John Leonard Clive (born Hans Leo Kleyff; September 25, 1924 – January 7, 1990) was an American historian. He was a professor at Harvard University and the University of Chicago. He is most well known for his biography of Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian, for which he won the National Book Award for Biography and History.

John Leonard Clive
Born
Hans Leo Kleyff

(1924-09-25)September 25, 1924
Berlin, Germany
DiedJanuary 7, 1990(1990-01-07) (aged 65)
EducationUniversity of North Carolina (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
AwardsNational Book Award for Biography (1974)
Scientific career
FieldsHistorian
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
Harvard University

Biography

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Born Hans Leo Kleyff (later anglicized to John Leonard Clive) in Berlin to German-Jewish parents, he attended the Französisches Gymnasium Berlin, before moving to England in 1937 where he went to Buxton College.[1] In 1940 he emigrated with his family to the United States, where he attended the University of North Carolina.[2] After his graduation he entered the army and joined the OSS.[3]

In 1952 Clive received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and began teaching there. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1957.[4] That year he published Scotch Reviewers: The Edinburgh Review, 1802–1815. in 1960 Clive moved to the University of Chicago, where he was an assistant and associate professor until returning to Harvard in 1965.[1] He would remain at Harvard for the rest of his career ultimately becoming the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History and Literature in 1979.[5]

Clive won the National Book Award for Biography and History in 1974 for Thomas Babington Macaulay: The Shaping of the Historian, and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well.[6] Clive retired in 1989 and gave his last lecture that December. He died of a heart attack on January 7, 1990, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism for his final book, Not by Fact Alone: Essays on the Writing and Reading of History.

Further reading

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Andreas W. Daum, Hartmut Lehmann, James J. Sheehan (eds.), The Second Generation: Émigrés from Nazi Germany as Historians. With a Biobibliographic Guide. New York: Berghahn Books, 2016, ISBN 978-1-78238-985-9, pp. 9‒10, 24, 33, 36, 109, 355‒56. (with short biography and bibliography)

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Fleming, Donald (1990). "John Leonard Clive". Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society. 102: 164–166. JSTOR 25081022.
  2. ^ "In Memoriam John L. Clive". American Historical Association. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
  3. ^ "Clive, John L. - [Serial Number] 34674336". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
  4. ^ "John Clive". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  5. ^ Fowler, Glenn (January 10, 1990). "John L. Clive, Harvard Historian And an Acclaimed Biographer, 65". New York Times. Retrieved September 7, 2016.
  6. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved September 7, 2016.