ADVENTURES OF THE MIND: From The Saturday Evening Post

Adventures of the Mind: From The Saturday Evening Post. Edited by Richard Thruelsen and John Kobler, with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Columbia University professor Mark Van Doren. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960. Fourth Printing, January 1960. 285 pages. A remarkable mid-century anthology bringing together major figures in science, philosophy, literature, history, religion, architecture, modern art, music, linguistics and cultural criticism. Originally drawn from essays appearing in The Saturday Evening Post, the collection provides a compelling snapshot of American intellectual culture at the close of the 1950s. The volume opens with an introduction by Mark Van Doren, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, critic and celebrated longtime Columbia University professor. Of particular historical interest, Mark Van Doren was the father of Charles Van Doren, the Columbia academic who became a national television celebrity as a contestant on NBC's Twenty-One before becoming the central figure in the celebrated television quiz-show scandal. Charles Van Doren publicly admitted before a congressional committee on November 2, 1959, that he had participated in the deception surrounding the program. This copy is the January 1960 fourth printing, placing its production only months after Charles Van Doren's congressional confession and at a remarkable moment in the history of the Van Doren family's public reputation and American intellectual culture. The connection is contextual rather than associative: Charles Van Doren did not contribute to this volume, but his father Mark supplied its introduction. The juxtaposition is particularly interesting because Adventures of the Mind celebrates intellectual inquiry and presents serious ideas to a broad popular audience—the same period in which Charles Van Doren's television fame had transformed a young Columbia scholar into a nationally recognized symbol of intellectual achievement. Mark and Charles Van Doren Historical Context Mark Van Doren was one of the distinguished American literary scholars of his generation, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and longtime professor of English at Columbia University. His son Charles Van Doren was likewise a Columbia academic when he became nationally famous through his appearances on the television quiz program Twenty-One. His apparent command of an extraordinary range of knowledge turned him into an intellectual celebrity during the 1950s. The story collapsed during the television quiz-show investigations. On November 2, 1959, Charles admitted before congressional investigators that he had been supplied questions and answers in connection with Twenty-One. His association with the scandal became one of the defining episodes in the early history of American television. The timing gives this particular printing an intriguing historical context: the copyright page identifies it as the Fourth Printing, January 1960, only a short time after Charles Van Doren's nationally publicized confession. No claim of ownership, provenance or direct association with Charles Van Doren is made; the significance is the documented father-son relationship and Mark Van Doren's role as the author of the introduction. Accordingly, this copy is accurately described as the Fourth Printing, January 1960, rather than a fourth edition. Please refer to photographs for additional condition detail; photographs form part of the description. .The January 1960 printing also places the volume at an extraordinary moment in the history of the Van Doren family, appearing shortly after the 1959 congressional testimony of Mark Van Doren's son Charles during the notorious television quiz-show scandal.…