Ariel Durant, born
Chaya Kaufman, (10 May 1898 – 25 October 1981) was the co-author of
The Story of CivilizationThe Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant is an eleven-volume set of books. It was written over a lifetime, and it totals two million words across nearly 10,000 pages. The series is incomplete: in the first book of the series , Mr...
.
Durant was born in Proskurov, (now
KhmelnytskyiKhmelnytskyi is a city in Ukraine in the region of Podillia. It is located on the Southern Buh River and about 340 km from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. The town's original name was Płoskirów, later Proskurov, but in 1954 was renamed Khmelnytskyi. It is the center of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast in...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
) to Ethel Appel Kaufman and Joseph Kaufman. The family emigrated to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1901. She met her future husband,
Will DurantWilliam James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel and published between 1935 and 1975...
, while a student at Ferrer
Modern SchoolThe Modern Schools, also called Ferrer Schools, were US schools, established in the early twentieth century, that were modeled after the Escuela Moderna of Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, the Catalan educator and anarchist...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Will was a teacher at the school at the time, but resigned his post in order to marry Ariel.
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Ariel Durant, born
Chaya Kaufman, (10 May 1898 – 25 October 1981) was the co-author of
The Story of CivilizationThe Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant is an eleven-volume set of books. It was written over a lifetime, and it totals two million words across nearly 10,000 pages. The series is incomplete: in the first book of the series , Mr...
.
Biography
Durant was born in Proskurov, (now
KhmelnytskyiKhmelnytskyi is a city in Ukraine in the region of Podillia. It is located on the Southern Buh River and about 340 km from the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. The town's original name was Płoskirów, later Proskurov, but in 1954 was renamed Khmelnytskyi. It is the center of the Khmelnytskyi Oblast in...
,
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
) to Ethel Appel Kaufman and Joseph Kaufman. The family emigrated to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1901. She met her future husband,
Will DurantWilliam James Durant was a prolific American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for the 11-volume The Story of Civilization, written in collaboration with his wife Ariel and published between 1935 and 1975...
, while a student at Ferrer
Modern SchoolThe Modern Schools, also called Ferrer Schools, were US schools, established in the early twentieth century, that were modeled after the Escuela Moderna of Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, the Catalan educator and anarchist...
in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Will was a teacher at the school at the time, but resigned his post in order to marry Ariel. She was fifteen at the time of the wedding.
Ariel and Will Durant were awarded the
Pulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by Hungarian-American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City....
for General Nonfiction in 1968 for
Rousseau and Revolution, the tenth volume of
The Story of Civilization. In 1977 they were presented with the
Presidential Medal of FreedomThe Presidential Medal of Freedom is a decoration bestowed by the President of the United States and is, along with theequivalent Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress, the highest civilian award in the U.S...
from
Gerald FordGerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
and Ariel was nominated as "Woman of the Year" by the city of
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the municipality of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123.445 inhabitants...
.
The Durants' autobiography
A Dual Autobiography was published in 1978. ISBN 0-671-23078-6
Ariel Durant and her husband are buried in the
Westwood Village Memorial Park CemeteryThe Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California....
in
Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles is the largest city in the state of California and the second largest in the United States. Often abbreviated as L.A. and nicknamed The City of Angels, Los Angeles has an estimated population of 3.8 million and spans over in Southern California...
.
External links