Way and Starting Over were made into feature films...
won the 1992 Cohen Awards
Cohen Awards (Ploughshares)
The Cohen Awards honor the best short story and poem published in Ploughshares. The awards are sponsored by Denise and Mel Cohen. Finalists are nominated by staff editors, and the winners are selected by the advisory editors...
.
Legacy
His correspondence with Allen TateAllen Tate
John Orley Allen Tate was an American poet, essayist, social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1943 to 1944.-Life:...
is at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...
. Since 1962, students of Columbia College
Columbia College of Columbia University
Columbia College is the oldest undergraduate college at Columbia University, situated on the university's main campus in Morningside Heights in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1754 by the Church of England as King's College, receiving a Royal Charter from King George II...
have honored a great teacher at the school each year with the "Mark Van Doren Award".
A Canadian alternative rock band named themselves "Our Lady Peace
Our Lady Peace
Our Lady Peace is a Canadian alternative rock band that formed in Toronto, Ontario in 1992. Headed by lead vocalist Raine Maida since its formation, the band additionally consists of Jeremy Taggart on percussion, Duncan Coutts on bass, and Steve Mazur as lead guitarist...
", which was in honor of Mark van Doren's poem, "Our Lady Peace".
Reviews
This well-edited, attractive selection (about one-fourth of the surviving letters) brings Mark Van Doren alive, especially to those who knew him and can hear the voice behind the written words. It should help criticism begin to engage the works and personality of a very considerable American "man of letters": superb poet and critic, wide-ranging editor, accomplished storyteller and playwright, and devoted educator.
Quotes
- "The literature of the world has exerted its power by being translated."
- "Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth."
- "The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery."
Further reading
- Mark Van Doren, by J. T. Ledbetter. Peter Lang, 1996. ISBN 0820433349.
- Sonnets by Mark Van Doren
External links
- Mark Van Doren and Shakespeare; Columbia College Today, September 2005 (retrieved May 24, 2009)
- Mark Van Doren & American classicism.
- Grave of Mark Van Doren at findagrave.com