Background
John Lackey Brown was born on April 29, 1914, in Ilion, New York, United States. He was a son of Leslie Beecher Brown and Katherine Anne Brown.
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John Brown received a Bachelor of Arts from Hamilton College.
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John Brown studied at the École des Chartes in Paris.
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John Brown received a Doctor of Philosophy from the Catholic University of America.
John Lackey Brown was born on April 29, 1914, in Ilion, New York, United States. He was a son of Leslie Beecher Brown and Katherine Anne Brown.
In 1935, John Brown graduated from Hamilton College with a Bachelor of Arts degree, before studying for a year at the École des Chartes in Paris. He received his doctorate from the Catholic University of America in 1939.
John Brown was an instructor in Romance languages at Catholic University from 1939 to 1941. During the Second World War, he served as assistant chief of foreign publications in the Office of War Information (1942-1943); and as a member of the staff of the Office of Strategic Services (1943-1945).
For some years after the war, he resided in Paris, traveling extensively throughout Western Europe as European editor for Houghton-Mifflin Company, and as a correspondent of the Sunday edition of the New York Times.
In 1949-1962, Brown worked for the United States government in a number of capacities, including director of the Information Division of the Economic Cooperation Administration, chief of regional services for the United States Information Service at the United States Embassy in Paris and cultural attaché to the United States embassies in Brussels, Belgium and Rome, Italy. In 1964-1968, he served as a counselor for cultural affairs at the United States Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico.
An extremely rich and accomplished academic career comprises the other portion of his diverse professional life. In 1962-1963, he was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. Over the years John Brown has lectured on American-European literary and intellectual relations at the Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State and at many American universities, including Harvard, Rutgers, Saint Louis, Colorado, and Yale. In 1966-1967, he was the Barry Bingham Distinguished Professor of Humanities at the University of Louisville. In 1968 Brown returned to the Catholic University of America as a professor of comparative literature in graduate school. His lecture circuit extended to Canada (1970-1971) and academic institutions around the world, including the Institute of Anglo-American Studies of the National University of Mexico (1966-1968); the Institut Catholique in Paris (1969); and the University of Lisbon, where he was Senior Fulbright Professor (1979-1980).
Brown authored several nonfiction books during his career, among them Discovering Belgium (1957), Hemingway (1961), and Valery Larbaud (1981), as well as several poetry collections, including Numina (1969), Shards (1982), and Celebrations (1990).
John Brown was appreciated for his good humor, wit, and love of culture.
John Lackey Brown married Simonne Yvette L'Evesque on August 25, 1941. They have two children: Michel Simon, John Halit.