Van Tassel Sutphen

Who was Van Tassel Sutphen?

William Gilbert van Tassel Sutphen was an American Episcopalian minister, authority and author of publications on golf, playwright, librettist, novelist, and editor. Sutphen was born in Philadelphia 11 May 1861. His parents were Rev. Morris Crater and Eleanor Sutphen. He went to Princeton University and graduated 1882.

Sutphen wrote several novels, the most famous of which was The Doomsman, a very early science fiction or post-apocalyptic novel. Suggestions have been made that Sutphen "purloined" scenes from English novelist Richard Jeffries in writing this book.

In his own time, Sutphen was probably more famous as an authority on and writer about golf than for his novels. He was the first editor of the early Golf magazine, published by Harper Brothers. He also coined the term "the 19th hole". He gave the library at Princeton a collection of 75 books about golf.

As a reader and editor, Sutphen worked for many years for Harper Brothers publishers. At some point he became Joseph Harper's brother-in-law. While at Harper, Sutphen edited Theodore Dreiser. As one of the Harper elite, Sutphen attended Mark Twain's 70th birthday celebrations in New York.