Clifton Fadiman

Clifton Paul "Kip" Fadiman (May 15, 1904 – June 20, 1999) was an American intellectual, author, editor, radio and television personality. He began his work with the radio, and switched to television later in his career. 2Background Born in Brooklyn, New York, Fadiman was a nephew of the famed 1887-emigree Russian psychologist Boris Sidis and a first cousin of the child prodigy William James Sidis. Fadiman grew up in Brooklyn. His mother's maiden name was Betteni (Grace) Mandelbaum. She worked as a nurse; his father, Isadore, emigrated from Russia in 1892 and worked as a druggist. He attended Columbia College at Columbia University. One of his teachers was lifelong friend Mark Van Doren; his undergraduate contemporaries included Jacques Barzun, Mortimer Adler, Lionel Trilling, Louis Zukofsky and Whittaker Chambers. Though he entered with the Class of 1924, his graduation was delayed until 1925 because of financial constraints. Chambers clearly includes Fadiman in a group of ernste Menschen ["serious people"], whose ability to attend Columbia he attributes to "a struggle with a warping poverty impossible for those who have not glimpsed it to imagine it." He graduated Phi Beta Kapp