CURRICULUM VITAE

Karl Nickerson Llewellyn was born at Seattle, Washington on 22 May 1893. His father, William Henry Llewellyn, was a first generation American of Welsh ancestry, as his name suggests. His mother, whose maiden name was Janet George, came from a New England family which claimed descent from Elder Brewster of the Mayflower and which had settled in Oregon. Contrary to popular belief, Karl Llewellyn was not of German descent on either side. The name Karl, it is said, was suggested to his parents by a character in The Student Prince.

Llewellyn's parents, had contrasting personalities. William Llewellyn was an easy-going, perennially optimistic businessman of varying fortunes. There were times when he could claim to be wealthy, but he was more than once in serious financial difficulties. Karl maintained affectionate relations with his father, who was by all accounts an engaging person, but their relationship does not seem to have been very intimate. Karl, who was fond of comparing people he liked to trees, categorized his father as ‘a cherry tree type’, beautiful but not very solid. It seems that Karl's mother was the more dominating character and exerted a greater influence on him. Janet Llewellyn married young. Her formal education did not match her intelligence. Her strict puritan upbringing, her energy and her brains made her a formidable crusader on a number of fronts. Described by her son as ‘conservatively acting, radically thinking’, she was an ardent evangelical congregationalist, a Daughter of the American Revolution, and a stalwart feminist.