Mark van doren biography of martin luther

A legendary classroom presence who inspired generations of Columbia students—many of them future writers and critics—Van Doren was a poet, editor, and biographer as well as a scholar and teacher. Among his writings are Collected Poems , which won a Pulitzer Prize in ; American and British Literature since , 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.

Mark Van Doren was an American poet, writer, and eminent teacher.

Van Doren joined the Columbia faculty after earning his PhD here in , and was among the original band of young scholars who taught John Erskine's General Honors course. 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.

There is nothing I hate more than condescension—the attitude that they are inferior to you. I always assume they have good minds. Columbia's history, as seen by those who have studied, taught, and worked here. Columbians have changed the world and how we see it. Nothing in man is more serious than his sense of humor; it is the sign that he wants all the truth.

Mark Van Doren — Teacher PhD Faculty —59; Emeritus, —72 A legendary classroom presence who inspired generations of Columbia students—many of them future writers and critics—Van Doren was a poet, editor, and biographer as well as a scholar and teacher.