Dorothy Van Doren, author, editor and widow of the poet and critic Mark Van Doren, died on Sunday at the Sharon Hospital in Sharon, Conn., where she lived. She was 96.

The cause was pneumonia, said her son John, of Evanston, Ill.

Mrs. Van Doren was born in San Francisco, but grew up in New York City. She was a graduate of Barnard College.

She published four novels, including "Those First Affections" (1938), a highly praised effort to create the subjective world of a young girl.

Later, she turned to light-hearted autobiography. "The Country Wife" (1950) was an informal discourse on matrimony, parenthood and life as an amateur farmer in Connecticut. "The Professor and I" (1959) told of life with her husband the poet, and "Men, Women and Cats" (1960) reported further observations on family life.

She was for many years an editor on The Nation, and during World War II ran the English desk at the Office of War Information, which later became Voice of America.

Her husband died in 1972. In addition to her son John, she is survived by another son, Charles, of Cornwall, Conn., and Cortona, Italy, four grandchildren and one great-grandson.

Dorothy G Vandoren