Nevins, Allan (1890-1971). American journalist and historian. Born in Camp Point, IL, Allan Nevins graduated from the University of Illinois and first worked as an editorial writer for the New York Evening Post. Between 1924 and 1926 he served as literary editor of the New York Sun and after a term teaching history at Cornell University became literary editor for the New York World. Nevins taught history at Columbia University for 30 years, while continuing to work for the World until 1931. He also wrote two Pulitzer Prize-winning historical biographies: Grover Cleveland (1932) and Hamilton Fish (1936). Cather recalled reading Nevins's Frémont, the West’s Greatest Adventurer (1928) with “especial pleasure” (#1226). In 1939 Nevins founded the Society of American Historians, which Cather declined an invitation to join (#1443). Nevins also first alerted Cather of an “enterprise” to “popularize a number of American books in cheap editions among English readers”; in 1943 Heinemann, in collaboration with the Readers Union, produced a wartime edition of My Ántonia (1918) (#2752).

Clemens, Cyril (1902-1999). American biographer. A distant cousin of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain), Cyril Clemens was born in St. Louis, MO, to James R. and Kathryn T. Clemens, and received his BA and MA from Washington University (St. Louis). He founded the International Mark Twain Society in 1930 and edited its journal, the Mark Twain Quarterly, from 1936-1982. He wrote biographies and biographical sketches of his famous cousin and other literary figures, including G.K. Chesterton and A.E. Housman. The Mark Twain Society awarded a medal to Cather in 1934; Clemens asked Cather for contributions to the journal and pressed her for information about her 1902 visit to Housman.