author
Donald Lemen Clark
1888–1966
A careful literary scholar and teacher, he wrote influential studies on classical rhetoric, Renaissance criticism, and Milton that still catch the interest of students of language and literature.
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About the author
Born in South Bend, Indiana, on June 30, 1888, Donald Lemen Clark studied at DePauw University and then at Columbia University, where he completed his graduate work. Reference sources and library archives describe him as an American scholar of English literature whose career centered on the history of rhetoric and literary criticism.
Clark taught English literature and became known for work on rhetoric in classical and Renaissance education. Among the books most closely associated with him are Rhetoric in Greco-Roman Education, Rhetoric and Poetry in the Renaissance, and studies of John Milton. Columbia's archival description also notes that his papers include correspondence, manuscripts, and other materials from the years of his academic career.
He died in 1966. While detailed biographical accounts are limited in the sources available here, the record that emerges is of a serious, long-serving humanities scholar whose writing helped map the links between ancient rhetoric, Renaissance thought, and English literary study.