Clarence Day (Clarence Shepard Day) Biography

American essayist and humorist, born in New York City, educated at Yale University. Day served in the US navy during the Spanish-American War (1898). He settled in New York and sought to establish himself as a writer and illustrator. This Simian World (1920), his satirical reflections on man's origins coupled with his fantastic speculations about man's alternative origins, and illustrated with his own drawings, brought him to the attention of the fledgling New Yorker magazine, to which he subsequently became a regular contributor. He remains best known for his autobiographical writings: God and My Father (1932) is a portrait of his Victorian New York childhood, and the second volume, Life with Father (1935), was successfully adapted for the stage in 1940; Life with Mother (1937) and Father and I (1940) appeared posthumously. Other works include The Crow's Nest (1921; enlarged and retitled After All, 1936), Thoughts Without Words (1928), In the Green Mountain Country (1934), and Scenes from the Mesozoic and Other Drawings (1935). His prose is notable for its precise, terse, yet eloquent satire.