Mark Van Doren

Mark Van Doren ( born June 13, 1894 in Hope, Illinois, † December 10, 1972 in Torrington, Connecticut ) was an American literary critic, university lecturer and poet, who in 1940 won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Life

Teaching

After school he studied at the University of Illinois and graduated in 1914 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) graduated before he finished there then postgraduate studies in 1915 with a Master of Arts (MA). In 1920, he earned a Philosophiae Doctor ( Ph.D.) from Columbia University with a dissertation on the poems of John Dryden, which appeared in 1920 under the title The Poetry of John Dryden.

Then he took in 1920 to the offer of a professorship of English Language at Columbia University and has held until his retirement in 1959, this nearly forty years. His students included, among others, Robert Lax and David Medalla.

In addition to this teaching, he was from 1924 to 1928 and editor for literature in The Nation, the oldest weekly magazine in the U.S..

Writing career and Awards

Already at this time he also began his career as a poet and published anthologies in addition to the Spring Thunder ( 1924), Jonathan Gentry (1931 ) and Winter Diary (1935 ) also in 1935 his first novel entitled The Transients. He also wrote in 1927 a further technical book about the diary of Samuel Sewall Samuel Sewall with the title 's Diary. After a book about William Shakespeare ( Shakespeare ( 1939) ), he published in 1939 the book of poems Collected Poems and received this 1940 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

After two more novels with the titles Windless Cabins (1940 ) and Tilda (1943 ) and the anthology The Mayfield Deer (1941 ) published some books about literary criticism and literature such as The Noble Voice (1946 ), Nathaniel Hawthorne (1949) and Introduction to Poetry ( 1951).

After his last volume of poetry, The Last Days of Lincoln ( 1959), he was once more widespread attention by the reference book The Happy Critic ( 1961). In 1963 he was also awarded the Emerson -Henry David Thoreau Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

In addition, he will be forgiven honor since 1962 by the students of Columbia University of the Mark Van Doren Award to outstanding high school teacher.

Family

Van Doren is the father of literature professors Charles Van Doren, the candidate of the quiz show Twenty-One came in 1957 in the American television history and the template for the directed by Robert Redford movie Quiz Show (1994 ) provided. In this Paul Scofield played the role of Mark Van Doren.

His older brother was the literary critic and scientist Carl Van Doren, who in 1939 also received a Pulitzer Prize and indeed in the category of biography or autobiography for a biography of Benjamin Franklin.

Works

Seal

  • Spring Thunder ( 1924)
  • (Ed.): An Anthology of World Poetry (1928 )
  • (Ed.): Jonathan Gentry (1931 )
  • (Ed.): The Oxford Book of American Prose (1932 )
  • Winter Diary (1935 )
  • Collected Poems 1922-1938 (1939 )
  • The Mayfield Deer (1941 )
  • Selected Poems (1954 )
  • Our Lady Peace
  • The Story -Teller
  • Collected and New Poems 1924-1963 (1963 )

Drama

  • The Last Days of Lincoln ( 1959)

Novels

  • The Transients (1935 )
  • Windless Cabins (1940 )
  • Tilda (1943 )

Short stories

  • Nobody Say a Word (1954 )

Literary criticism and other prose

  • Henry David Thoreau: A Critical Study. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston and New York, 1916.
  • The Poetry of John Dryden. Harcourt, Brace and Howe, New York, 1920.
  • The Ordeal of Mark Twain. E. P. Dutton, New York 1920.
  • Introduction to Bartram 's Travels (1928 )
  • An Autobiography of America ( 1929)
  • American Poets, 1630-1930 (1932 )
  • ( with Carl Van Doren ): American and British Literature Since 1890 (1939 )
  • Shakespeare ( 1939)
  • The Liberal Education ( 1943)
  • The Night of the Summer Solstice: & Other Stories of the Russian War ( 1943)
  • The Noble Voice (1946 )
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne (1949 )
  • Introduction to Poetry ( 1951)
  • The Autobiography Of Mark Van Doren (1958 )
  • The Happy Critic (1961 )
  • Mark Van Doren on Great Poems of Western Literature ( 1962)
  • George Hendrick ( ed.), The Selected Letters of Mark Van Doren. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge 1987. ISBN 0,807,113,174th
Torrington (Connecticut) Twenty One (game show) Quiz Show (film) Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography Name Authority File
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