Dorothy Graffe Van Doren

Dorothy Graffe Van Doren (May 2, 1896 – February 21, 1993) was an American writer and editor.

Life and career Dorothy Graffe was born in 1896 in San Francisco, California, and grew up in New York, the daughter of Frances Rosette (Lane) and George Graffe, a newsman. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University in 1918. In 1920, while she was an assistant at The Nation magazine, she met Mark Van Doren. They were married in 1922. He went on to a distinguished career as a teacher, critic and prolific author of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize. She wrote novels, and later turned to writing humorous autobiographical works about life with her husband and family.

The Van Dorens' elder son Charles Van Doren became a celebrity in 1957 after a series of appearances on the television game show Twenty-One.