Clifton K. Hillegass (18 April 1918 in

Rising City, Nebraska Rising City is a village in Butler County, Nebraska, Butler County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 374 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. History Rising City was established in 1878 when the Omaha and Republican Valley Rai ...

– 5 May 2001 in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

) was the creator and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

of ''

CliffsNotes CliffsNotes are a series of student study guides. The guides present and create literary and other works in pamphlet form or online. Detractors of the study guides claim they let students bypass reading the assigned literature. The company clai ...

''. ''CliffsNotes'' are study guides that assist

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offerin ...

and

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

students in their

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

course work. CliffsNotes began in 1958 as $1 reprints of Canadian study guides for 16 plays by Shakespeare. At that time, Hillegass worked for a major distributor of college textbooks. He knew hundreds of campus bookstore managers across the country. Those close relationships gave him the first outlets for the Notes. Sales expanded rapidly as high school students began to buy the slim yellow and black pamphlets. By the early 1970s the company had created additional study aids—exam reviews, course outlines, law school materials, and test preparation kits for the SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. As the company grew, Hillegass kept its headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska. Each year he donated 10% of the pre-tax profits to local charities and civic organizations (which, on his death, received half of his estate). Most employees were lifetime Lincoln residents. After he sold the company in 1999, Hillegass endowed a chair in English at the University of Nebraska. Clifton Hillegass graduated from

Midland Lutheran College Midland University is a private Lutheran university in Fremont, Nebraska. It has an approximate enrollment of 1,600 students on campus. Known as Midland Lutheran College from 1962 to 2010, the college is affiliated with the Evangelical Luthera ...

and then studied physics and geology for two years at the University of Nebraska. He later received four honorary degrees.

References

A Brief History of CliffsNotes (Wayback Machine)

References

Further reading