The Spirit of America

Henry Jackson van Dyke Jr. was an American novelist, educator, diplomat, and Presbyterian minister. Van Dyke was born November 10, 1852, in Germantown, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Henry Jackson van Dyke Sr. (1822-1891), a famous Brooklyn Presbyterian preacher recognized in the antebellum era for his anti-abolitionist beliefs. The family descended from Jan Thomasse van Dijk, who came from Holland to North America in 1652. The younger Henry van Dyke graduated from Poly Prep Country Day School in 1869, Princeton University in 1873, and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1877. He was a professor of English literature at Princeton from 1899 to 1923. Among the many pupils he impacted was future star travel writer Richard Halliburton (1900-1939), then-Editor-in-Chief of the Princeton Pictorial. Van Dyke oversaw the group that developed the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship, in 1906. Dr. van Dyke served as an instructor at the University of Paris from 1908 to 2009. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson appointed van Dyke, a friend and old classmate, as Minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg. World War I erupted shortly after his appointment, devastating Europe. Americans from all over Europe came to Holland seeking shelter.