Jerry Clinton
Encyclopedia
Jerome Wright Clinton (1937 - November 7, 2003) was a Ferdowsi
scholar and Professor of Persian language
and literature
at Princeton University
. Professor Clinton was born in San Jose, California
.
A graduate of Stanford University
, Jerry received his MA in English and American literature at the University of Pennsylvania
, spent two years in the Peace Corps
in Iran
, and received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan
in Persian
and Arabic literature. He returned to Iran in 1970 where he did his dissertation research, completing his degree in 1972.
After teaching at the University of Minnesota
and directing the Tehran
Center of the American Institute of Iranian Studies, he was appointed professor of Persian at Princeton University in 1974. He taught there for twenty-eight years in the Department of Near Eastern Studies until his retirement in 2002.
His many articles on classical Persian literature remain landmark studies of individual works or generic characteristics. Chief among these are two essays on the Mada'en Qasida of Khaqani, Xaqani's Mada'en Qaside (I), (1976), and Xaqani's Mada'en Qaside (II), (1977), Esthetics by Implication: What Metaphors of Craft Tell us About the Unity of the Persian Qasida, (1979), and Madness and Cure in the 1001 Nights: the Tale of Shahriyar and Shahrizad, (1985).
Jerry Clinton was a scholar and translator of the Persian epic, The Shahnama (Book of Kings). His work on various aspects of that work have helped define the field of Shahnama studies for over two decades and his translations of episodes from it have been a staple of university classrooms. Most notably, his 1986 Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam, was later published in The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.
In 2002 his rendition of the episode of Esfandiyar, published under the title of In the Dragon's Claws, won the Lois Roth Persian Translation Prize. In recent years, Jerry's research was focused on the relation between text and illustration in illustrated manuscripts of The Book of Kings. Many of us may still remember his perceptive presentation in the Third Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, provocatively titled, What Color Is the White Div?
Professor Clinton died on Friday November 7, 2003 of biliary cancera, at the age of 66. In an obituary for Professor Clinton, his colleague and close friend, Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
, writes:
Ferdowsi
Ferdowsi was a highly revered Persian poet. He was the author of the Shahnameh, the national epic of Iran and related societies.The Shahnameh was originally composed by Ferdowsi for the princes of the Samanid dynasty, who were responsible for a revival of Persian cultural traditions after the...
scholar and Professor of Persian language
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
and literature
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. Professor Clinton was born in San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
.
A graduate of Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, Jerry received his MA in English and American literature at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, spent two years in the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, and received his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in Persian
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
and Arabic literature. He returned to Iran in 1970 where he did his dissertation research, completing his degree in 1972.
After teaching at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
and directing the Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
Center of the American Institute of Iranian Studies, he was appointed professor of Persian at Princeton University in 1974. He taught there for twenty-eight years in the Department of Near Eastern Studies until his retirement in 2002.
His many articles on classical Persian literature remain landmark studies of individual works or generic characteristics. Chief among these are two essays on the Mada'en Qasida of Khaqani, Xaqani's Mada'en Qaside (I), (1976), and Xaqani's Mada'en Qaside (II), (1977), Esthetics by Implication: What Metaphors of Craft Tell us About the Unity of the Persian Qasida, (1979), and Madness and Cure in the 1001 Nights: the Tale of Shahriyar and Shahrizad, (1985).
Jerry Clinton was a scholar and translator of the Persian epic, The Shahnama (Book of Kings). His work on various aspects of that work have helped define the field of Shahnama studies for over two decades and his translations of episodes from it have been a staple of university classrooms. Most notably, his 1986 Tragedy of Sohrab and Rostam, was later published in The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces.
In 2002 his rendition of the episode of Esfandiyar, published under the title of In the Dragon's Claws, won the Lois Roth Persian Translation Prize. In recent years, Jerry's research was focused on the relation between text and illustration in illustrated manuscripts of The Book of Kings. Many of us may still remember his perceptive presentation in the Third Biennial Conference on Iranian Studies, provocatively titled, What Color Is the White Div?
Professor Clinton died on Friday November 7, 2003 of biliary cancera, at the age of 66. In an obituary for Professor Clinton, his colleague and close friend, Professor Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak is a Persian literary figure and Iranist.Ahmad Karimi Hakkak was Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Washington for nineteen years. He is currently a professor and founding director of the Roshan Center for Persian Studies in the School of...
, writes:
Jerry, a man of impeccable integrity and great decency, was a meticulous and impressively forward-looking scholar of Persian literature whose professional interests spanned literary theory and criticism, translation and translation theory, and in recent years, the esthetics of word-image relations. As early as 1969, decades before the idea of computer-generated reference lists would gain currency, he wrote an article in The Journal of Iranian Studies titled "On the Feasibility of an Automated Bibliography of Iranian Studies."
Impressive as Jerry's scholarship was, it tends to pale before his vast humanity, his profound loyalty to his friends, and his ever-present habit of 'shekasteh nafsi' (the breaking of the self), which he had so well combined with American self-effacement. Even in the throes of the illness that eventually took him, he was a tremendous help to my family and me as we struggled to come to terms with my son's illness.