Clarence Augustus Manning (1893–1972) was a pioneering American slavicist and academic who dedicated over four decades of his career to Columbia University. After earning his bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from Columbia, Manning served in the military intelligence translation section during World War I. He returned to academia shortly thereafter, rising through the ranks to eventually chair the Department of Slavic Studies.
Manning was instrumental in expanding the scope of Slavic studies in the United States beyond its traditional focus on Russia. Throughout his career, he published numerous scholarly studies on the languages, cultures, and histories of various Eastern European and Slavic nations. He also translated significant works of Slavic literature into English, making them accessible to a broader Western audience. His travels through Eastern Europe and Greece in the early 1920s deeply informed his academic perspective and institutional leadership.
In recognition of his contributions to the field, Manning received an honorary doctorate from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich in 1948. He was also an active member of several prestigious international academic organizations, including the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Slavonic Institute of Prague, and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Although he retired from Columbia University in 1958, he remained an active scholar and continued publishing until his death in 1972.
