Thomas D. Clark: Posthumous memoirs are a zesty account of an exciting life
In the summer of 2005, Thomas Dionysius Clark, Kentucky's historian laureate for life, himself passed into history, aged 101. And now his memoirs, meticulously prepared, have appeared in a hefty volume, with a particularly helpful foreword and introduction. The former is by Charles P. Roland, emeritus professor of history at the University of Kentucky, and the latter by James C. Klotter, state historian of Kentucky. Both knew Clark quite well, and they manage in very short compass to include brief overviews of the great historian's life, as well as incorporating some of their own personal insights about the man himself.
Roland notes that Clark was possessed of a "wry and pungent sense of humor." I couldn't help but remember a time many years ago when I was on a committee with the historian laureate when names were being suggested for an academic task. About one candidate there seemed to be general agreement until Clark finally spoke.
"He's a fine fellow," he remarked. "He's done some good work. But frankly, sometimes when he goes to the well and comes back, his bucket isn't quite full." Pungent indeed. The committee, needless to say, quickly settled on another individual for that assignment.
That kind of candor -- and sometimes wry humor and hyperbole -- pervades much of this autobiographical narrative. When Clarks moved into a dorm on the Ole Miss campus, it was "as dreary as any academic dwelling on the North American continent." His first impression of Limestone Street in Lexington was that it was a "grim, cluttered" place, "the ugliest one I have ever seen." And when he rode on Louisville's Watterson Expressway, it was "among the most unpleasant stretches of road on this continent."
Clark (1903-2005) led an extraordinary, outsized life. Born in Louisville, Miss., he found strength in long family roots as well as in the land. He labored two years on a dredge boat and pursued an educational trail that took him (after some summer study at the University of Virginia) to graduation from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1928.
He then went to the University of Kentucky, receiving an M.A. degree in 1929. And how did he decide to come to the Bluegrass State to study? "I literally flipped a buffalo nickel," he wrote, "and it came down on Kentucky." He began teaching at UK in 1931, and he received his Ph.D. from Duke in 1932. His tenure at UK would last until 1968....
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Roland notes that Clark was possessed of a "wry and pungent sense of humor." I couldn't help but remember a time many years ago when I was on a committee with the historian laureate when names were being suggested for an academic task. About one candidate there seemed to be general agreement until Clark finally spoke.
"He's a fine fellow," he remarked. "He's done some good work. But frankly, sometimes when he goes to the well and comes back, his bucket isn't quite full." Pungent indeed. The committee, needless to say, quickly settled on another individual for that assignment.
That kind of candor -- and sometimes wry humor and hyperbole -- pervades much of this autobiographical narrative. When Clarks moved into a dorm on the Ole Miss campus, it was "as dreary as any academic dwelling on the North American continent." His first impression of Limestone Street in Lexington was that it was a "grim, cluttered" place, "the ugliest one I have ever seen." And when he rode on Louisville's Watterson Expressway, it was "among the most unpleasant stretches of road on this continent."
Clark (1903-2005) led an extraordinary, outsized life. Born in Louisville, Miss., he found strength in long family roots as well as in the land. He labored two years on a dredge boat and pursued an educational trail that took him (after some summer study at the University of Virginia) to graduation from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1928.
He then went to the University of Kentucky, receiving an M.A. degree in 1929. And how did he decide to come to the Bluegrass State to study? "I literally flipped a buffalo nickel," he wrote, "and it came down on Kentucky." He began teaching at UK in 1931, and he received his Ph.D. from Duke in 1932. His tenure at UK would last until 1968....