The Blue Flower

By Henry Van Dyke

1902

First Published

3.57

Average Rating

207

Number of Pages

6H19M

Audio Length

"Sometimes short stories are brought together like parcels in a basket. Sometimes they grow together like blossoms on a bush. Then, of course, they really belong to one another, because they have the same life in them. The stories in this book have been growing together for a long time. It is at least ten years since the first of them, the story of The Other Wise Man, came to me; and all the others I knew quite well by heart a good while before I could find the time, in a hard-worked life, to write them down and try to make them clear and true to others. It has been a slow task, because the right word has not always been easy to find, and I wanted to keep free from conventionality in the thought and close to nature in the picture. It is enough to cause a man no little shame to see how small is the fruit of so long labor..." — From Henry Van Dyke's preface to The Blue Flower

Avg Rating

3.57

Number of Ratings

5 STARS

23%

4 STARS

31%

3 STARS

27%

2 STARS

18%

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Henry Van Dyke

Author · 8 books

Henry Van Dyke (1852-1933) was an American Presbyterian clergyman, educator, and author. He graduated from Princeton in 1873, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1874. He was pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City (1883-99), professor of English literature at Princeton (1899-1923), and U.S. minister to the Netherlands (1913-16). Among his popular inspirational writings is the Christmas story The Other Wise Man (1896). As President Wilson's ambassador to the Netherlands from 1913, Van Dyke was a first-hand witness to the outbreak of World War I and its progress, and was a key player in the President's diplomatic efforts to keep the U.S. out of the conflict. Not to be confused with his father, Henry J. Van Dyke (1822-1891). For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/van-dyke...