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Van Wyck Brooks

ヴァン・ウィック・ブルックス

Van Wyck Brooks

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1886-02-16 （Plainfield, New Jersey）
Died
1963-05-02 （Bridgewater, Connecticut） age 77
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Residence History
Plainfield, New Jersey → Cambridge, Massachusetts (during Harvard) → Bridgewater, Connecticut

Career

Occupations
literary critic, biographer, historian, writer, translator
Active Years
1905-1963
Memberships
American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Influenced By
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau

Education

Harvard University
Harvard College
Degree: 学士
Period: 1904–1908
Year of Graduation: 1908
Country: United States
Published a collection of poetry co-written with a friend while a student

Awards

Pulitzer Prize (History)
1937
Work: The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865
Category: 歴史
Organization: Pulitzer Prize Board (Columbia University)
Result: winner
National Book Award (Non-Fiction)
1936
Work: The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865
Category: ノンフィクション
Organization: American Booksellers Association
Result: winner
Gold medal of the Limited Editions Club
1938
Organization: Limited Editions Club
Result: winner
Carey Thomas Award
1944
Work: The World of Washington Irving
Result: winner
Gold medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters (American Academy of Arts and Letters)
1946
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Letters
Result: winner
Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal
1953
Result: recipient
Huntington Hartford Foundation Award
1954
Organization: Huntington Hartford Foundation
Result: recipient
Secondary Education Board Award
1957
Work: Helen Keller: Sketch for a Portrait
Result: winner
Member of the American Philosophical Society
1939
Organization: American Philosophical Society
Result: elected
Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1949
Organization: American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Result: elected

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865

1936 Non-fiction (literary history / cultural history)

A study tracing the development of American literature in the long 19th century, focusing on New England writers and their cultural significance.

American literatureNew Englandcultural history

The Ordeal of Mark Twain

1920 biographical criticism

An analysis of Samuel L. Clemens' (Mark Twain) literary development, addressing personal and familial influences on his work.

biographyAmerican literaturestudies of writers

Makers and Finders (five volumes)

1936 literary history

A multi-volume series chronicling the history of writers in America, examining literary trends from the 19th century into the early 20th century.

American literary historyhistory of writerscultural identity

The Life of Emerson

1932 biography

A biographical study of Ralph Waldo Emerson, covering his life and ideas.

biographyintellectual historyTranscendentalism

Bibliography

  • Verses by Two Undergraduates (with John Hall Wheelock)
  • The Wine of the Puritans: A Study of Present-Day America
  • The Malady of the Ideal
  • John Addington Symonds: A Biographical Study
  • The World of H.G. Wells
  • America's Coming of Age
  • On Creating a Usable Past
  • The Ordeal of Mark Twain
  • The Pilgrimage of Henry James
  • Henry Thoreau, Bachelor of Nature (translation)
  • The Life of Emerson
  • Three Essays on America
  • The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865
  • New England: Indian Summer, 1865–1915
  • Opinions of Oliver Allston
  • On Literature Today
  • The World of Washington Irving
  • The Times of Melville and Whitman
  • A Chilmark Miscellany
  • The Confident Years: 1885–1915
  • Makers and Finders: A History of the Writer in America, 1800–1915
  • The Writer in America
  • Scenes and Portraits: Memoirs of Childhood and Youth
  • John Sloan: A Painter's Life
  • Helen Keller: Sketch for a Portrait
  • Days of the Phoenix: The Nineteen-Twenties I Remember
  • The Dream of Arcadia: American Writers and Artists in Italy, 1760–1915
  • From a Writer's Notebook
  • Howells: His Life and World
  • From the Shadow of the Mountain: My Post-Meridian Years
  • Fenollosa and His Circle: With Other Essays in Biography
  • An Autobiography

Translations by Author

  • Henry Thoreau, Bachelor of Nature (translation of Leon Bazalgette's biography)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
anecdotal, narrative prosebiographical and critical style
Recurring Motifs
formation of American culturewriters and national characterNew England

Legacy

Van Wyck Brooks was an influential figure in early- to mid-20th-century American literary history and criticism; his The Flowering of New England earned him a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. His multi-volume Makers and Finders is regarded as a major contribution to the literary history of the United States.

Museums

  • Burnham Library (Van Wyck Brooks wing) Bridgewater, Connecticut Opened in 1980

Academic Societies

  • American Philosophical Society
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Archives

  • Van Wyck Brooks papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, University of Pennsylvania
  • Finding aid to Van Wyck Brooks papers at Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library

In Popular Culture

  • Featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1944
  • The Van Wyck Brooks Historic District in Plainfield, his birthplace, preserves his name

Trivia

  • He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1944.
  • Bridgewater built a library wing named for him (opened 1980).
  • His birthplace Plainfield contains the Van Wyck Brooks Historic District.