Personal Life
Mark Van Doren married novelist and the writer of memoir, The Professor and I (1959), Dorothy Graffe Van Doren in 1922, whom he had earlier met at The Nation. His successful book, Anthology of World Poetry, enabled the couple to buy a house on Bleecker Street in the New York City in February 1929, before markets collapsed.
Their son, Charles Van Doren (born February 12, 1926), briefly achieved renown as the winner of the rigged game show Twenty-One. In the film Quiz Show (1994), Mark Van Doren was played by Paul Scofield, who earned an Academy Award nomination in Best Supporting Actor category for his performance. Their second son is John Van Doren who also lives in Cornwall, Connecticut at the farmstead, where their father did most of his writing between academic years, and where he moved after retirement.
Mark Van Doren died on December 10, 1972, in Torrington, Connecticut, aged 78, two days after undergoing surgery for circulatory problems at the Charlotte Hungerford Hospital. He was interred at Cornwall Hollow Cemetery in Connecticut. Lion: A Memoir of Mark Van Doren (1991), by Dan Wakefield won the 1992 Cohen Awards.
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