Ambrose, Stephen Edward (10 January 1936–13 October 2002), historian and biographer, was born in Decatur, Illinois, the middle son of Stephen Hedges Ambrose, a family physician, and Rosepha Trippe Ambrose. Rosepha raised her sons on a family farm in Whitewater, Wisconsin, during World War II after her husband enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Stephen Ambrose greatly admired the returning veterans who had served in the global conflict. The teamwork they had learned in the service, Ambrose would later write, enabled these men to build “modern America” (...
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Ambrose, Stephen Edward (10 January 1936–13 October 2002)
Bruce J. Evensen
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Bainton, Roland Herbert (1894-1984), historian of the Protestant Reformation
Calvin Mercer
Bainton, Roland Herbert (30 March 1894–13 February 1984), historian of the Protestant Reformation, was born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, England, the only son of James Herbert Bainton, a Congregational pastor, and Charlotte Eliza Blackham. Bainton’s family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia (1898), and then to Colfax, Washington (1902). He received the traditional British-inspired education in the classics, beginning the study of Latin at twelve and adding German at thirteen. The elder Bainton encouraged his reading and inquiry, and their discussions continued by mail after Bainton entered college. Bainton graduated from Whitman College (B.A. in classics, 1910–1914), Yale Divinity School (B.D., 1914–1917), and Yale University (Ph.D. in Semitics and Hellenistic Greek, 1917–1921)....
Article
Baker, Carlos Heard (1909-1987), educator, author, and literary critic
Aiping Zhang
Baker, Carlos Heard (05 May 1909–18 April 1987), educator, author, and literary critic, was born in Biddeford, Maine, the son of Arthur Baker and Edna Heard. He grew up in what he called a “yankee and the nineteenth century German” tradition and had a great passion for literature even as a child. While still a college student, he published a collection of poems, ...
Article
Beer, Thomas (22 November 1888?–18 April 1940), writer
John Clendenning
Beer, Thomas (22 November 1888?–18 April 1940), writer, was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the son of William Collins Beer, a corporate attorney and lobbyist, and Martha Ann Alice Baldwin. Though born in western Iowa, Thomas Beer spent most of his childhood in Yonkers, New York, with summers in Nantucket and on his grandfather’s farm in Bucyrus, Ohio. Wealth and position from his father’s Wall Street business gave Beer a distinct sense of social superiority, which he manifested in personal relations and cultural criticisms. Despising the bourgeoisie, the working-class masses, and the chic lifestyles of the Jazz Age, Beer projected an image of extreme conservatism and tesselated sophistication. At Yale, class of 1911, he was class poet, lifelong friend of the actor Monty Wooley, editor of the literary review, and contributor of twenty stories, essays, and poems. After college he spent five years as a dilatory student in the Columbia law school and as clerk in his father’s law firm, but when his father died at his professional nadir in 1916, Beer turned to letters. His first important short story—“The Brothers”—was published a few months later in the ...
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Brant, Irving Newton (17 January 1885–18 September 1976), biographer, journalist, and historian
Ann T. Keene
Brant, Irving Newton (17 January 1885–18 September 1976), biographer, journalist, and historian, was born in Walker, Iowa, the son of David Brant, the editor of the local newspaper, and Ruth Hurd Brant. Irving Brant decided on a career in journalism. He was educated in local schools and at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, from which he earned a BA in 1909....
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Brown, William Wells (1814?–06 November 1884), author and reformer
R. J. M. Blackett
Brown, William Wells (1814?–06 November 1884), author and reformer, was born near Lexington, Kentucky, the son of George Higgins, a relative of his master, and Elizabeth, a slave. Dr. John Young, Brown’s master, migrated with his family from Kentucky to the Missouri Territory in 1816. Eleven years later the Youngs moved to St. Louis. Although Brown never experienced the hardship of plantation slavery, he was hired out regularly and separated from his family. He worked for a while in the printing office of abolitionist ...
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Campbell, Walter Stanley (1887-1957), historian and author
Elizabeth A. Archuleta and Susan E. Gunter
Campbell, Walter Stanley (15 August 1887–25 December 1957), historian and author, was born Walter Stanley Vestal near Severy, Kansas, the son of Walter Mallory Vestal, a lawyer, and Isabella Louise Wood, a teacher. His father died shortly after his birth. In 1895 his mother met James Robert Campbell, whom she married in August 1896, and Walter assumed his stepfather’s name. James Campbell’s research work for H. H. Bancroft fostered Walter Campbell’s love for the Old West and developed his sympathetic views toward Native Americans....
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Cantwell, Robert Emmett (1908-1978), writer and historian
Robert L. Gale
Cantwell, Robert Emmett (31 January 1908–08 December 1978), writer and historian, was born in Little Falls (now Vader), Washington, the son of Charles James Cantwell, a teacher and engineer, and Nina Adelia Hanson, a former teacher. His paternal grandfather founded Little Falls in the 1840s. In 1912 the family moved to Onalaska, a lumber-company town, where Charles Cantwell became a builder, then the superintendent of the lumber mill and the town. Later he was the superintendent of Carlisle, another company town nearby. Robert Cantwell attended schools in Onalaska, Chehalis, and Aberdeen, all in Washington, and beginning at age sixteen studied for one year at the University of Washington in Seattle, where his older brother James was also a student. Their father’s illness forced them to leave school, however, and Cantwell spent the next four years primarily as a veneer clipper operator in a plywood factory in Hoquiam, Washington. His father died in 1927....
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Clifford, James Lowry (1901-1978), biographer, literary critic, and professor of literature
Dennis Paoli
Clifford, James Lowry (24 February 1901–07 April 1978), biographer, literary critic, and professor of literature, was born in Evansville, Indiana, the son of George Clifford, a businessman and amateur astronomer, and Emily Orr. In 1918 he attended Wabash College in nearby Crawfordsville, where he studied science, graduating in 1923 with an A.B. and Phi Beta Kappa honors. Two years later he received a B.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After several years in business back in Evansville, managing the manufacture of railroad coal cars, he relocated to Tucson, Arizona, where he taught mathematics, polo, and English at a preparatory school. Discovering in his teaching a love of literature, he entered the graduate program in English at Columbia University in 1931 and gained his M.A. the next year....
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Dexter, Franklin Bowditch (1842-1920), educator, librarian, and historian
Robert L. Gale
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch (11 September 1842–13 August 1920), educator, librarian, and historian, was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, the son of Rodolphus Williams Dexter, a businessman, and Mary Hathaway Taber. He attended the Williston Seminary in preparation for Yale College, in New Haven, Connecticut, from which he graduated with an A.B. in 1861. He received an A.M. in 1864 and a Litt.D. in 1902. He taught Greek at the Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven from 1861 to 1863 before returning to work at Yale....
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Drake, Francis Samuel (1828-1885), historian, author, and antiquarian
Robert L. Gale
Drake, Francis Samuel (22 February 1828–22 February 1885), historian, author, and antiquarian, was born in Northwood, New Hampshire, the son of Samuel Gardner Drake and Louisa M. Elmes. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where his father became the proprietor of a popular antiquarian bookstore, wrote books concerning American history and Indians and edited other such books. Drake was educated in the Boston public schools, mainly at the Mayhew School, after which he worked in his father’s store and then as an accountant for a Boston company....
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Duyckinck, Evert Augustus (1816-1878), editor, author, and bibliophile
Robert L. Gale
Duyckinck, Evert Augustus (23 November 1816–13 August 1878), editor, author, and bibliophile, was born in New York City, the son of Evert Duyckinck, a wealthy publisher and book collector, and Harriet June. He graduated from Columbia College in 1835. He either wrote or cowrote the only issue of ...
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Duyckinck, George Long (1823-1863), author and editor
David J. Nordloh
Duyckinck, George Long (17 October 1823–30 March 1863), author and editor, was born in New York City, the son of Evert Duyckinck, book publisher, and Harriet June. Duyckinck, whose reputation has been almost eclipsed by that of his older brother, the more outgoing and prolific ...
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English, William Hayden (1822-1896), congressman, vice presidential candidate, and historian
Philip R. VanderMeer
English, William Hayden (27 August 1822–07 February 1896), congressman, vice presidential candidate, and historian, was born in Lexington, Indiana, the son of Elisha G. English and Mahala Eastin. Elisha, a landowner and railroad vice president, was a Democrat who served in the Indiana legislature for nearly twenty years and was friends with many important politicians. William benefited from his father’s contacts and status and was influenced by his views....
Article
Filson, John (10 December 1753?–01 October 1788), author, historian, and land surveyor
Charles C. Hay
Filson, John (10 December 1753?–01 October 1788), author, historian, and land surveyor, was born in East Fallowfield Township near Brandywine Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania, the son of Davison Filson and Eleanor Clarke, farmers. After attending common schools in the vicinity of his birthplace, Filson studied Greek, Latin, mathematics, and surveying at West Nottingham Academy in Colora, Maryland. He inherited part of a modest estate following his father’s death in 1776, but, eschewing life on the farm, he taught school and surveyed lands in the area during the American Revolution....
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James, Marquis (1891-1955), historian and biographer
Richard A. Reiman
James, Marquis (29 August 1891–19 November 1955), historian and biographer, was born in Springfield, Missouri, the son of Houston James and Rachel Marquis. His father’s law practice and his mother’s interest in reading and history were communicated early to James, whose future writings would often revolve around themes of past action and frontier glory. At the age of three, James moved with his parents to a prairie homestead in the Cherokee Strip near Enid, Oklahoma, then located on the leading edge of white settlement in the region. One year later, Rachel began teaching her son to read, typically with a history book as her text....
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Josephson, Matthew (1899-1978), writer
David E. Shi
Josephson, Matthew (15 February 1899–13 March 1978), writer, was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Julius Josephson, a banker, and Sarah Kasindorf. A child of Jewish immigrants from Romania and Russia, Josephson graduated from Columbia University in 1920. That same year he married Hannah Geffen, a nineteen-year-old reporter for the ...
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Josephson, Matthew (1899-1978)
In
Matthew Josephson Courtesy of the Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-116726).
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Malone, Dumas (1892-1986), historian and biographer
O. Allen Gianniny
Malone, Dumas (10 January 1892–27 December 1986), historian and biographer, was born in Coldwater, Mississippi, the son of John Wesley Malone, a Methodist minister and college president, and Lillian Kemp, a teacher. Malone graduated from Emory College at Oxford, Georgia (now Emory University at Atlanta), in 1910. After teaching in high school and junior college, he entered Yale University Divinity School (B.D., 1916). His thesis examined the controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees. He discovered that he was “relatively indifferent” to formal philosophy and systematic theology but had a love for history. His interest in people and his desire to write in narrative form drew him early to historical biography....
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Mizener, Arthur Moore (1907-1988), biographer and educator
Ann W. Engar
Mizener, Arthur Moore (03 September 1907–11 February 1988), biographer and educator, was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Mason Price Mizener and Mabel Moore. The Mizener family came to America from Germany in the second half of the nineteenth century. Mizener’s grandfather had a coal company and at one point was mayor of Erie. Mizener’s father ran the company for some years before he had a nervous breakdown. The family was comfortably well off and part of the small-town aristocracy of Erie. Mizener graduated from Princeton University in 1930 and earned his M.A. in 1932 at Harvard University. In 1934 he received his Ph.D. from Princeton and also began teaching at Yale. In July 1935 he married Elizabeth Rosemary Paris, with whom he had two children....
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