So I plunged into the equivalent of Chinese History One and Basic Chinese Language One.” While talking to the Wrights, Spence recently recalled in Humanities magazine, “I suddenly thought this would be fun to explore. She and her husband, Arthur Wright, also a China scholar, had just accepted professorships at Yale. When he graduated in 1959, an academic career seemed certain, though he had not yet settled on a field of study.Ī fellowship established by Paul Mellon brought Spence to Yale University, where he encountered the China scholar Mary Wright. At Clare College, Cambridge, he became a coeditor of the storied undergraduate magazine Granta, editor of the student paper, and a writer of parodies. He followed his brothers-one of whom became a classicist, the other a chemical engineer-to Winchester College, where he won the History Prize. His mother was a lover of French literature.
His father worked in publishing and edited one of Joseph Conrad’s books. If the West understands the culture and history of China better now than it did a half century ago, Jonathan Spence is one of the people to be thanked. His books and articles form a body of work notable for groundbreaking research, fine literary quality, and extraordinary public value.
For over fifty years, Jonathan Spence has been studying and writing about China.
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