Jerome Clark

From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person

Contents 5
Jerome Clark
Illustration of an open book about flying saucers
Illustration: an open book about flying saucers. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.
TypePerson
On the Timeline1 event, 1968

Jerome Clark (born 1946) is an American writer and editor best known for his multi-volume The UFO Encyclopedia, which Library Journal called the most thorough treatment of the subject yet.[1]

Career

Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

Clark was raised in Canby, Minnesota. He has worked as a writer and editor for magazines covering UFOs and the paranormal, including Fate and the Center for UFO Studies' International UFO Reporter.[1] He studied the UFO group that became Heaven's Gate years before its 1997 mass suicide.[1]

The UFO Encyclopedia

Illustration of an observer watching the sky
Illustration: an observer watching the sky. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

The first edition of The UFO Encyclopedia appeared in 1992. Library Journal called it the most thorough treatment of the subject yet, and Choice found its articles factual and balanced, favouring neither believers nor skeptics. A one-volume version, The UFO Book, won a Benjamin Franklin Award in 1998.[1] He has also written books on strange phenomena and, with Loren Coleman, on cryptozoology.[1]

Views

Charles Fort 1920
Charles Fort 1920 Photo: public domain · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Clark has described himself as a "skeptical Fortean", after the writer Charles Fort.[3] Philosopher Paul Kurtz wrote that Clark accuses skeptics of being closed-minded and dogmatic, yet is easily impressed by questionable evidence.[1] Clark has also exposed hoaxes: in 1977 he showed that the 1897 tale of an airship carrying off a cow in Kansas had been written for a liars' club contest.[2]

Clark is also a country and folk songwriter whose songs have been recorded by artists including Emmylou Harris and Tom T. Hall.[1]

On the UAP Timeline

Edward Condon: Edward U. Condon, circa 1945-1951 National Institute of Standards and Technology Digital Archives, Gaithersburg, MD 20899
Edward Condon: Edward U. Condon, circa 1945-1951 National Institute of Standards and Technology Digital Archives, Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

References

This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

Discuss the article: missing sources, mistakes, or what should be added.

No discussion yet.

BrowseFeedArticlesTimelineOfficial filesMapTonight’s SkyStatsFavorites