Chubb, Thomas Caldecot, 1899-1972

Thomas Caldecot Chubb was born in East Orange, New Jersey, the son of insurance exective Herndon Chubb and his wife, Alice Lee Chubb. He was educated at St. Paul's School and at Yale College, receiving his BA in 1922. It was at Yale that he achieved his first literary successes. His poetry collection, The White God and Other Poems, was published in the Yale Younger Poets series in 1920, and his poem Kyrdoon was the Yale University Prize Poem in 1921.

Although he served in the Naval Reserve in World War I and in the Office of Strategic Services in World War II, Chubb was self-employed as a writer for most of his adult life. In addition to several collections of verse, he published biographies of Dante, Boccaccio and Aretino; translations of Aretino's letters and Cecco Angiolieri's sonnets; and histories of the Byzantines, Venetians, and Vikings for younger readers. He also contributed a number of book reviews to the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

Chubb was also a competitive sailor and member of the New York Yacht Club, the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, and the Indian River Yacht Club. He was a trustee of the Chubb Foundation, the Rosemary Hall Foundation and the Yale Library Associates, as well as a fellow of Timothy Dwight College at Yale. He was active in the Connecticut Democratic Party, a member of the Merritt Parkway Commission, and served on the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.

In his later years, Chubb lived in Greenwich, Connecticut and Springfield Plantation, Thomasville, Georgia, with his third wife, Edith Onions Chubb. He died in Georgia on March 22, 1972, and was survived by his widow, a son, and two daughters.

From the guide to the Thomas Caldecot Chubb Papers, 1920-1972, 1950-1970, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)