Background
Clifton was born May 15, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He grew up in Brooklyn. His mother worked as a nurse; his father, Isadore, immigrated from Russia in 1892 and worked as a druggist.
1939
The Pursuit of Happiness, a CBS Radio program. Left to right, standing at microphone, Clifton Fadiman and Ethel Barrymore.
1951
CBS Television variety program This is Show Business. Shown Clifton Fadiman and Sam Levenson.
1984
Anne Fadiman with her father, Clifton.
Clifton Fadiman. Photograph from the Everett Collection Inc.
Clifton Fadiman
Clifton Fadiman
1130 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027, United States
Columbia College where Clifton Fadiman studied.
Author Clifton Fadiman during an interview with Host Johnny Carson on February 10th, 1976.
This Is Show Business, a CBS television program featuring celebrity panelists and celebrity guests. From left is Clifton Fadiman (host) and Duke Ellington. October 2, 1949.
The Pursuit of Happiness, a CBS Radio program. Production and performance of the patriotic cantata, Ballad for Americans. December 31, 1939. Left to right, standing at microphone, Clifton Fadiman and Ethel Barrymore.
7000 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90028, United States
Winner of TV-Radio Awards. John Drewry, Dean of the Henry W. Grady School of Journalism, University of Georgia (which administers the award), with three prize winners who received George Foster Peabody Awards for distinguished achievement by television and radio during 1954 at presentation ceremonies in the Hotel Roosevelt, today. George Gobel of NBC-TV, who won the award in Television Entertainment. Pauline Frederick, NBC, who won the award for Achievement in the Field of International Understanding and Clifton Fadiman, NBC, for his radio "conversation" pieces. April 20, 1955.
(Clifton Fadiman's classic collection of mathematical stor...)
Clifton Fadiman's classic collection of mathematical stories, essays and anecdotes is now once again available. Ranging from the poignant to the comical via the simply surreal, these selections include writing by Aldous Huxley, Martin Gardner, H.G. Wells, George Gamow, G.H. Hardy, Robert Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, and many others. Humorous, mysterious, and always entertaining, this collection is sure to bring a smile to the faces of mathematicians and non-mathematicians alike.
https://www.amazon.com/Fantasia-Mathematica-Clifton-Fadiman/dp/0387949313/?tag=2022091-20
1958
(The New Lifetime Reading Plan provides readers with brief...)
The New Lifetime Reading Plan provides readers with brief, informative and entertaining introductions to more than 130 classics of world literature. From Homer to Hawthorne, Plato to Pascal, and Shakespeare to Solzhenitsyn, the great writers of Western civilization can be found in its pages. In addition, this new edition offers a much broader representation of women authors, such as Charlotte Bront, Emily Dickinson and Edith Wharton, as well as non-Western writers such as Confucius, Sun-Tzu, Chinua Achebe, Mishima Yukio and many others.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Lifetime-Reading-Plan-Literature/dp/0062720732
1960
(The companion volume to Fantasia Mathematica, first publi...)
The companion volume to Fantasia Mathematica, first published in 1962, this second anthology of mathematical writings is even more varied than the first and contains stories, cartoons, essays, rhymes, music, anecdotes, aphorisms, and other oddments. Authors include Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, and many other renowned figures. Like its predecessor, this wide-ranging collection will prove to be fascinating and entertaining reading for anyone with an interest in mathematics.
https://www.amazon.com/Mathematical-Magpie-Clifton-Fadiman/dp/038794950X
1962
(This newly revised and updated edition of Abram's widely ...)
This newly revised and updated edition of Abram's widely praised and long-out-of-print The Joys of Wine is a one-volume compilation of everything anyone would want to know about wine.
https://www.amazon.com/New-Joys-Wine-Clifton-Fadiman/dp/0810936526
1975
(An anthology of classical and contemporary children's sto...)
An anthology of classical and contemporary children's stories, poems, myths, and legends from many countries.
https://www.amazon.com/World-Treasury-Childrens-Literature-Book/dp/B00804GTWG/?tag=2022091-20
1984
(Gathers brief anecdotes about more than two thousand peop...)
Gathers brief anecdotes about more than two thousand people, from Muhammad Ali to Zeno, Ansel Adams to Frank Lloyd Wright, and Fred Allen to Oscar Wilde
https://www.amazon.com/Little-Brown-Book-Anecdotes/dp/0316273058/?tag=2022091-20
1985
(Thirty-five great modern thinkers and writers, from field...)
Thirty-five great modern thinkers and writers, from fields including science, literature, politics, and theology, compose their "last will and testament to mankind," revealing the personal philosophies that have shaped their lives and their work.
https://www.amazon.com/Living-Philosophies-Clifton-Fadiman/dp/0385248806/?tag=2022091-20
1990
(An astonishing cast of more than ninety renowned writers ...)
An astonishing cast of more than ninety renowned writers provides thoughtful and lucid reflections on some of the major scientific topics of our time-from black holes and galaxies to artificial intelligence and chaos theory.
https://www.amazon.com/World-Treasury-Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics/dp/0316281336
1991
Clifton was born May 15, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York, United States. He grew up in Brooklyn. His mother worked as a nurse; his father, Isadore, immigrated from Russia in 1892 and worked as a druggist.
Clifton Fadiman studied at Columbia College at Columbia University. He entered with the Class of 1924, but his graduation was delayed until 1925 because of financial constraints. Fadiman graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
After graduation from Columbia, Fadiman taught English at the Ethical Culture High School in the Bronx from 1925 to 1927. After that he moved to publisher Simon & Schuster where he was editor from 1927 to 1935. In 1933 Fadiman moved to New Yorker magazine where he was a book editor until 1943. During his tenure there he became involved in radio and hosted the Information Please show, which ran from 1938 to 1948. The show featured four intellectuals (including Fadiman) who would answer questions sent in by listeners. Anyone who could stump the stars received a free set of Encyclopedia Britannica. The show was a success and at one time could claim nine million listeners. Other broadcasts of which Fadiman was host include Conversation, Mathematics, What’s in a World?, and Quiz Kids.
In 1944 he joined the Book-of-the-Month Club staff and served in a variety of positions until he was named chairman emeritus in 1997. He served on the editorial board for Encyclopaedia Britannica beginning in 1955 and created Treasury of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, condensing the company’s editions into one volume. In 1949 Fadiman became a host for the TV program This Is Show Business, which ran on CBS from July 15, 1949 to March 9, 1954. This program became the first regular CBS Television series to be broadcast live from coast-to-coast.
A fan of anthologies and treasuries, Fadiman edited more than thirty, including The Three Readers: An Omnibus of Novels, Stories, Essays and Poems, The Short Stories of Henry James, and Party of Twenty: Informal Essays from Holiday Magazine. Not content to simply edit other people’s works and write introductions to them, Fadiman was an author in his own right, having written The Lifetime Reading Plan, Enter, Conversing, and, with Sam Aaron, The Joys of Wine and The Wine Buyer’s Guide.
Fadiman lost his eyesight when he was in his early 90s but continued to review manuscripts for the Book of the Month Club by listening to tapes of books recorded by his son Kim, after which Fadiman would dictate his impressions to his secretary. Fadiman died on June 20, 1999, of pancreatic cancer in Sanibel, Florida, at the age of 95.
(The companion volume to Fantasia Mathematica, first publi...)
1962(Thirty-five great modern thinkers and writers, from field...)
1990(An astonishing cast of more than ninety renowned writers ...)
1991(This newly revised and updated edition of Abram's widely ...)
1975(Gathers brief anecdotes about more than two thousand peop...)
1985(The New Lifetime Reading Plan provides readers with brief...)
1960(Wally the Wordworm, still hungry after eating newspaper a...)
1964(Clifton Fadiman's classic collection of mathematical stor...)
1958(An anthology of classical and contemporary children's sto...)
1984Throughout his life, Clifton Fadiman urged young people to be serious and to read classic literature. He had a lifelong belief that the imagination recognizes no closed season. Fadiman once estimated that he had read over 25,000 books in his life, and he never stopped.
Quotations:
"For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed."
"When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before."
"One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention."
"A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke – and that the joke is oneself."
Clifton Fadiman had very little social life and seldom went to dinner parties. His witticisms and sayings were frequently printed in newspapers and magazines.
Clifton Fadiman married Pauline Elizabeth Rush in 1972. The marriage produced a son. Fadiman and Rush divorced in 1949. The next year Fadiman married Annalee Whitmore. The couple gave birth to a daughter and a son.