Jerome Clark
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jerome Clark is an American researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena, and he is also a songwriter of some note.
He is one of the most prominent UFO historians and researchers active today, and is widely regarded as one of the most thorough and even-handed writers in the field: in 2001, researcher John Harney described Clark as one of "ufology's finest;"[1] and in 1995, the editors of Magonia noted that Clark was "highly-respected."[2]
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[edit] Biography
Clark was born in 1946 in Canby, Minnesota. He attended South Dakota State University and Minnesota State University in Moorhead, Minnesota,studying history and political science. He became interested in the UFO phenomenon in the 1960s. He has served as a writer, reporter, and editor for a number of magazines which cover UFOs and other paranormal subjects.
In the 1970s, Clark embraced some paranormal ideas to explain UFOs and other unusual phenomena; he was influenced by the "ultraterrestrials" theory of John Keel, and the so-called interdimensional hypothesis (which had been championed by Dr. Jacques Vallee). Clark even co-wrote a book on the subject with longtime friend Loren Coleman. Eventually, however, Clark came to reject the paranormal explanations as unscientific and prone to unsupported conclusions.
For a 1980 publication (not one of his own many books), Clark wrote:
- In the past two or three years I have become an agnostic about all UFO theories. I have discovered, as one who is no less guilty of it than anyone else, that one can "prove" just about anything by focusing on certain data and ignoring others. I happen to sympathize with the impulse to theorize about UFOs; after all, theories are how we make sense of things. But we ought not under any circumstances to take our theories too seriously, and we must never give them greater primacy than we give the observed facts … In my darker moments I have come to suspect that UFOs may represent something so far beyond us that our attempts to understand them may be comparable to an ant's efforts to comprehend the principles of nuclear physics." (quoted in Story, 75; emphasis in original)
In the years since, Clark has championed a sort of open-ended agnosticism, chosing to focus on phenomena that have some degree of documentable support -- whether physical evidence, or reliably reported events. He has argued very cautiously in favor of the extraterrestrial hypothesis, not as proven fact but as a working hypothesis, choosing to focus on the UFO cases he regards as the most promising: multiple witness and/or UFO cases which are said to leave physical evidence. In 1983, Clark described himself as a "sceptical Fortean", writing, "Charles Fort was sceptical of establishment humbuggery and so are those of us who follow in his footsteps. That hasn't changed and I hope it never will. But now it's time that we train a sceptical eye on our own humbuggery as well."
From 1976 to 1989 he was the editor of Fate magazine. Clark is a board member of the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), one of the few UFO research groups with credible scientific support. Since 1985 he has served as the editor of the CUFOS journal, International UFO Reporter. He has also been the editor of the Journal of UFO Studies, the only peer reviewed publication in Ufology.
Perhaps his greatest accomplishment in the field of UFO studies came in the 1990s with the publication of his massive, three-volume UFO Encyclopedia (now available in an updated two-volume edition). This encyclopedia is widely regarded by most UFO researchers, and even many skeptics, as one of the best-researched and most credible publications on the often-controversial subject of UFOs. [citation needed]
After living for many years in the Chicago area, where CUFOS is headquartered, he returned to his hometown of Canby, Minnesota, where he lives and works as of 2006.
[edit] Songwriting
In addition to his duties as a writer, researcher, and editor, Clark has also written songs for musicians such as Emmylou Harris, Mary Carpenter, and Tom T. Hall.
[edit] Awards and Honors
An abridged version of the encyclopedia, entitled The UFO Book, won the 1998 Benjamin Franklin Award in the Science/Environment category from the Publishers Marketing Association.
Clark is also the 1992 recipient of the Isabel Davis Award (given by the Fund for UFO Research) for promoting rationality in the study of UFOs. He is an active participant in debates and discussions on the "UFO Updates" message boards and website.
[edit] Sources
- Clark, Jerome, Confessions of a Fortean Sceptic (1983)
- Story, Ronald D. "Clark, Jerome", p. 74-76 in The Encyclopedia of UFOs; Ronald Story, editor; 1980
- Story, Ronald D. (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrial Encounters, New American Library, 2001.
