Papers of Clarence B. Pearce

Clarence B. Pearce of Kirkwood, Georgia, enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1917 when he was about 19 years old. His father, who apparently was a soldier in World War I, had died in 1916, and Pearce's education was interrupted by a brief stint in the Army just before the Armistice in 1919. Far away from home while at the University, Pearce wrote his mother frequently, at least for the periods represented by the letters in this gift. Early in his academic career he was active in the debating society, and later was selected for the editorial board of theVirginia Law Review, at that time a publication in serious financial difficulty. In these letters Pearce does not mention any of his professors by name, but he does discuss the books he is using for some of his courses, the amount of studying he does, and the strain and tension surrounding the exam period. For most of the time he was at the University he lived on Dawson's Row. The collection contains snapshots of Pearce and his friends around the Grounds.