Collected Poems

4079434Mark Van Doren papers 4079434Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Butler Library, 6th FloorColumbia University, Mail Code 1127535 W. 114th St.New York, NY 10027Business Number: (212) 854-5153Fax Number: (212) 854-1365rbml@libraries.cul.columbia.eduURL:

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Contents list, 11 p

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-02-06 20:20:55 -0500.Description is written in: English, Latin script.Describing Archives: A Content Standard2009-06-26File created.2018-10-22The unnumbered series previously at the end ("Correspondence (Series 2)") was just a list of names found in series V. The names were integrated into that series. kws2019-05-20EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.2024-07-22Cataloged correspondent list in Series I added. kws Rare Book and Manuscript Library Mark Van Doren papers Van Doren, Mark, 1894-1972 4079434 MS#1288 English /repositories/2/resources/5753 35 linear feet 83 boxes; 1 oversize folder 1910-1976 Arrangement

Arranged in ten series.

Restrictions on Access

This collection is located on-site.

Restrictions on Access

The following box is located off-site: 86. You will need to request this material from the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

Restrictions on Access

This collection has no restrictions.

Summary

Correspondence and manuscripts of Van Doren, consisting of letters, poems, short stories, novels, plays, radio broadcast transcripts ("Invitation to Learning"), diaries, critical works, proofs, and printed works. Correspondents include Louise Bogan, Philip Booth, Babette Deutsch, Richard Eberhart, T.S. Eliot, John Gould Fletcher, Herbert Gorman, E.W. Howe, Robinson Jeffers, Archibald MacLeish, Louis MacNeice, Edgar Lee Masters, Lewis Mumford, Hyam Plutzik, Allen Tate, and Louis Zukovsky. Also, extensive correspondence with Robert Lax and Thomas Merton, as well as manuscripts by these two authors.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Mark, Van Doren papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Alternate Form Available

I. A. Richards and Allen Tate letters are on: microfilm.

Alternate Form Available

T. S. Eliot letters have been: photocopied.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Source of acquisition--Van Doren, Mark. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1960. Accession number--M-60.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

15 items added to Box 41, 42& 85: Source of acquisition--2293B. Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--10/18/1995. Accession number--M-95-10-18.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

3 letters to Grover Smith: Source of acquisition--Smith, Grover. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1997. Accession number--M-1997.

Biographical Note

Mark Van Doren (1894–1972) joined the Columbia faculty after earning his PhD in 1920. He was among the original band of scholars who taught John Erskine's General Honors course. Over subsequent decades, Van Doren would open the world of ideas and poetry to Columbia students, among them alumni poets Louis Simpson, Richard Howard, John Hollander, John Berryman, Thomas Merton, and Allen Ginsberg. He guided the planning and helped launch of Humanities A in the Core Curriculum ("Lit Hum," a cornerstone of the Core to this day) and taught a section himself for 17 years, an experience about which he said in his autobiography "nothing I ever did with students was more fun." Among his writings are Collected Poems, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1939; American and British Literature since 1890, with his brother, Carl Van Doren; critical studies of various authors, including John Dryden and Nathaniel Hawthorne; several anthologies, and The Noble Voice, a collection of essays.

Upon his retirement from full-time teaching at Columbia, Van Doren told Newsweek: "I have always had the greatest respect for students. There is nothing I hate more than condescension--the attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds." The students of Columbia College honor great teachers with the Mark Van Doren Award.