Title: Hendrik Willem van Loon: Illustrations from The Story of Mankind

URL: https://library.osu.edu/projects/vanloon/

Description: Although he is hardly remembered today, at one time in the early twentieth century Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944) was an international celebrity. It is difficult to find parallels to him: he was at once an author who also illustrated his own books (as well as the works of others). He was an intellectual and an elitist who nevertheless wrote for children and the general public. A prolific writer, he was also a radio personality, whose larger-than-life persona would have thrived on television had he lived long enough to see it. A professor of history at Cornell and Antioch, van Loon is best known for his prodigious output of popular histories, many written for children. His The Story of Mankind was the first winner of the Newberry Medal in 1922. His books were praised by both educators and professional historians alike, however, other professors were loudly dismissive of van Loon, both for being a mere popularizer and for writing simplistic interpretations of the past. NOTE: any issues with site navigation/missing graphics existed in the pre-Archive-It captured site.

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Subject:   Illustrations