'The art of assisting discovery'

 

“The art of teaching is the art ofassisting discovery.” – Mark Van Doren

 

Born in Illinois on June 13, 1894 Van Doren was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, writer and critic, and oneof the nation’s leading scholars during a 40-year career as Professor ofEnglish at Columbia University. There he inspired a generation of influentialwriters and thinkers including Thomas Merton, Robert Lax, John Berryman,Whittaker Chambers, and Beat Generation writers such as Allen Ginsberg and JackKerouac.  

 

He was the author of 12 books ofpoetry, 3 novels, and 17 nonfiction books – which included the definitive MarkVan Doren on the Great Poems of Western Literature.  Published in 1962, it is considered by mostscholars to be one of the great resource books of the 20th Century.   

 

Outside the classroom, Van Doren served as literary editor of The Nation magazine for many years and was an influential film critic there from 1935 to 1938.

 

“(Always) bring ideas in andentertain them royally,” Van Doren advised his students,  “for one ofthem may become the king.”