Gohdes, Clarence 1901-

• 1901, July 2: Born, San Antonio, Tex.
• 1921: A.B., Capital University, Columbus, Ohio
• 1922: A.M., Ohio State University
• 1926 - 1927 : Assistant Professor of English, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Tex.
• 1928: M.A., Harvard University
• 1929 - 1930 : Instructor in English, New York University
• 1930 - 1938 : Assistant and Associate Professor of English, Duke University
• 1931: Ph.D., Columbia University Published The Periodicals of American Transcendentalism
• 1932 - 1954 : Managing Editor, American Literature (journal)
• 1932: Published Uncollected Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Reports on American Life and Natural Religion (editor) Visiting lecturer, Columbia University
• 1938: Married Celestine Marie Beamer
• 1938 - 1961 : Professor of English, Duke University
• 1944: Published American Literature in Nineteenth-Century England
• 1949: Published Faint Clews and Indirections: Manuscripts of Walt Whitman and His Family (co-editor)
• 1951: Published Literature of the American People (contributor)
• 1954 - 1969 : Editor-in-chief, American Literature (journal)
• 1955: Published America's Literature (co-editor)
• 1959: Published Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Literature of the U.S.A. Served as Chairman, Modern Language Association, American Literature Group
• 1961 - 1971 : James B. Duke Professor of American Literature, Duke University
• 1962: Guggenheim Fellow
• 1967: Published Essays on American Literature in Honor of Jay B. Hubbell (editor) Published Hunting in the Old South (editor) Published Literature and Theater of the States and Regions of the U.S.A.: A Historical Bibliography
• 1971: Retired from Duke University
• 1982: Published Scuppernong, North Carolina's Grape and Its Wines
• 1988: Published Pioneers in English at Trinity and Duke
• 1997: Died, Durham, N.C.

Clarence Louis Frank Gohdes began his post-undergraduate studies at Harvard, where he turned his attention from Latin to American literature under the tutelage of Bliss Perry, J. L. Lowes, G. L. Kittredge, and Kenneth B. Murdock. At Columbia, Gohdes wrote his dissertation under Ralph L. Rusk.

Gohdes earned his scholarly reputation through his work in American literature. He published two texts, one on Ralph Waldo Emerson and the other on Walt Whitman, that contributed to American literary scholarship through his original research and archival work. Gohdes also influenced the formation of American literary studies through his long-standing position as Managing Editor (under Jay B. Hubbell, founding editor) and then Editor-in-Chief of American Literature, the discipline's foundational academic journal. Similarly, Gohdes's A Bibliographical Guide to the Study of the Literature of the U.S.A., which went through five editions, played a key role in documenting and making accessible American literary criticism. Gohdes's career achievements attest to his role in extending the work of scholars of American literature.

From the guide to the Clarence Louis Frank Gohdes Papers, and undated, bulk, 1811-1990s, 1905-1981, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)