Ariel Durant | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Durant in 1967 | |
| Born | Chaya Kaufman (1898-05-10)May 10, 1898 |
| Died | October 25, 1981(1981-10-25) (aged 83) Los Angeles, California |
| Occupation(s) | Historian and writer |
| Spouse | |
Ariel Durant (/dəˈrænt/; May 10, 1898 – October 25, 1981)[1] was a Ukrainian-born American researcher and writer. She was the coauthor ofThe Story of Civilization with her husband,Will Durant. They were awarded thePulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Ariel Durant was bornChaya Kaufman inProskurov,Russian Empire (nowKhmelnytskyi, Ukraine), toJewish parents Ethel Appel Kaufman and Joseph Kaufman. Ariel later went by Ida.[2] The family emigrated in 1900, living for several months in London 1900–01 en route to the United States, where they arrived in 1901. She had three older sisters, Sarah, Mary, and Flora, and three older brothers, Harry, Maurice, and Michael.[2] Flora became Ariel's companion and sometime assistant, and moved with the Durants to California.
She met her future husband when she was a student at FerrerModern School in New York City. He was then a teacher at the school, but resigned his post to marry Ariel. At the time of the wedding, on October 31, 1913, Ariel was 15 and Will Durant was nearly 28 years old.[3] The wedding took place atNew York City Hall, to which she roller-skated from her family's home inHarlem. The couple had one daughter, Ethel Benvenuta Durant (1919–1986)[2] and adopted a son, Louis Richard "Lipschultz" Durant (1917–2008) who was the son of Ariel's sister Flora Kaufman Lipschultz and her former husband, Joseph Bernard Lipschultz (divorced 1928).[citation needed] Louis had lived in Will and Ariel's home with his mother, Flora, when he was quite young (1920 Census).
Ariel Durant legally changed her first name to Ariel afterthe character from Shakespeare'sThe Tempest, which was the nickname her husband gave her because he said she was "strong and brave as a boy, and as swift and mischievous as an elf".[1]
The Durants were awarded thePulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1968 forRousseau and Revolution, the tenth volume ofThe Story of Civilization. In 1977 they were presented with thePresidential Medal of Freedom byGerald Ford, and Ariel was named "Woman of the Year" by the city of Los Angeles. The Durants received the Golden Plate Award of theAmerican Academy of Achievement in 1976.[4]
The Durants wrote a 420-page joint autobiography, published by Simon & Schuster in 1978 (A Dual Autobiography; laterISBN 0-671-23078-6).
The Durants died within two weeks of each other in 1981 and are buried at theWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Ariel told Ethel's daughter, Monica Mehill, that it was their differences that made them grow.[2]
