CLARK, Walter Eugene. Digby, Nova Scotia 8.9.1881 — Vista, Calif. 30.9.1960. U.S. Indologist. Professor at Harvard. Born in Canada, but the family moved to the U.S.A. in 1883. Son of Hallet Sylvester C., a ship’s cabinetmaker, and Hannah Eliza Thomas. Studies at Harvard (A.B. 1903, A.M. 1904, Ph.D. 1906), then further studies 1906-07 at Berlin (under Pischel) and Bonn (Jacobi). From 1908 Instructor, then 1917 Assistant and 1923-27 Associate Professor of Sanskrit at University of Chicago. In 1927-28 visiting Professor of Harvard, and from 1928 Wales Professor of Sanskrit there. Retired in 1950. From 1920-21 travelled in India and Far East. Married in 1915 Susannah Mott McGorrick.
Clark was a perfectionist who published very little. He was also a Greek scholar and a specialist of the history of mathematics. In 1927-50 Editor of the H.O.S. (vols. 38-44).
Publications: Diss. Quid de rebus Indicis scirent Graeci prisci quaeritur. Manuscript, Harvard 1906.
– “Menander: A Study of the Chronology of His Life”, CPh 1, 1906, 313-329; “The Importance of Hellenism from the Point of View of Indic Philology”, CPh 14, 1919, 297-313 & 15, 1920, 1-22; “The Sandalwood and Peacocks of Ophir”, Am. J. Sem. Lang. 36, 1919-20, 103-119.
– “Śākadvīpa and Śvetadvīpa”, JAOS 39, 1919, 209-242; “Māgadhī and Ardhamāgadhī”, JAOS 44, 1924, 81-121; “Hindu-Arabic Numerals”, Indian Stdies in honor of C. R. Lanman 1929, 217-236.
– Translated: The Āryabhaṭīya of Āryabhaṭa. An ancient Indian Work on Mathematics and Astronomy. 30+90 p. Chicago 1930.
– India. 63 p. Chicago 1933; Indian conceptions of Immortality. 49 p. Cambridge, Mass. 1934.
– Edited: Two Lamaistic Pantheons. 1-2. 24+169 p. 314 pl. Harvard-Yenching Inst. Monogr. Ser. 3-4. Cambridge, Mass. 1937.
Sources: Who Was Who in Am. 4, 1961–68; *Nat. Cycl. Am. Biogr. 50, 615; Dir. Am. Sch. 1st ed. 1942; W. W. Briggs Jr. in Briggs (ed.), Biogr. Dict. of N. Am. Class. 1994, 99f.; Wikipedia.
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