Eleanor Clark

Eleanor Clark (1913 – 1996) was an American writer and "master stylist," best known for her non-fiction accounts.[1][2][3][4]

Eleanor Clark
Born (1913-07-06) July 6, 1913
Los Angeles, California
DiedFebruary 16, 1996(1996-02-16) (aged 82)
Boston, Massachusetts
OccupationAuthor
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
Notable worksThe Oysters of Locmariaquer (1964)
Notable awardsNational Book Award
SpouseRobert Penn Warren
ChildrenRosanna Warren, Gabriel Warren
Website
nationalbook.org/people/eleanor-clark

Background

Eleanor Clark was born on July 6, 1913, in Los Angeles, California, but grew up in Roxbury, Connecticut.[1][4] She attended Vassar College in the 1930s, where she met Mary McCarthy.[3][4]

Career

Clark was involved with the literary magazine Con Spirito there, along with Elizabeth Bishop, Mary McCarthy, and her sister Eunice Clark. She also associated with Herbert Solow and helped translate documents for the 1937 "trial" of Leon Trotsky.[4]

During World War II, Clark worked in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Washington, DC.[4]

Clark wrote reviews, essays, children's books, and novels.[1]

Personal life and death

In the late 1930s, Clark married Jan Frankel, a secretary of Trotsky; they divorced by the mid-1940s.[4] In 1952, Clark married Robert Penn Warren and lived in Fairfield, Connecticut, with him and their two children, Rosanna and Gabriel.[1]

On February 16, 1996, Clark died age 82 in Boston, Massachusetts.[1]

Awards
  • 1953: National Book Award finalist nonfiction for Rome and a Villa[3]
  • 1964: National Book Award in Arts and Letter for The Oysters of Locmariaquer[3][5]

Works

For her book The Oysters of Locmariaquer (1964), Clark received the U.S. National Book Award in category Arts and Letters.[1][5]

At reissue of Rome and the Villa, Anatole Broyard called it "perhaps the finest book ever to be written about a city."[1]

Clark wrote about her experiences with the CPUSA and Trotskyites in at least two fictionalized accounts, Bitter Box (1946) and Gloria Mundi (1979).[4]

Novels:

  • Bitter Box (1946)[6][7]
  • Baldur's Gate (1970)[8]
  • Song of Roland (1960)[9]
  • Dr. Heart: A Novella and Other Stories (1974)[10]
  • Gloria Mundi: A Novel (1979)[11]

Nonfiction:

  • Rome and a Villa (1952)[12]
  • Oysters of Locmariaquer (1964)[13]
  • Eyes, Etc.: A Memoir (1977)[14]
  • Tamrart: 13 Days in the Sahara (1984)[15]
  • Camping Out (1986)[16]

Translations:

  • Dark Wedding (1943), translation of Epitalamio del Prieto Trinidad by Ramón José Sender[17]

See also

References
  1. Thomas, Robert McG., Jr. (19 February 1996). "Eleanor Clark is Dead at 82 - A Ruminative Travel Essayist". The New York Times. Retrieved May 30, 2010.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Kunitz, Stanley (1955). Twentieth Century Authors: A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature. Supplement, Volume 1. H. W. Wilson. p. 203. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  3. "Eleanor Clark". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  4. Wald, Alan M. (1987). The New York Intellectuals: The Rise and Decline of the Anti-Stalinist Left from the 1930s to the 1980s. UNC Press Books. pp. 246–248. ISBN 9780807841693. Retrieved 20 January 2019.
  5. "Oysters of Locmariaquer". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  6. Clark, Eleanor (1946). Bitter Box. Doubleday. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  7. "Bitter Box". Kirkus. 4 April 1946. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  8. Clark, Eleanor (1970). Baldur's Gate. Pantheon. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  9. Clark, Eleanor (1960). Song of Roland. Random House. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  10. Clark, Eleanor (1974). Dr. Heart: A Novella and Other Stories. Pantheon. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  11. Clark, Eleanor (1979). Gloria Mundi: A Novel. Pantheon. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  12. Clark, Eleanor (1952). Rome and a Villa. Doubleday. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  13. Clark, Eleanor (1964). Oysters of Locmariaquer. Pantheon. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  14. Clark, Eleanor (1977). Eyes, Etc.: A Memoir. Pantheon. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  15. Clark, Eleanor (1984). Tamrart: 13 Days in the Sahara. S. Wright. ISBN 9780913773154. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  16. Clark, Eleanor (1986). Camping Out. Putnam. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
  17. Sender, Ramón José (1943). Dark Wedding. Translated by Eleanor Clark. Doubleday, Doran. Retrieved 24 July 2019.
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