Van Doren, Carl (1885-1950), was an American biographer and critic. He won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for biography for his book Benjamin Franklin (1938). Van Doren also wrote Swift (1930), a biography of the English author Jonathan Swift.
Van Doren wrote many critical essays about American authors. Much of his literary criticism was collected in The Roving Critic (1923) and Many Minds (1924). Van Doren wrote a number of books about the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). They include the Secret History of the American Revolution (1941) and Mutiny in January (1943). He also wrote an autobiography, Three Worlds (1936). Carl Clinton Van Doren was born on Sept. 10, 1885, in Hope, Illinois, near Urbana. He died on July 18, 1950. His younger brother, Mark Van Doren, was also a noted author.
