William James Durant (1886 - 1981)

Born 5 Nov 1886 in North Adams, Berkshire, Massachusetts, United States

Ancestors

Died 7 Nov 1981 at age 95 in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Biography

Will Durant is Notable.

William James Durant (/dəˈrænt/; November 5, 1886 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for The Story of Civilization, 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for The Story of Philosophy, written in 1926, described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy"

Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, of French-Canadian parents Joseph Durant and Mary Allard, who had been part of the Quebec emigration to the United States.

He became the principal of Ferrer Modern School, an advanced school intended to educate the working-classes; he also taught there. At the Modern School, he fell in love with and married a fifteen-year-old pupil, Chaya (Ida) Kaufman, whom he later nicknamed "Ariel". The Durants had one daughter, Ethel, and adopted a son, Louis.

Sources

• Will Durant at Wikipedia
• Wikidata: Item Q333911
• Birth information provided by Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988, accessed on ancestry.com.
• Death information provided by California Death Index 1940-1997, accessed on ancestry.com.