Dumas Malone

Dumas Malone
Born(1892-01-10)January 10, 1892
DiedDecember 27, 1986(1986-12-27) (aged 94)
Spouse
Elizabeth Gifford
(m. 1925)
RelativesKemp Malone (brother)
AwardsPulitzer Prize for History (1975)
Presidential Medal of Freedom (1983)
Academic background
EducationEmory College (BA)
Yale University (BDiv, MA, PhD)
ThesisThe Public Life of Thomas Cooper, 1783–1839 (1923)
Doctoral advisorAllen Johnson
Academic work
DisciplineHistoriography
InstitutionsYale University
University of Virginia
Harvard University
Columbia University
Notable worksJefferson and His Time
Signature

Dumas Malone (DEW-mah;[1] January 10, 1892 – December 27, 1986) was an American historian, minister,[2] and biographer. A professor by occupation, Malone spent the majority of his career teaching at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he served as the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History.[3][4]

Malone was best known for his six-volume biography, Jefferson and His Time, for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for History. Completed in 1981, the series became Malone's defining work and is considered the foremost authoritative biography of Thomas Jefferson.[5][6] Before beginning a lifelong career as a biographer, he was editor-in-chief of the twenty-volume Dictionary of American Biography and the third director of the Harvard University Press. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

  1. ^ Hyland 2013, p. xi.
  2. ^ "Ministers Named for New Pulpits". The Atlanta Constitution. 1 December 1914. p. 10. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  3. ^ "Dumas Malone | Biography, Books, & Thomas Jefferson | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-03-08.
  4. ^ Johnson, David (2013). "Long Journey with Mr. Jefferson: The Life of Dumas Malone (Book Review)". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. 121 (3): 297–298. JSTOR 24392916.
  5. ^ Shuffelton 1995, p. 291, 301.
  6. ^ Peterson 1988, p. 237.