Van Brooks

Van Wyck Brooks (February 16, 1886 – May 2, 1963) was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian. Biography Brooks was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1886 and graduated from Harvard University in 1908. As a student he published his first book, a collection of poetry called Verses by Two Undergraduates, co-written with his friend John Hall Wheelock. Brooks's best-known work is a...

Van Wyck Brooks (February 16, 1886 – May 2, 1963) was an American literary critic, biographer, and historian. Biography Brooks was born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1886 and graduated from Harvard University in 1908. As a student he published his first book, a collection of poetry called Verses by Two Undergraduates, co-written with his friend John Hall Wheelock. Brooks's best-known work is a series of studies entitled Makers and Finders (five volumes, 1936–1952), which chronicled the development of American literature during the long 19th century. Brooks embroidered elaborate biographical detail into anecdotal prose. For The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865 (1936) he won the second National Book Award for Non-Fiction from the American Booksellers Association and the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for History. The book was also included in Life magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944. Brooks was a long-time resident of Bridgewater, Connecticut, which built a town library wing in his name. Although a decade-long fund-raising effort was abandoned in 1972, a hermit in Los Angeles, Charles E. Piggott, with no connection to Bridgewater surprised the town by leaving money for the library in his will. With $210,000 raised, the library addition went up in 1980. Among his works, the book The Ordeal of Mark Twain (1920) analyzes the literary progression of Samuel L. Clemens and attributes shortcomings to Clemens's mother and wife. In 1925 he published a translation from French of the 1920 biography of Henry David Thoreau by Leon Bazalgette, entitled Henry Thoreau, Bachelor of Nature. His influential 1918 essay "On Creating a Usable Past" argued that the United States lacked its own coherent cultural arts tradition. Historian Constance Rourke engaged his claim and set out to show a unique American tradition. In 1944, Brooks was on the cover of Time Magazine. He died in Bridgewater, Connecticut, from cancer on May 2, 1963. Bibliography 1905: Verses by Two Undergraduates (with John Hall Wheelock) 1908: The Wine of the Puritans: A Study of Present-Day America 1913: The Malady of the Ideal: Senancour, Maurice de Guérin, and Amiel 1914: John Addington Symonds: A Biographical Study 1915: The World of H.G. Wells 1915: America's Coming of Age 1918: On Creating a Usable Past 1920: The Ordeal of Mark Twain 1925: The Pilgrimage of Henry James 1925: Henry Thoreau, Bachelor of Nature (by Leon Bazalgette, translated by Van Wyck Brooks) 1932: The Life of Emerson 1934: Three Essays on America 1936: The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865 (Makers and Finders) 1940: New England: Indian Summer, 1865–1915 (Makers and Finders) 1941: Opinions of Oliver Allston 1941: On Literature Today 1944: The World of Washington Irving (Makers and Finders) 1947: The Times of Melville and Whitman (Makers and Finders) 1948: A Chilmark Miscellany 1952: The Confident Years: 1885–1915 (Makers and Finders) 1952: Makers and Finders: A History of the Writer in America, 1800–1915 1953: The Writer in America 1954: Scenes and Portraits: Memoirs of Childhood and Youth (An Autobiography) 1955: John Sloan: A Painter's Life 1956: Helen Keller: Sketch for a Portrait 1957: Days of the Phoenix: The Nineteen-Twenties I Remember (An Autobiography) 1958: The Dream of Arcadia: American Writers and Artists in Italy, 1760–1915 1958: From a Writer's Notebook 1959: Howells: His Life and World 1961: From the Shadow of the Mountain: My Post-Meridian Years (An Autobiography) 1962: Fenollosa and His Circle: With Other Essays in Biography 1965: An Autobiography Awards and honors Brooks was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1939. In 1949, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Places named after him The Van Wyck Brooks Historic District, known for its old Victorian and Second French Empire style buildings in Plainfield, the town of his birth, is named after him. Prizes 1937: Pulitzer Prize in history and National Book Award for 1936 nonfiction 1938: Goldmedaille des Limited Editions Club 1944: Carey Thomas Award for The World of Washington Irving 1946: Gold medal of National Institute of Arts and Letters (American Academy of Arts and Letters) 1953: Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal 1954: Huntington Hartford Foundation Award 1957: Secondary Education Board Award for Helen Keller: Sketch for a Portrait Honorary degrees Doctor of Letters: Boston University Bowdoin College Columbia University Dartmouth College Fairleigh Dickinson University Harvard University Northeastern Illinois University Tufts University Union College University of Pennsylvania Doctor of Humane Letters: Northwestern University References Further reading Blake, Casey Nelson (1990). Beloved Community: The Cultural Criticism of Randolph Bourne, Van Wyck Brooks, Waldo Frank & Lewis Mumford. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1935-2. External links Van Wyck Brooks papers, 1872–1983, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania Works by Van Wyck Brooks at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Van Wyck Brooks at the Internet Archive Works by Van Wyck Brooks at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks) Van Wyck Brooks at Find a Grave Finding aid to Van Wyck Brooks papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.