Irita Bradford Van Doren was an American literary editor.
Background
Van Doren was born on March 16, 1891, in Birmingham, Alabama. She was the daughter of John Taylor Bradford, a lumberman and merchant, and Ida Henley Brooks. When she was four, her family moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where her father owned a sawmill.
Five years later, she was shot and killed by a discharged worker, and Irita's mother had to support the family by giving music lessons and selling preserves and jellies. All four children had a strong interest in literature, and while helping their mother put up jars of preserves, they took turns reading aloud from the classics.
Education
At the age of seventeen, Van Doren graduated from Florida State College for Women, where she edited the school's literary magazine.
The following year, she received her master's degree and then embarked for New York to study English at Columbia University. While working on her doctorate, she taught part-time at Hunter College.
Career
In the early years of their marriage, Van Doren assisted her husband in researching his books. And in 1919, when he became literary editor of the Nation, she also joined the editorial staff, succeeding him as a book editor in 1923. Then, in 1924, her friend Stuart P. Sherman accepted the book editorship of the New York Herald Tribune on the condition that she be hired as his chief assistant.
While Sherman wrote a weekly column and was primarily a critic, Van Doren helped launch and edited "Books, " the paper's weekly book-review section. Following Sherman's death in 1926, Van Doren was named literary editor of the Herald Tribune, and for the next thirty-seven years, she ran the influential literary supplement, gaining an international reputation for shrewd editorial judgment and fairness.
Although the Herald Tribune was staunchly Republican in its editorial policies, Van Doren had autonomy and gave representation to a broad spectrum of contributors. "Since 'Books' is published as part of a large newspaper, " she observed, "it must count among its potential readers people of every variety, taste, and opinion.
And since all kinds of books are published, it seems only fair to review them from the point of view from which they are written, so that they will ultimately find the audience for whom they are intended. " Within a short time at the Herald Tribune, Van Doren won recognition as a leading literary figure and one of the newspaper's most gifted editors.
She hired distinguished writers as visiting critics, she initiated a national best-seller list, and despite a low budget that made it impossible to pay contributors more than a few cents a word, she attracted a wide range of celebrated writers and critics. Working with a much smaller staff than that at the rival New York Times, she built a literary supplement that was considered at least the equal of its local rival, and often livelier and better-written.
After losing the election to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Willkie resumed his relationship with Van Doren. She was the principal collaborator on Willkie's best-selling One World (1943) and also edited his book An American Program (1944). At the time of Willkie's death in 1944, Van Doren was his closest friend and confidante.
Van Doren retired from the Herald-Tribune in the spring of 1963 and became a literary consultant to the publishing firm of William Morrow. Although often encouraged by publishers to write her memoirs, she politely declined, referring to herself as "the nonwriting Van Doren. "
Achievements
Personality
A woman of strong principle, Van Doren did not hesitate to call publisher Alfred Knopf's bluff when he threatened to discontinue advertising in the Herald Tribune in retaliation for an unfavorable review. Knopf did not carry out his threat. Enormously popular among literary people, Van Doren was an arresting personality, a woman of wit, intellect, warmth, vitality, and a special grace.
While her career prospered, her marriage soured, and in 1935 the Van Dorens were divorced. Two years later, Van Doren met Wendell L. Willkie, who was then chairman of Commonwealth and Southern, the nation's largest public-utility holding company. One of the initial ties between them was a mutual interest in southern history. But they soon were romantically involved. Willkie spoke privately of divorcing his wife to marry Van Doren, but could not bring himself to ask her for a divorce. He also feared that a divorce might harm his political career.
Van Doren encouraged his political ambitions and assisted him with his magazine articles and speeches; her efforts brought a new polish and vigor to his literary style. It was through Van Doren that Willkie developed his close friendship with Herald Tribune publishers Ogden and Helen Reid, who were to be among his earliest and most important sponsors for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination. When Willkie campaigned for the presidency, Van Doren told him that he should keep his distance from her and make the most of his opportunity. Resentful of the hypocrisy of politics, Willkie nonetheless followed Van Doren's advice but stayed in daily contact with her by telephone during his campaign travels.
Short, slender, and dark-haired, Van Doren spoke with a soft southern accent.
Quotes from others about the person
"Among the kind-hearted editors I have known she was by far the kindest, " recalled Malcolm Cowley. A Herald Tribune colleague, John K. Hutchens, added, "She had great skill and charm, and she also had a vein of iron. "
Connections
On August 23, 1912, Irita married a young Columbia instructor, Carl Van Doren, who went on to become a prominent literary critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer. They bought a farm in West Cornwall, Connecticut, where they spent weekends and the summer. They had three children.