Born
Irita Bradford in
Birmingham, Alabama, she moved with her family to
Tallahassee, Florida, when she was four. Her father owned and operated a sawmill there. He was killed by a disgruntled former employee when Irita was nine, leaving her mother to support four children. She gave music lessons, mostly to children, and sold homemade preserves. Bradford graduated from the
Florida State College for Women in 1908. She studied at
Columbia University for her doctorate in
English while teaching part-time at
Hunter College. While at Columbia, she met fellow grad student
Carl Van Doren, who was studying politics and government. He was a member of the literary Van Doren family, and later won a
Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Benjamin Franklin. They married in 1912, and had three daughters together. They divorced in 1935. In 1919, she and her husband joined the staff of
The Nation, where she succeeded him as literary editor in 1923. The following year, she became assistant to
Stuart Sherman, book editor of the
New York Herald Tribune. When he died in 1926, Van Doren succeeded him. Holding this post until 1963, Van Doren became an influential and prominent figure in American letters. She also hosted the popular
Book and Author Luncheons, sponsored by the
American Booksellers Association and the
Herald Tribune, from 1938 to 1963. Radio broadcasts of the luncheons on
WNYC began in 1948. Due to a mutual interest in southern history (Van Doren was the granddaughter of
Union General
William T. H. Brooks), she met
Wendell Willkie, the
Republican presidential nominee in 1940. Publicly good friends, they carried on a lengthy romantic affair. She introduced him to the literary world and assisted in writing his speeches and books. The Irita Van Doren Book Award was established in 1960 by the publisher of the
Herald Tribune. Despite the urging of many, she never wrote her memoirs, referring to herself as "the nonwriting Van Doren". ==References==