Warren Lovel Van Dine was born on November 25, 1902 in Fountain Green Township, Illinois. He was born on his grandfather's farm in the same bedroom that his mother, Flora Ellen Salisbury, was born. Warren Van Dine grew up in Burnside, Illinois in the house built by his father, Herbert R. Van Dine. After graduating from the State University of Iowa (the University of Iowa) in 1924 with a B.A. from the Liberal Arts College, Van Dine devoted himself to the Mormon church and to the Sons of the American Revolution. He also worked as an editor for two poetry journals; Much Adoin the early 1930's and Upward in the late 1930's. Unchanging Gold, a book of poems by Van Dine, was published in 1938. Van DIne authored several short stories and newspaper articles. He also wrote extensively about unusual weather in Hancock County, Illinois and about Hancock County history. For a large part of his life Van Dine was a member of the Revolutionary Graves Registry Committee and compiled lists of grave markers in county cemeteries for use by historians and genealogists. Van Dine remained a proud alumnus of the University of Iowa and appeared to be enamored with the state. He attended Alumni Weekend in Iowa City every year from 1959 and considered Iowa his home. He took great pride in representing Iowa in the 1925 publication of Poets of the Future with his sonnet, "Pioneers." Van Dine lived and wrote in Burnside, Illinois and Hamilton, Illinois until his death on September 25, 1983.

A. Neville, September 2005