Loon, Hendrik Willem van (1882–1944)

Dutch historian and writer. He went to the USA at the age of 20, took a history degree at Cornell University, spent a year at Harvard, and became a journalist. During World War I he was a reporter in Europe.

He was born in Rotterdam. He also studied history at Munich, and taught in several US universities. His first book, The Story of Mankind (1921), achieved great success as a popular, picturesque, universal history. Other publications include The Fall of The Dutch Republic (1913), A Short History of Discovery (1918), The Story of the Bible (1923), Van Loon's Geography (1932), The Arts (1937), and The Story of the Pacific (1940).