Cleveland Amory (1917–1998)
Author of The Cat Who Came for Christmas
About the Author
Cleveland Amory is a humorist and humanitarian especially known for his books about animals and his animal advocacy. Amory was born in 1917 into a prominent New England family. Amory attended Harvard where he was president of the Harvard Crimson. Upon graduation, Amory became the youngest editor show more ever of The Saturday Evening Post. He served in Army Intelligence in World War II and soon after the war wrote a trilogy of social history studies, including The Proper Bostonians, which is still in print 50 years later. He also wrote The Last Resorts and Who Killed Society? Amory was social commentator of the Today Show and chief critic of the TV Guide from 1963 to 1976. He wrote a weekly column for the Saturday Review and delivered a daily radio essay titled Curmudgeon at Large. Amory became senior contributing editor of Parade magazine in 1980. In 1974 he wrote Man Kind? Our Incredible War on Wildlife, one of a few books ever to be awarded an editorial in The New York Times. This book inspired The Guns of Autumn, a CBS documentary on hunting. His books on cats include The Cat Who Came for Christmas, The Cat and the Curmudgeon, and The Best Cat Ever. In 1996 an anthology, Cat Tales: Classic Stories from Favorite Writers, joined his other cat books. Ranch of Dreams, published in 1997, tells the story of Black Beauty Ranch, a sanctuary and shelter for animals developed in East Texas by the Fund for Animals, which Amory founded in 1967. Amory lives in New York. He visits Black Beauty Ranch often and continues to be active on behalf of animals. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Photo of author and activist Cleveland Amory from a 1974 appearance on the PBS television program, Book Beat. By PBS-Public Broadcasting System - eBayfrontback, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30568949
Series
Works by Cleveland Amory
Associated Works
The Blessing of the Animals: True Stories of Ginny, the Dog Who Rescues Cats (1995) — Introduction — 295 copies
The Greatest Sailing Stories Ever Told: Twenty-Seven Unforgettable Stories (2002) — Contributor — 77 copies
My Most Inspiring Moment: Encounters with Destiny Relived by Thirty-Eight Best-Selling Authors (1965) 10 copies
The American Heritage Cookbook and Illustrated History of American Eating & Drinking Part 1 — Contributor — 8 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1917-09-02
- Date of death
- 1998-10-14
- Burial location
- Black Beauty Ranch, Texas, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Nahant, Massachusetts, USA
- Place of death
- New York, New York, USA
- Cause of death
- Abdominal aortic aneurysm
- Places of residence
- Nahant, Massachusetts, USA
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
New York, New York, USA - Education
- Harvard College (BA|1939)
Milton Academy - Occupations
- author
editor
social commentator
critic
columnist
radio essayist - Organizations
- The Fund for Animals (president)
The Humane Society
TV Guide (chief critc)
Army Intelligence (United States Army)
The Saturday Evening Post (editor)
NBC (Today) (show all 7)
Saturday Review (columnist) - Short biography
- Cleveland Amory died at the age of 81 and was buried next to his beloved white cat Polar Bear.
Members
Reviews
Proper Bostonians, The
witty, final word on Boston
Every December I look for a few books that are lighthearted and funny. The Cat Who Came for Christmas fit the bill for the most part, being both a memoir about a specific stray cat coming into Cleveland's life and a didactic nonfiction containing interesting facts about cats. Here are a few examples: Cleveland delves into the theory of a cat having nine lives; he provides names of politicians and rulers who either loved or detested cats; he shares the dirty secrets of animals shelters, testing on animals (ouch), and price gouging of veterinarians. He shares stories of his work with animals rights organizations. It is not just a warm and fuzzy story about a cat named Polar Bear. But let's be fair. Polar Bear is the star of the show. The full blown, complete sentence dialogues Cleveland would have with his cat are hysterical.
Cleveland is in good company of famous people who enjoyed cats: Mark Twain, Colette, Walter Cronkite, and Robert De Niro to name a few.… (more)
Cleveland is in good company of famous people who enjoyed cats: Mark Twain, Colette, Walter Cronkite, and Robert De Niro to name a few.… (more)
Great story of an abandoned cat and his new life with the author.
The droll wit that permeates this book is a welcome change from the current style of letting it all hang out. After reading some of the reviews of this book, I wonder if a few readers understand this type of humor.
Lists
Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 3,293
- Popularity
- #7,772
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 54
- ISBNs
- 83
- Languages
- 9
- Favorited
- 2
