Hendrik William Van Loon

Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1882, he is an outstanding popular writer who has written works on history, culture, civilization, science, etc., and has a large readership. He is a great cultural popularizer and a master figure.

In his youth, Fang Long studied at Cornell University in the United States and the University of Munich in Germany and obtained his doctorate. Before and after going to college, Fang Long traveled many times, working as a teacher, editor, journalist and announcer, and experienced life in various positions., studied hard to write, and once he learned speaking skills from popular theater. He began to write books in 1913, and did not until 1921 when he wrote "The Story of Humanity". He became famous and became famous around the world until his death in 1944. Fang Long is versatile. He can speak and write ten languages, play the violin in one hand, and draw. The illustrations of his books are all his own.

When Fang Long was young, he was as reckless as an elephant to break into the publishing world due to financial constraints. He counted on books to make a living, and to use them as capital to find a teaching position at university. But he chose to write historical works, which no one believed at the time could make money. "The Decline and Fall of the Dutch Republic," a rewritten doctoral dissertation, was well received by the book critics for its novel style, but it sold fewer than 700 copies, prompting the publisher's sympathetic words: "I think even people who drive buses on the street make more money than those who write history." But one Chicago book critic predicted that if history were written this way, history books would soon be on the bestseller list.

The turning point in Fang Long's life came when a publisher had the same foresight. The publisher's name was Horace Liverett, and Fang Long signed him to write "The Beginning of Civilization," "The Story of Man," "The Story of the Bible," "Tolerance," and more. Their collaboration lasted 10 years. The unexpected popularity of "The Beginning of Civilization" has shown that Horace Liverett has a unique eye, and "The Story of Man" has not only attracted cheers from the book critics and won the Best Children's Book Award. The book has been printed in 32 editions, and Fang Long himself has earned no less than $500,000. Even the history professor who picked the wrong book couldn't help but sigh: In Fang Long's pen, the lifeless characters in history have become living people.

Perhaps because of his familiarity with history, Fang Long was also one of the few Americans who saw Hitler's rise to power as a serious threat early on. In 1938, he published "Our Struggle - An Answer to Hitler's Writings (My Struggle) ", posing as a stand-in with the German Nazis. After Germany invaded his native Netherlands and savagely bombed Rotterdam, his birthplace, Fang Long called himself "Uncle Hank" and used shortwave radio in the United States to promote the occupied Netherlands, delivering many messages to his suffering compatriots with his characteristic wit.

Many young people grew up accompanied by Fang Long's works. Fang Long's works are beautifully written and have extensive knowledge, including many insights. Through his writing, whether adults or children, or people who read his books, feel tired of forgetting the dry and tasteless scientific knowledge. After a meal, they gain a little scientific knowledge. He left more than 30 works to the world, and each book was illustrated by him himself. These Van Long style illustrations are also a valuable legacy and influenced later scientific writers. For example, the famous scientist and popular science writer, Gameow of the United States, also imitated Van Long and illustrated his works.

His books include "Tolerance," "The Story of Man," "The Beginning of Civilization," "Miracles and Men," "The Story of the Bible," "The Story of Invention," "The Home of Man," "Rembrandt's Journey in Life," and so on. Reason, tolerance, and progress run through them. His goal is to challenge human ignorance and bigotry. His approach is to popularize knowledge and truth, making them common sense.

When you read Fang Long's books, you can't turn a blind eye to the illustrations he drew by himself. On the contrary, they are an integral part of Fang Long's works, and they are content that cannot be replaced by words. Fang Long's works not only tell content that adults are equally interested in in using language that teenagers can understand, but more importantly, he combines the progress of human civilization with the development of science and technology. He is actually a pioneer of the popularization of big culture ideas. He is also a master of promoting science through literary and artistic means. As Mr. Yu Dafu said: "Fang Long's pen has such a magic power, but this is not his special creation. It is just a use of literary methods to tell science." It should be noted that Fang Long has a profound impact on popular science propaganda and creation.

Fang Long spent his whole life's energy and health writing history, using his approachable and vivid and fluent writing to popularize profound and obscure historical knowledge and understanding, tolerance and progressive ideas to the vast number of ordinary readers, and to challenge ignorance and bigotry relentlessly. His spirit and achievements deserve praise from future generations.

Regarding Fang Long's foothold in narrating history, Fang Long always stands at the height of all mankind when writing. Although as a Dutchman who moved to the United States after the age of 20, he inevitably wrote more about the West he was familiar with and loved his native country more, he was by no means a Western-centrism. He has been trying to observe and narrate from a human perspective. Beyond regional, religious, partisan and racial prejudices. He opposed any form of narrowness, including hyper-patriotism that distorts facts in order to glorify the nation.

Some readers criticized that in Fanglong Geography, it divided Xizang and China into two separate chapters, causing the editions in the mainland of China to state their positions through annotations.

In the 1930s, Fang Long proposed the conjecture in his literary work "The Story of the Earth" that "the Great Wall of China may be the only building on the moon that can be observed with the naked eye." This conjecture was proved wrong decades later after American astronauts landed on the moon. However, Fang Long's erroneous statement has been widely circulated in academic circles as a fallacy.