Vanauken, Sheldon (1914–1996) – Encyclopedia Virginia
Sheldon Vanauken was a poet and novelist best known for his memoir A Severe Mercy (1977), about converting to Christianity and his wife’s unexpected death at age forty. A less famous sequel, Under the Mercy, was published, to less acclaim, in 1985. Vanauken, the son of Glenn and Grace Hanselman Vanauken, was born Frank Sheldon Vanauken in DeKalb County, Indiana, on August 4, 1914. Van, as he preferred to be called, first visited Virginia when he attended Staunton Military Academy during the 1928–1929 school year. He also attended Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, and in 1938 h...
Source: encyclopediavirginia.org