Background

Clarence Arthur Tripp was born on October 4, 1919, in Denton, Texas, United States. He was the son of Clarence Arthur and Lula Kathleen Tripp. He had a brother, Robert Evers Tripp.

Education

In 1941 Clarence Arthur Tripp received an Associate of Applied Science degree in photography from the Rochester Institute of Technology. In 1953 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from the New School for Social Research. In 1957 Tripp gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in clinical psychology from New York University.

Career

When World War II began Clarence Arthur Tripp joined the United States Navy but was honorably discharged due to a minor physical disability. He found work at Twentieth Century-Fox making propaganda movies for the military for the duration of the war. For the rest of the 1940s, he worked as a photographer; meanwhile, an increasing interest in psychology led to a friendship with psychologist Theodor Reik, followed by work as a special assistant to Alfred C. Kinsey at his Institute for Sex Research in Bloomington, Indiana.

Entering into private practice in New York City, Tripp was also an instructor at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center from 1955 to 1964. Not a prolific writer, he completed only two books: the bestselling The Homosexual Matrix (1975), which attempts to dispel popular myths about homosexuality, and a yet unpublished book that speculates that United States President Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual. Tripp completed the Lincoln book with co-author Lewis Gannet just prior to his death.

Achievements

• Clarence Arthur Tripp is best remembered as the author of the influential 1975 book The Homosexual Matrix. It was sold about 500,000 copies over the years. Newsweek called the book "a remarkably persuasive attempt to destroy many of the myths that have surrounded homosexuality." A reviewer for the Toronto Globe and Mail called the book "the most current, least moralistic, most valuable introduction to the subject."

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln

    (A psychological analysis of the sixteenth president's sex...)

    2005
  • The Homosexual Matrix 1975

Connections

Clarence Arthur Tripp's long-term partner was Vacharin V. Prasertthai.

Father:

Clarence Arthur Tripp

Mother:

Lula Kathleen Tripp

colleague:

Alfred Kinsey

Brother:

Robert Evers Tripp

Partner:

Vacharin V. Prasertthai

Friend:

Theodor Reik

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2011