Henry Van Dyke

"Henry Van Dyke (1852-), American writer, was born at Germantown, Pa., Nov. 10 1852. He studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and after graduating from Princeton in 1873 and from the Princeton Theological School in 1877, he spent two years at the university of Berlin. In 1879 he was ordained a Presbyterian minister, was for three years stationed at Newport, R.I., and from 1883 to 1900 was pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City. In this capacity his preaching gave him a national reputation. From 1900 he was professor of English literature at Princeton. During 1902 -3 he was moderator of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. In 1908 he was appointed American lecturer at the Sorbonne. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1909 was elected president of the National Institute. In 1913 he was appointed by President Wilson minister to Holland and Luxemburg, but resigned in 1917. When after the fall of Liege in 1914 von Jagow handed to Mr. Gerard, the American ambassador in Berlin, the note to Belgium, offering full reparation for damages, in case free passage to France were granted German troops, Van Dyke flatly refused to act as intermediary. From the first he championed the cause of the Allies in the World War, and after America's entrance into the war he served as a naval chaplain. Dr. Van Dyke was an eloquent speaker. His books, both prose and in verse, give him a high place in modern American literature. Among his best works are his " outdoor essays," especially Little Rivers (1895) and Fisherman's Luck (1899). His publications include The Reality of Religion (1884); The Poetry of Tennyson (1889); The Other Wise Man (1896); Ships and Havens (1897); The Toiling of Felix, and Other Poems (1900); The Poetry of the Psalms (1900); The Blue Flower (1902); Days Off (1907); The House of Rimmon (1908); Out-of-Doors in the Holy Land (1908); Collected Poems (191 I); The Bad Shepherd (1911); The Unknown Quantity (1912); The Lost Boy (1914); Fighting for Peace (1917); The Valley of Vision (1919); and Golden Stars (1919) .