Van Doren, Mark

Van Doren, Mark

▪ American writer
born June 13, 1894, Hope, Ill., U.S.
died Dec. 10, 1972, Torrington, Conn.

      American poet, writer, and eminent teacher. He upheld the writing of verse in traditional forms throughout a lengthy period of experiment in poetry. As a teacher at Columbia University for 39 years (1920–59), he exercised a profound influence on generations of students.

      Van Doren was the son of a country doctor. He was reared on the family farm in eastern Illinois and in the town of Urbana. Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Carl, he attended Columbia University and became literary editor of The Nation, in New York City (1924–28), and its film critic from 1935 to 1938. After receiving a Ph.D. from Columbia, he served as a professor of English there from 1942 to 1959.

      Van Doren's literary criticism includes The Poetry of John Dryden (1920; rev. ed., John Dryden: A Study of His Poetry, 1946; reprinted 1967), the basis of which was his Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia. He also wrote Shakespeare (1939, reprinted 1982), a volume of essays on the plays; Nathaniel Hawthorne (1949, reprinted 1972); and The Happy Critic, and Other Essays (1961). Two of his finest studies grew out of a course he taught at Columbia. In The Noble Voice (1946, reprinted as Mark Van Doren on Great Poems of Western Literature, 1962), he considers 10 long poems, from Homer and Virgil through Lucretius, Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Spenser, Wordsworth, and Byron. Van Doren's An Anthology of World Poetry (1928) was among the first works of its kind, and his Introduction to Poetry (1951; new ed. 1966) examines shorter classic poems of English and American literature.

      The author of more than 20 volumes of verse, Van Doren published his first, Spring Thunder, in 1924. In 1940 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his Collected Poems, reissued as Collected and New Poems, 1924–1963. His poetry includes the verse play The Last Days of Lincoln (1959) and three book-length narrative poems: Jonathan Gentry (1931), about the settling of the Midwest by three generations of Gentrys, their experience in the Civil War, and the end of a long-held dream of a paradise beyond the Appalachian Mountains; A Winter Diary (1935), the poetic record of a winter spent on his Connecticut farm; and The Mayfield Deer (1941), a backwoods tale of murder and revenge. He was the author of three novels—The Transients (1935), Windless Cabins (1940), and Tilda (1943)—and several volumes of short stories; he also edited a number of anthologies. In 1922 he married Dorothy Graffe, author of five novels and the memoir The Professor and I.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Mark Van Doren — Born June 13, 1894(1894 06 13) Hope, Vermilion County, Illinois Died December 10, 1972(1972 12 10) (aged 78) Torrington, Connecticut …   Wikipedia

  • Mark Van Doren — Este artículo o sección necesita referencias que aparezcan en una publicación acreditada, como revistas especializadas, monografías, prensa diaria o páginas de Internet fidedignas. Puedes añadirlas así o avisar al auto …   Wikipedia Español

  • Mark Van Doren — (* 13. Juni 1894 in Hope, Illinois; † 10. Dezember 1972 in Torrington, Connecticut) war ein amerikanischer Literaturkritiker, Hochschullehrer und Dichter, der 1940 den Pulitzer Preis für Dichtung gewann. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben 1.1… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Van Doren — is a last name which can refer to:*Carl Clinton Van Doren, a Pulitzer Prize winning biographer. *Charles Van Doren, a quiz show contestant, professor and Encyclopædia Britannica editor. *Dorothy Graffe Van Doren, an American novelist. *Irita… …   Wikipedia

  • Van Doren —   [væn dɔːrən],    1) Carl Clinton, amerikanischer Literaturkritiker, * Hope (Illinois) 10. 9. 1885, ✝ Torrington (Connecticut) 18. 7. 1950, Bruder von 2); lehrte 1911 34 an der Columbia University in New York; arbeitete als Redakteur für… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Van Doren — [van dôr′ən] 1. Carl (Clinton)1885 1950; U.S. editor & writer 2. Mark (Albert) 1894 1972; U.S. poet & literary critic: brother of Carl …   English World dictionary

  • Van Doren, Carl — ▪ American critic born Sept. 10, 1885, Hope, Ill., U.S. died July 18, 1950, Torrington, Conn.       U.S. author and teacher whose writings range through surveys of literature to novels, biography, and criticism.       Educated at Columbia… …   Universalium

  • Van Doren,Carl Clinton — Van Dor·en (văn dôrʹən, dōrʹ ), Carl Clinton. 1885 1950. American literary critic, editor, and writer whose biography of Benjamin Franklin (1938) won a Pulitzer Prize. His brother Mark (1894 1972), a prolific writer and critic, is best known for… …   Universalium

  • Van Doren — /van dawr euhn, dohr / 1. Carl, 1885 1950, U.S. writer. 2. his brother, Mark, 1894 1972, U.S. writer and critic. * * * …   Universalium

  • Van Doren, Carl (Clinton) and Mark — born Sept. 10, 1885, Hope, Ill., U.S. died July 18, 1950, Torrington, Conn. born June 13, 1894, Hope, Ill. died Dec. 10, 1972, Torrington, Conn. U.S. writers and teachers. Carl, who taught at Columbia University from 1911 to 1930, edited the… …   Universalium

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”