Cleveland Amory

Cleveland Amory
Cleveland Amory in 1974
Born	September 2, 1917 Nahant, Massachusetts
Died	October 14, 1998(1998-10-14) (aged 81) Manhattan, New York
Resting place	Black Beauty Ranch, Murchison, Texas
Occupation	Author, commentator, reporter, and animal rights activist
Citizenship	United States
Alma mater	Harvard University
Notable works	The Proper Bostonians (1947) The Cat Who Came for Christmas (1987)
Spouse	(1) Cora Fields Craddock (m. 1941–1947, divorced) (2) Martha Hodge (m. Dec. 31, 1954–1977, divorced)

Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917 – October 14, 1998) was an American author, reporter and commentator and animal rights activist. He originally was known for writing a series of popular books poking fun at the pretensions and customs of society, starting with The Proper Bostonians in 1947. From the 1950s through the 1990s, he had a long career as a reporter and writer for national magazines, and as a television and radio commentator. In the late 1980s and 1990s, he was best known for his bestselling books about his adopted cat, Polar Bear, starting with The Cat Who Came for Christmas (1987). Amory devoted much of his life to promoting animal rights, particularly protection of animals from hunting and vivisection; the executive director of the Humane Society of the United States described Amory as "the founding father of the modern animal protection movement."

Amory was born September 2, 1917, into a privileged and established Boston family; his parents were Robert Amory and Leonore Cobb Amory, daughter of Chicago architect Henry Ives Cobb. During his childhood, he had a great affection for his aunt Lucy "Lu" Creshore, who took in many stray animals and was instrumental in helping Amory get his first puppy as a child, an event that Amory remembered seventy years later as the most memorable moment of his childhood.

In 1936, when he was 18, Amory held a summer job as tutor and companion to 13-year-old William Zinsser, who grew up to be a notable writer and editor. Zinsser later recalled that they had many discussions about their shared interest in journalism, which at that time was not considered a suitable profession for upper-class young men. Amory attended Harvard where he was president of The Harvard Crimson.

After graduating from Harvard in 1939, Amory became the youngest editor ever hired by The Saturday Evening Post, a position he held until 1941 when he left to serve in the Second World War. Amory served in military intelligence in the United States Army from 1941 to 1943. Upon returning, he worked as a writer and reporter for various publications. Around 1945, Amory witnessed a bullfight in Nogales, Mexico which strongly influenced him to become an activist for animal rights.