閱讀亨德裏剋·威廉·房竜 Hendrik Willem van Loon在百家争鸣的作品!!! | |||
生平
房竜1882年出生於荷蘭鹿特丹一個富裕家庭。自幼對歷史、地理、船舶、繪畫和音樂等發生興趣。1902年衹身赴美國，入康奈爾大學，1905年獲學士學位，1911年在慕尼黑大學獲博士學位。
房竜早年的生活並不順利，他的第一部著作《荷蘭共和國的覆亡》雖然得到了一定認可，但銷路並不理想。1920年他應書商要約寫作《古人類》，纔取得一定銷量，然而卻並不足以扭轉他的經濟狀況。此後房竜寫出多部暢銷全美市場的作品，其中《聖經的故事》、《人類的故事》和《寬容》最為著名。至1920年代末期他積纍到一定財富，在美國和歐洲購置了房産，不再受限於經濟問題，可以自由地從事創作和社會活動了。房竜曾在康奈爾大學（1915-1917）和俄亥俄州安條剋學院（1921-1922）取得過教職，校方認為他的課非常吸引學生，但是缺乏科學性，且無助於提高學生的歷史成績。
房竜曾以記者身份報道1905年和第一次世界大戰。
房竜常以自己手繪的漫畫作為自己作品的插圖。
房竜結過三次婚：1906年，他與來自馬薩諸塞州上流家庭的Eliza Ingersoll Bowditch （數學家Nathaniel Bowditch的後代）結婚，育有兩子。1920年娶第二任妻子Eliza Helen Criswell（昵稱"吉米"）。在第三段婚姻結束後房竜一直與吉米同居直到去世。《房竜傳》的作者，房竜次子傑勒德.威廉.房竜認為房竜並不愛吉米，而衹是把她看作工作和生活秘書。
房竜身高達2.08米，亦相當肥胖，有"大象"的綽號。他的身體狀況一直不甚理想，最後死於心髒病發。此外因長期從事寫作，房竜長期患有神經衰弱。
影響與評價
在美國，房竜被看作著名作傢、歷史學家和記者，其影響主要來自於他的著作。但在學術界房竜的影響則不大。
儘管中國公衆可能對房竜缺乏瞭解，但在中國的知識界，房竜卻擁有相當的認知度。早在1927年，其著作《古人類》就已由中國著名女建築學家林徽因翻譯出版（書名《古代的人》）。《人類的故事》在1930年代出現中文版。中國當代作傢鬱達夫曾評價說："範竜（即房竜）的這一種方法，實在巧妙不過，乾燥無味的科學常識，經他那麽一寫，無論大人小孩，讀他的書的人，都覺得娓娓忘倦了"。"......範竜的筆，有這一種魔力。但這也不是他的特創，這不過是將文學家的手法，拿來用以講述科學而已。"
1950年代以後，房竜的著作在中國大陸長期遭禁。1980年代中後期起，中國大陸的大學生開始重新傳看房竜的著作。到2000年以後中華人民共和國境內實際上掀起了房竜著作的出版熱潮，市面上同時存在着同一部著作的多種翻譯版本。部分中國知識分子把閱讀房竜著作作為瞭解西方歷史、接受人文主義啓蒙教育的捷徑。房竜作品的通俗性、趣味性和傾嚮於自由主義的思想也相當程度上滿足了中國讀書界的需求，有人認為他是"人文主義大師"。
房竜在歐洲幾乎不享有知名度，即使在他的故鄉荷蘭也有很多人不知道房竜或者不認為他是知名人士。
中國讀者中的爭議
贊揚
持支持態度的讀者認為，房竜為寫作歷史耗費了畢生的精力與健康，用他平易近人、生動流暢的文筆把高深、晦澀的歷史知識和理解、寬容和進步的思想普及到廣大普通讀者中，嚮無知與偏執不懈地挑戰，其精神與功績都值得後世的贊揚。
關於房竜敘述歷史的立足點，支持者認為：房竜始終站在全人類的高度在寫作。雖然作為一個過了20歲纔移居美國的荷蘭人，他不可避免地更多寫到他熟悉的西方，也更鐘情於他的故國，但他絶不是西方中心論者。他一直在努力從人類的眼光來觀察和敘述．超越地區的、宗教的、黨派的和種族的偏見。他反對任何形式的狹隘，包括那種為了給本民族增光而歪麯事實的超愛國主義。
批評
有讀者批評，房竜在1932年出版的《房竜地理》中，把中日兩國比作一條船上的兩位乘客，中國年邁體虛，卻緊抱着一大包食物；日本血氣方剛身強體壯卻饑腸轆轆（見《房竜地理》第三十章《日本》）。這句話顯示了房竜認為日本對中國的侵略不可避免，且存在合理性。與房竜對於幾乎同一時期德國在歐洲的擴張和侵略所持的鮮明的批判態度（見房竜為駁斥希特勒的《我的奮鬥》而寫作的《我們的戰鬥》（1938））相比，從這一反差中可以看出房竜所宣揚的人文主義似乎本身就常伴隨着歐洲中心主義，並具有虛偽和兩面性。
同樣是在《房竜地理》中，因其將與中國分作獨立的兩章撰寫，使得中國大陸的版本都以註釋聲明立場。
主要著作
* 《荷蘭共和國的衰亡》（1913）
* 《發現簡史》（1917）
* 《古人類》（1920）
* 《人類的故事》（1921）
* 《聖經的故事》（1923）
* 《寬容》（1925）
* 《美洲的故事》（1927）
* 《製造奇跡的人》（1928）
* 《倫勃朗的生平與時代》（1930）
* 《房竜地理》（1932）
* 《藝術》（1937）
* 《太平洋的故事》（1940）
* 《約翰.塞巴斯蒂安.巴赫的生平與時代》（1940）
* 《托馬斯.傑弗遜》（1943）
* 《西蒙.玻利瓦爾的生平與時代》（1943）
Life
He was born in Rotterdam, the son of Hendrik Willem van Loon and Elisabeth Johanna Hanken. He went to the United States in 1902 to study at Cornell University, receiving his degree in 1905. He was a correspondent during the Russian Revolution of 1905 and in Belgium in 1914 at the start of World War I. He later became a professor of history at Cornell University (1915–17) and in 1919 became an American citizen.
In 1906 he married Eliza Ingersoll Bowditch, daughter of a Harvard professor, by whom he had two sons, Henry Bowditch and Gerard Willem. He had two later marriages, to Eliza Helen (Jimmie) Criswell in 1920 and playwright Frances Goodrich Ames in 1927, but after a divorce from Ames he returned to Criswell (it is debatable whether or not they re-married) who inherited his estate in 1944.
Works
From the 1910s until his death, Van Loon wrote many books, illustrating them himself. Most widely known among these is The Story of Mankind, a history of the world especially for children, which won the first Newbery Medal in 1922. The book was later updated by Van Loon and has continued to be updated, first by his son and later by other historians.
However, he also wrote many other very popular books aimed at young adults. As a writer he was known for emphasizing crucial historical events and giving a complete picture of individual characters, as well as the role of the arts in history. He also had an informal and thought-provoking style which, particularly in The Story of Mankind, included personal anecdotes.
The titles and subtitles of his books are notable for being lengthy.
Quotations
Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "I still stick to the Dutch pronunciation of the double o—Loon like loan in 'Loan and Trust Co.' My sons will probably accept the American pronunciation. It really does not matter very much." (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.)
Bibliography
A list of works by Hendrik Willem van Loon, with first publication dates and publishers.
* The Fall of the Dutch Republic, 1913, Houghton Mifflin Co.
* The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom, 1915, Doubleday Page & Co.
* The Golden Book of the Dutch Navigators, 1916, The Century Co.
* A Short History of Discovery: From the Earliest Times to the Founding of Colonies in the American Continent, 1917, David McKay
* Ancient man; the Beginning of Civilizations, 1920, Boni and Liveright
* The Story of Mankind, 1921, Boni and Liveright
* The Story of the Bible, 1923, Boni and Liveright
* Witches and Witch-Finders, 1923, article from the June 1923 Mentor Magazine
* The Story of Wilbur the Hat, 1925, Boni and Liveright
* Tolerance, 1925, Boni and Liveright
* The Liberation of Mankind: the story of man's struggle for the right to think, 1926, Boni and Liveright
* America: The Story of America from the very beginning up to the present, 1927, Boni and Liveright
* Adriaen Block, 1928, Block Hall
* Multiplex man, or the Story of Survival through Invention, 1928, Jonathan Cape
* Life and Times of Peter Stuyvesant, 1928, Henry Holt
* Man the Miracle Maker, 1928, Horace Liveright
* R. v. R.: the Life and Times of Rembrandt van Rijn, 1930, Horace Liveright
* If the Dutch Had Kept Nieuw Amsterdam, in If, Or History Rewritten, edited by J. C. Squire, 1931, Simon and Schuster
* Van Loon's Geography: The Story of the World We Live In, 1932, Simon and Schuster
* "Gold" 1933, article from the Cosmopolitan March 1933
* An Elephant Up a Tree, 1933, Simon and Schuster
* An Indiscreet Itinerary or How the Unconventional Traveler Should See Holland by one who was actually born there and whose name is Hendrik Willem Van loon, 1933, Harcourt, Brace
* The Home of Mankind: the story of the world we live in, 1933, George G. Harrap
* The story of inventions: Man, the Miracle Maker, 1934, Horace Liveright
* Ships: and How They Sailed the Seven Seas (5000 B.C.-A.D.1935), 1935, Simon and Schuster
* Around the World With the Alphabet, 1935, Simon and Schuster
* Air-Storming (radio talk), 1935, Harcourt, Brace
* Love me not, 1935
* A World Divided is a World Lost, 1935, Cosmos Publishing Co.
* The Songs We Sing (with Grace Castagnetta), 1936, Simon and Schuster
* The Arts (with musical illustrations by Grace Castagnetta), 1937, Simon and Schuster
* Christmas Carols (with Grace Castagnetta), 1937, Simon and Schuster
* Observations on the mystery of print and the work of Johann Gutenberg, 1937, Book Manufacturer's Institute/New York Times
* Our Battle: Being One Man's Answer to "My Battle" by Adolf Hitler, 1938, Simon and Schuster
* How to Look at Pictures: a Short History of Painting, 1938, National Committee for Art Appreciation
* Folk Songs of Many Lands (with Grace Castagnetta), 1938, Simon and Schuster
* The Last of the Troubadours: The Life and Music of Carl Michael Bellman 1740-1795 (with Grace Castagnetta), 1939, Simon and Schuster
* The Songs America Sings (with Grace Castagnetta), 1939, Simon and Schuster
* My School Books, 1939, E. I. du Pont de Nemours
* Invasion, being the personal recollections of what happened to our own family and to some of our friends during the first forty-eight hours of that terrible incident in our history which is now known as the great invasion and how we escaped with our lives, 1940, Harcourt, Brace
* The Story of the Pacific, 1940, George G. Harrap
* The Life and Times of Johann Sebastian Bach, 1940, Simon and Schuster
* Good Tidings (with Christmas songs by Grace Castegnetta), 1941, American Artists Group
* The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, with a short life of the Author by Hendrik Willem van Loon of Rotterdam who also illustrated the Book, 1942
* Van Loon's Lives: Being a true and faithful account of a number of highly interesting meetings with certain historical personages, from Confucius and Plato to Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson, about whom we had always felt a great deal of curiosity and who came to us as dinner guests in a bygone year, 1942, Simon and Schuster
* Christmas Songs, 1942
* The Message of the Bells (with music by Grace Castagnetta), 1942, New York Garden City
* Fighters for Freedom: the Life and Times of Thomas Jefferson and Simon Bolivar, 1943, Dodd, Mead & Co.
* The Life and Times of Scipio Fulhaber, Chef de Cuisine, 1943
* Adventures and Escapes of Gustavus Vasa, and how they carried him from his rather obscure origin to the throne of Sweden, 1945
* Report to Saint Peter, upon the kind of world in which Hendrik Willem van Loon spent the first years of his life - an unfinished, posthumously published autobiography, 1947, Simon and Schuster
Books about Van Loon
* Cornelis van Minnen (2005). Van Loon: Popular Historian, Journalist, and FDR Confidant. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 1-4039-7049-1.
* Gerard Willem Van Loon (1972). The story of Hendrik Willem van Loon. Lippincott. ISBN 0-397-00844-9.
* Erasmus with a short life of the author by Gerard Willem Van Loon (1972). The Praise of Folly. For the Classic Club, by Walter J.Black of New York.
In popular culture
The Italian songwriter Francesco Guccini has composed a song, dedicated to the memory of his father, who was a lover of van Loon's works when he was young. The song is titled "Van Loon", and appears in the album Signora Bovary.