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{{Short description|American literary critic, biographer and historian (1886–1963)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Van Wyck Brooks by John Butler Yeats, 1909, oil on canvas, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 82 129Brooks-000001.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Van Wyck Brooks by [[John Butler Yeats]], 1909]]
'''Van Wyck Brooks''' (February 16, 1886 – May 2, 1963) was an American [[literary criticism|literary critic]], biographer, and historian.

== Biography ==
[[File:Jo-Cotten-FDR-LIFE-1944.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Members of the Independent Voters Committee of the Arts and Sciences for Roosevelt visit [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|FDR]] at the White House (October 1944). From left: Van Wyck Brooks, [[Hannah Weinstein|Hannah Dorner]], [[Jo Davidson]], [[Jan Kiepura]], [[Joseph Cotten]], [[Dorothy Gish]], Dr. [[Harlow Shapley]]]]
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]].<ref>Sullivan, Roderick B. (February 2001). "Biography of John Hall Wheelock, Poet", ''Biographies of Notable Wheelocks.'' Retrieved 3 July 2012.</ref>

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 [[anecdote|anecdotal]] prose. For ''The Flowering of New England, 1815–1865'' (1936) he won the second [[List of National Book Award winners#1935 to 1941|National Book Award]] for Non-Fiction from the [[American Booksellers Association]]<ref name="nyt1936a">
{{Cite news |date=April 12, 1936 |title=Books and Authors |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/101594579 |work=[[The New York Times]] |pages=BR12 |id={{ProQuest|101594579}} }}</ref><ref name="nyt1937">{{Cite news |date=February 26, 1937 |title=5 Honors Awarded on the Year's Books |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/102232510 |work=[[The New York Times]] |pages=23 |id={{ProQuest|102232510}} }}</ref> and the 1937 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]]. The book was also included in [[Life (magazine)|''Life'' magazine]]'s list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Canby |first=Henry Seidel |date=August 14, 1944 |title=The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924–1944 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9VAEAAAAMBAJ |access-date=January 26, 2024 |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |via=[[Google Books]]}} Chosen in collaboration with the magazine's editors.</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bernstein |first=Jane |title=History |url=http://burnhamlibrary.org/about/history/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090307124228/http://burnhamlibrary.org/about/history/ |archive-date=March 7, 2009 |access-date=May 4, 2009 |website=Burnham Library}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Olick |first=Jeffrey K. |date=Summer 2007 |title=From Usable Pasts to the Return of the Repressed |url=https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/the-uses-of-the-past/articles/from-usable-pasts-to-the-return-of-the-repressed |journal=[[The Hedgehog Review]] |access-date=January 26, 2024}}</ref> Historian [[Constance Rourke]] engaged his claim and set out to show a unique American tradition.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schlueter |first=Jennifer |date=December 2008 |title='A theatrical race': American Identity and Popular Performance in the Writings of Constance M. Rourke |journal=[[Theatre Journal]] |location=Baltimore |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=529–543 |doi=10.1353/tj.0.0090}}</ref>

In 1944, Brooks was on the [[Lists of covers of Time magazine|cover of ''Time Magazine'']].<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=August 19, 1940 |title=Books: The Decline of the East |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764443,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101014080541/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764443,00.html |archive-date=October 14, 2010 |access-date=January 26, 2024 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref>

He died in Bridgewater, Connecticut, from cancer on May 2, 1963.<ref>{{cite news |title=Van Wyck Brooks Dies of Cancer |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-town-talk-van-wyck-brooks-dies-of-ca/194201609/ |work=The Town Talk |agency=United Press International |date=3 May 1963 |page=2}}</ref>

== 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 [[Henri-Frédéric Amiel|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 [[Ralph Waldo Emerson|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 [[Herman Melville|Melville]] and [[Walt Whitman|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: ''[[William Dean Howells|Howells]]: His Life and World''
* 1961: ''From the Shadow of the Mountain: My Post-Meridian Years'' (An Autobiography)
* 1962: ''[[Ernest Fenollosa|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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APS Member History |url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Van+Wyck+Brooks&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced |access-date=May 9, 2023 |website=[[American Philosophical Society]]}}</ref> In 1949, he was elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 9, 2023 |title=Van Wyck Brooks |url=https://www.amacad.org/person/van-wyck-brooks |access-date=May 9, 2023 |website=[[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]}}</ref>

===Places named after him===
The [[Van Wyck Brooks Historic District]], known for its old [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] and [[Second French Empire]] style buildings in [[Plainfield, New Jersey|Plainfield]], the town of his birth, is named after him.

=== Prizes ===
* 1937: [[Pulitzer Prize]] in history and [[National Book Award]] for 1936 nonfiction<ref name=nyt1937/>
* 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 ==
{{Reflist}}

== 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 ==
* [http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/ead/upenn_rbml_MsColl650 Van Wyck Brooks papers, 1872–1983, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=41582 }}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Van Wyck Brooks}}
* {{Librivox author |id=5997}}
* {{Find a Grave}}
* [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079652 Finding aid to Van Wyck Brooks papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.]

{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1926–1950}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Van Wyck}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1963 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Plainfield, New Jersey]]
[[Category:American literary critics]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for History winners]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:20th-century American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Historians of the American West]]
[[Category:Historians of the United States]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]]
[[Category:People from Bridgewater, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Historians from New Jersey]]
[[Category:Historians from Connecticut]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
[[Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society]]

Van Wyck Brooks - Revision history

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