 charles lincoln van doren (born february 12, 1926) is an american intellectual, writer, and editor who was involved in a television quiz show scandal in the 1950s. in 1959 he testified before the united states congress that he had been given the correct answers by the producers of the show twenty one. ==background== the son of pulitzer prize-winning poet and literary critic/teacher mark van doren and novelist and writer dorothy van doren, and nephew of critic and pulitzer prize-winning biographer carl van doren, charles van doren was a committed academic with an unusually broad range of interests. he graduated from the high school of music & art and then earned a b.a. degree in liberal arts (1946) from st. john's college in annapolis, maryland, as well as a master's degree in astrophysics (1949) and a doctorate in english (1955), both at columbia university. he was also a student at cambridge university in england. in 1962, van doren wrote an article about encyclopedias called the idea of an encyclopedia."the idea of an encyclopedia". sagepub.com. retrieved august 20, 2014. ==quiz show star== twenty one was not van doren's first interest. he was long believed to have approached producers dan enright and albert freedman, originally, to appear on tic-tac-dough, another game they produced. van doren eventually revealedâfive decades after his twenty one championship and fame, in a surprise article for the new yorkerâthat he did not even own a television set, but had met freedman through a mutual friend, with freedman initiating the idea of van doren going on television by way of asking what he thought of tic-tac-dough. enright and freedman were impressed by van doren's polite style and telegenic appearance, thinking the youthful columbia teacher would be the man to defeat their incumbent twenty one champion, herb stempel, and boost the show's slowing rat
1926_births American_academics Columbia_University_alumni Columbia_University_faculty Contestants_on_American_game_shows Living_people NBC_News People_from_New_York_City St._John\'s_College_(Annapolis/Santa_Fe)_alumni University_of_Connecticut_faculty Van_Doren_family