Grenville Clark was born to wealth and privilege in Manhattan,
where his maternal grandfather, LeGrand Bouton Cannon, was an
industry titan, retired Civil War colonel, and personal friendof
Abraham Lincoln. Clark grew up on a first-name basis with both
Presidents Roosevelt, and his close friends included Supreme Court
justices. He was well known and respected in the inner circles of
business, government, and education. In "A Very Private Public
Citizen: The Life of Grenville Clark," Nancy Peterson Hill gives
life to the unsung account of this great and largely anonymous
American hero and reveals how the scope of Clark's life and career
reflected his selfless passion for progress, equality, and peace.
As a member of the "Corporation," Harvard's elite governing
board, Clark wrote a still-relevant treatise on academic freedom.
He fought a successful public battle with his good friend President
Franklin Roosevelt over FDR's attempt to "pack" the Supreme Court
in 1937. He refused pay while serving as a private advisor for the
Secretary of War of the United States during the Second World War,
and he worked closely with the NAACP to uphold civil rights for
African Americans during the tumultuous 1950s and '60s. Clark
devoted his last decades to a quest for world peace through limited
but enforceable world law, rewriting the charter of the United
Nations and traveling the globe to lobby the world's leaders.
An enthusiastic husband, father, and friend, Clark was a lawyer,
civil rights activist, traveler, advisor, and world citizen at
large. Memories from Clark's family and friends weave through
thebook, as do Clark's own inimitable observations on his life and
the world in which he lived. "A Very Private Public Citizen" brings
Clark out of the shadows, offering readers an inspiring example of
a true patriot and humanitarian, more concerned with the well-being
of his country and his fellow man than with his own fame.