Carl Van Doren

2025-10-21T13:45:42Z

74.219.227.26: /* Publications */ Removed duplicate entry for "The Great Rehearsal"

{{Short description|American critic and biographer (1885–1950)}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Carl-Van-Doren.jpg
| caption = Van Doren as the commencement speaker for the [[University of Kentucky]] in 1929
| birth_name = Carl Clinton Van Doren
| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=yes|1885|9|10}}
| birth_place = [[Hope, Illinois]], US
| death_place = [[Torrington, Connecticut]], US
| death_date = {{death date and age|1950|7|18|1885|9|10}}
| education = [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Columbia University]] ([[PhD]])
| yearsactive =
| spouses = [[Irita Bradford Van Doren|Irita Bradford]] (1912–1935), Jean Wright Gorman (1939–1945)
}}
'''Carl Clinton Van Doren''' (September 10, 1885 – July 18, 1950) was an American critic and biographer. He was the brother of critic and teacher [[Mark Van Doren]] and the uncle of [[Charles Van Doren]].

He won the [[1939 Pulitzer Prize|1939]] [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]] for [[Benjamin Franklin (book)|''Benjamin Franklin'']].

==Life and career==
Van Doren was born on September 10, 1885, in [[Hope, Illinois|Hope]], [[Vermilion County, Illinois|Vermilion County]], [[Illinois]], the son of Eudora Ann (Butz) and Charles Lucius Van Doren, a country doctor. He and his younger brother [[Mark Van Doren]] (born 1894), were raised on the family farm.

Van Doren earned a Bachelor of Arts from the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] in 1907 and a doctorate from [[Columbia University]] in 1911. He continued to teach there until 1930. He was a [[world federalism|world federalist]] and once said, "It is obvious that no difficulty in the way of world government can match the danger of a world without it".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Rehearsal: The Story of the Making and Ratifying of the Constitution of the United States|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.506945|chapter=Preface|publisher=Viking|year=1948|last=Van Doren|first=Carl}}</ref> In 1939, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for ''Benjamin Franklin''.<ref>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Biography+or+Autobiography Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography] Official Listings.</ref> In 1942, he was elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Carl+Van+Doren&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=2023-04-18 |website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>

Van Doren's study ''The American Novel'', published in 1921, is generally credited with helping to re-establish [[Herman Melville]]'s critical status as first-rate literary master.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/187/5.html Chapter 3, ''The American Novel'']</ref> He was book section editor for ''[[The Nation]]'' from 1920 to 1922.<ref name="thenation">{{cite book |title=The Nation: 1865–1990 |editor-last=vanden Heuvel |editor-first=Katrina |editor-link=Katrina vanden Heuvel |publisher=[[Thunder's Mouth Press]] |location=New York |date=1990 |page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781560250012/page/70 70] |isbn=1560250011 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781560250012/page/70 }}</ref>

In 1912, Van Doren married [[Irita Bradford Van Doren|Irita Bradford]], editor of the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' book review. They had three daughters together: Ann born in 1915, Margaret born in 1917, and Barbara (Bobby) born in 1920. The couple divorced in 1935.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Van Doren|first=Carl|url=http://archive.org/details/threeworlds0000vand|title=Three worlds|date=1936|publisher=New York : Harper & Brothers|others=Oliver Wendell Holmes Library Phillips Academy}}</ref> Van Doren married Jean Wright Gorman in 1939, but they divorced in 1945.

Van Doren worked closely with [[Howard Henry Peckham]] on ''Secret History of the American Revolution'' (1941), editing documents from the Sir Henry Clinton (British Army Headquarters) Papers that revealed [[Benedict Arnold]]'s treason during the American Revolutionary War.<ref>[http://faculty-history.dc.umich.edu/faculty/howard-h-peckham/memorial University of Michigan Faculty History Project]</ref>

Van Doren died in [[Torrington, Connecticut]], on July 18, 1950.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19500718&id=lalTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FIgDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2565,3423062&hl=en Carl Van Doren dies in Connecticut]</ref>

==Legacy==
A residence hall at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] is named after Carl Clinton Van Doren.<ref>[http://www.housing.illinois.edu/aboutus/alumni/namesakes University of Illinois Hall Namesakes]</ref>

==Publications==
*''The Life of Thomas Love Peacock'' (1911)
*[https://archive.org/details/TheAmericanNovel ''The American Novel''] (1921 & 1940 expanded)
*''American and British Literature Since 1890'' (1925), co-written with Mark Van Doren
*[http://www.skeptically.org/thinkersonreligion/id10.html ''Why I Am an Unbeliever''] (1926)
*''Benjamin Franklin'' (1938),<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Benjamin Franklin'' by Carl Van Doren|date=7 October 1938|journal=Kirkus Reviews|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/carl-van-doren-2/benjamin-franklin-9/}}</ref> winner of the 1939 [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography]] {{ISBN|978-0517625323}}
*''The Secret History of the American Revolution'' (1941)
*[https://books.google.com/books?id=Tz0OAQAAMAAJ ''Mutiny in January: The Story of a Crisis in the Continental Army now for the first time fully told from many hitherto unknown or neglected sources both American and British''.] New York: The Viking Press, 1943.
*''The Great Rehearsal'' (1948) {{ISBN|978-0809436194}}
*''Jane Mecom: the Favorite Sister of Benjamin Franklin'' (1950) {{ISBN|978-0670405633}}

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==External links==
{{Portal|Biography}}
*{{commons category-inline}}
*{{wikiquote-inline}}
*{{wikisource author-inline}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4428| name=Carl Van Doren}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Carl Clinton Van Doren}}

{{PulitzerPrize BiographyorAutobiographyAuthors 1926–1950}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Doren, Carl Clinton}}
[[Category:1885 births]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:American people of Dutch descent]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Columbia University faculty]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners]]
[[Category:Van Doren family|Carl Clinton Van Doren]]
[[Category:University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni]]
[[Category:People from Vermilion County, Illinois]]
[[Category:People from Cornwall, Connecticut]]
[[Category:American literary critics]]
[[Category:20th-century American biographers]]
[[Category:The Nation (U.S. magazine) people]]
[[Category:Writers from Illinois]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]

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Carl Van Doren