Shakespeare

“Van Doren’s Shakespeare got me through Harry Levin’s [Harvard] course back in 1951. Whenever I read a Shax play I reread what Van Doren said about it.” — John Updike

“Professor Van Doren enlightens us, not because he has any special knowledge or private advantages, but because his love of Shakespeare has been greater than our own.” — W.H. Auden

“If during my stay at Columbia I had met only Mark Van Doren and his work, it would have been worth the trouble.” — Delmore Schwartz

“It was the force of his example that made me a poet.” — John Berryman