author
Clayton Sedgwick Cooper
1869–1936
A widely traveled American writer and lecturer, he turned firsthand journeys into lively books about college life, religion, world trade, and the cultures of South America and the Middle East. His work aimed to make big global subjects feel clear, practical, and approachable for general readers.
1 Audiobook
Why go to College?
by Clayton Sedgwick Cooper
About the author
Born in Henderson, New York, in 1869, Clayton Sedgwick Cooper built a career as an author, lecturer, and clergyman. Sources available here identify him as a graduate of Brown University who also studied at Union Theological Seminary and Rochester Theological Seminary, with later graduate work connected to Columbia.
His books show an unusually broad range. In addition to religious and educational titles such as Why Go to College? and Bible Study in the Work of Life, he wrote internationally focused works including The Brazilians and Their Country, Understanding South America, The Modernizing of the Orient, and Foreign Trade Markets and Methods. That mix suggests a writer interested not just in ideas, but in how education, faith, travel, and commerce shaped the modern world.
Cooper died in 1936. Today he is remembered mainly through his books, which reflect an early-20th-century effort to introduce American readers to other regions and cultures through accessible, experience-based writing.