Mark Van Doren: 67 (American University Studies Series 24: American Literature) - Tapa dura

-'Mark Van Doren' is a book of criticism and biography that Van Doren himself would have approved. It keeps the man, the thinker, and the writer before us whole, and we hear in Van Doren's voice the attitude of a poet who found his subjects everywhere, in the interdependence among people and the details, objects, and bright moments of their lives. Ledbetter proves an adept critic as he guides us through Van Doren's fiction, criticism, drama, and poetry and as he judiciously integrates comments and ideas from his own lively correspondence with Van Doren. In Van Doren, we hear the voice of a craftsmen poet and an influential teacher who maintained his conviction that literature should and ought to be accessible and understandable to a wide audience. The book concentrates on the poetry, and Ledbetter is at his best in his careful readings of particular poems. In those readings, Ledbetter shows Van Doren at 'his' best, bringing us lyric moments of 'glad grace'.- (Gordon Cheesewright, Professor of English, Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO)
-This book is a comprehensive, systematic interpretation of Mark Van Doren's writings. Dr. Ledbetter draws on his personal friendship with Van Doren and on a wide range of standard critical sources to illuminate each of Van Doren's works, presenting the central insights a reader needs for Van Doren's writing without use of a specialized interpretation method or vocabulary. The result is a book using scholarship to provide helpful background for the average reader.- (Georg Haich, Associate Professor Emeritus, Georgia State University, GA)
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Mark Van Doren, contemporary of Frost, Sandburg, and Robinson, and author of novels, short fiction, plays, and criticism, has long been considered one of America's finest thinkers and writers. This study of his literary life examines the major themes found in his work, focusing particularly on his poetry, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize.