Mark Albert Van Doren (van DOHR-uhn) was a distinguished American poet, critic, fiction writer, editor, and educator. He was born in Hope, Illinois, the son of Dr. Charles Lucius Van Doren (a medical doctor) and Dora Ann Butz. Mark Van Doren remained on his parents’ farm until he was six years old. Subsequently he, his parents, and his four brothers relocated to Urbana, Illinois.{$S[A]Doren, Mark Van;Van Doren, Mark}

Following the path of his older brother Carl, Mark Van Doren studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana. After he completed his bachelor’s degree in 1914, he enrolled in the master’s English program. Van Doren took a course in nineteenth century prose writers under the tutelage of Professor Stuart Sherman, who introduced Van Doren to Henry David Thoreau’s writings. Van Doren chose the writings of Thoreau as the subject for his master’s thesis. In 1915 he was awarded his master’s degree.

Van Doren continued his studies at Columbia University in New York, where his brother Carl had studied previously and had become an English literature professor. Carl was very influential in Van Doren’s academic career. Carl suggested Van Doren’s dissertation topic: John Dryden’s poetry. Van Doren received his Ph.D. in 1920.

During the fall of 1920, Van Doren became an English professor at Columbia. During his tenure, he taught several future literary critics, such as Lionel Trilling, Maxwell Geismar, and John Gassner, as well as publishers Donald Dike and Robert Giroux and novelist Jack Kerouac. Demonstrating his passion for teaching, Van Doren remained at Columbia until he retired in 1959. He came out of retirement in 1963 to accept a position at Harvard University as a visiting professor. He continued to write until his death in 1972.

During the 1920’s, Van Doren was literary editor as well as film critic of the liberal weekly The Nation. While serving as literary editor from 1924 to 1928, Van Doren published the works of such poets as Hart Crane, Robert Graves, and Allen Tate. Also, several other members of the Van Doren family, including brother Carl, Irita (Carl’s first wife), and writer and editor Dorothy Graffe (Mark’s future wife), held different positions on The Nation. In 1922, Mark and Dorothy were married. They became the parents of two sons, Charles and John. Dorothy wrote a biography of Van Doren called The Professor and I in 1959.

Van Doren established himself as a significant poet when he published Spring Thunder, and Other Poems, consisting of early pastoral lyrics. Some of his other typical works of poetry include Jonathan Gentry, a narrative poem; A Winter Diary, and Other Poems, his frontier legend; Our Lady Peace, war poems; The Seven Sleepers, and Other Poems, war poems; The Country Year, poems on rural life; and Good Morning: Last Poems, expressions of peaceful acceptance in anticipation of death. Although Van Doren covered a variety of topics in his poetry, some of his common themes concern family, friends, nature, death, American legends, animals, and World War II.

Van Doren began his career as a critic when he published Henry David Thoreau in 1916. Other critical works include The Poetry of John Dryden, Shakespeare, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Van Doren’s major critical writings can be found in Private Reader and The Happy Critic, and Other Essays.

Included in Van Doren’s fiction are four novels: The Transients, Windless Cabins, Tilda, and Home with Hazel. Some of his best short stories can be found in Nobody Say a Word, and Other Stories . Also to his credit...