Henry Van Dyke letter (RLC.Ms.533)

Biographical note

Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933), Presbyterian clergyman, author, and professor was born on November 10, 1852, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. Van Dyke attended Princeton University and received his B.A. in 1873 and an M.A. in 1876. He then spent the next two years studying at the University of Berlin and when he returned to the United States, he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. For the first four years of his ministry, Van Dyke served as a pastor of the United Congregational Church of Newport, Rhode Island. In 1883, he left Newport to become the pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church of New York City where he stayed for eighteen years. While in New York, Van Dyke gained a national reputation as one of the greatest preachers of New York City and also published his first book in 1884, The Reality of Religion. Van Dyke published several other books, short stories, and poems during his lifetime, usually incorporating religious matters and literary criticism. In 1900, Van Dyke became the Murray Professor of English Literature at Princeton and would remain in that position through 1923, when he retired. In 1908-1909, Van Dyke also served as a visiting lecturer for the University of Paris and in 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed him the United States minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Henry Van Dyke died at his home in Princeton, New Jersey, on April 10, 1933.