![]() ![]() In this volume, the photographs have been omitted to make room for a series of home- made drawings which represent ideas rather than events. Pictures and photographs of famous personages and equally famous occurrences cover the pages of Breasted and Robinson and Beard. The day of the historical textbook without illustrations has gone. Far from serving only as a way to break up the text, Van Loon said of his drawings: Van Loon’s books were noteworthy for the hand drawn sketches he included in nearly every volume. 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. His The Story of Mankind was the first winner of the Newberry Medal in 1922. ![]() A professor of history at Cornell and Antioch, van Loon is best known for his prodigious output of popular histories, many written for children. 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. He was an intellectual and an elitist who nevertheless wrote for children and the general public. 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). Hendrik Willem van Loon: Illustrations from The Story of MankindĪlthough he is hardly remembered today, at one time in the early twentieth century Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944) was an international celebrity. ![]()
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