Livingston Ludlow Biddle Jr. (1918 – 2002) was an American author and promoter of funding of the arts, from a wealthy Pennsylvania family.

Life

Livingston Ludlow Biddle was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on May 26, 1918. His mother was Euginie Carter Law, and father was Livingston Ludlow Biddle (1877–1959) of the

Biddle family The Biddle family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an Old Philadelphian family descended from English immigrants William Biddle (1630–1712) and Sarah Kempe (1634–1709), who arrived in the Province of New Jersey in 1681. Quakers, they had emig ...

of Philadelphia, who published poems such as "The Understanding Hills". Ancestors included grandfather Edward Biddle (1851–1933) who married Emily Taylor Drexel (1851–1883), daughter of Anthony Joseph Drexel, and great grandfather Nicholas Biddle (1786–1844), linking to two major banking families. He attended the Montgomery School in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania and St. George's School in

Middletown, Rhode Island Middletown is a town in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. The population was 17,075 at the 2020 census. It lies to the south of Portsmouth and to the north of Newport on Aquidneck Island, hence the name "Middletown". History Vari ...

. He graduated from Princeton University in 1940, majoring in English and French. He was also on the tennis team. He went to work as a reporter for the ''

Philadelphia Bulletin The ''Philadelphia Bulletin'' was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the United ...

'' newspaper until World War II broke out. Several of his cousins and uncles were military leaders, but due to his poor eyesight, he served in the American Field Service as an ambulance driver in Africa. After the war he wrote short stories and four novels set in Philadelphia. From 1963 to 1965 he worked as staff assistant to Senator Claiborne Pell, who was a classmate from both St. George's and Princeton. He helped draft the legislation creating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as the third chairman of the NEA in 1977 and served from 1981. Biddle married Cordelia Fenton who died in 1972. In 1973 he married artist Catharina Baart (1912–2005), who had been born in the Netherlands. She taught art in the Washington, DC public schools from the 1950s to 1974. He died May 3, 2002.

Legacy

His daughter from his first marriage, Cordelia Frances Biddle (born 1947), also became an author. A series features the fictitious Philadelphia character Martha Beale.

Works

* From ''Cosmopolitan'' * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biddle, Livingston Ludlow Jr. 1918 births 2002 deaths American art historians National Endowment for the Arts Members of the Philadelphia Club Princeton University alumni People from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Livingston Ludlow Jr. Drexel family 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers American Field Service personnel of World War II St. George's School (Rhode Island) alumni Historians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American male writers