Irving Albert Leonard (December 1, 1896 in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

– October 1, 1996 in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

) was an American historian and translator, specialising in Hispanic history and art. His best known publications are ''Books of the Brave'' (1949) and ''Baroque Times in Old Mexico: Seventeenth-Century Persons, Places and Practices'' (1959), which won the

Conference on Latin American History Conference on Latin American History, (CLAH), founded in 1926, is the professional organization of Latin American historians affiliated with the American Historical Association. It publishes the journal ''The Hispanic American Historical Review''. ...

award for the best book in English. ''Books of the Brave'', a valuable account of the introduction of literary culture to

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

, was updated in 1992. He had many papers published in the ''

American Historical Review ''The American Historical Review'' is a quarterly academic history journal and the official publication of the American Historical Association. It targets readers interested in all periods and facets of history and has often been described as the ...

'' and the ''

Hispanic American Historical Review ''The Hispanic American Historical Review'' is a quarterly, peer-reviewed, scholarly journal of Latin American history, the official publication of the Conference on Latin American History, the professional organization of Latin American historia ...

'', such as ''A Frontier Library, 1799'' (Feb. 1943, vol. 23, no. 1, p. 21–51). Leoanrd was raised in

. He did his undergraduate studies in Yale. He then worked for three years in the Philippines in the early 1920s. He also taught high school for a time in California before beginning his graduate studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. In 1960, Leonard served as chair of the

, the professional organization of Latin American historians.

References

John J. Tepaske
. "An Interview with Irving A. Leonard" (despite the name, this begins with a brief biography written by the interviewer), ''The Hispanic American Historical Review'' Vol. 63, no. 2 (May 1983), pp. 233–253. {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonard, Irving 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Historians of the Hispanic world 1896 births 1962 deaths Writers from New Haven, Connecticut Historians of Mexico 20th-century American translators Historians from Connecticut 20th-century American male writers Yale University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American people in the American Philippines