Melvin Van den Bark

AKA: Melvin Oliver Kemp Van Den Bark

Born 1897-02-06 Omaha, NE (USA)

Died 1974-04
Norman, OK (USA)

Buried
Dallas, TX (USA)
Calvary Hill Cemetery

Co-author of The American Thesaurus of Slang. Perhaps best remembered locally as Mari Sandoz's first writing instructor at the University of Nebraska. Helen Winter Stauffer, Sandoz's biographer, describes his importance to Sandoz. He recognized Sandoz's talents, and got her opportunities for further instruction and work.

Van den Bark was also close to Louise Pound and Lowry Wimberly.

He published in Wimberly's Midcountry in 1945 and was also published in Midland, an important regionalist magazine (1915-1933). Van den Bark was praised by Louis Bromfield in the Feb. 15, 1925 issue of Books for his story, 'Two Women and Hog-Back Ridge.'

Places Lived

Omaha, NE
Lincoln, NE
Norman, OK
Dallas, TX

Author Of

Fiction
Journalism
Nonfiction

Keywords

Short Stories; Journalism; Linguistics

Education

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE

Occupation

Writer
Professor of English

Places Worked

University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK

Honors

Included in Best Short Stories of 1924

Bibliography

American Thesaurus of Slang. (co-editor with Lester Berrey)

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