Jerome Clark

Acknowledged as Ufology’s leading historian

Name	Jerome Clark
Age	79
Born	November 27, 1946
Famous for	Authoring the UFO Encyclopedia Working as an editor for Fate magazine and International UFO Reporter

The UFO phenomenon is the creation not of one man but of tens of thousands of UFO sightings.

Jerome Clark is one of the prominent active UFO researchers today, widely recognized in the community as the UFO historian. 

He spent six decades investigating this unexplained phenomenon and compiling well-documented cases into a series of publications. His books speak for themselves about:

• How thorough he was in the research, ensuring its historical accuracy
• How clear and simple his narrative was, ensuring that readers could understand the content and could come up with their own conclusions

His Early Life and Career

Jerome Clark shared little about his personal life with the public. What little information we know about him is as follows:

• Born and raised in Canby, Minnesota
• Studied at the South Dakota State University and the Minnesota State University, Moorhead
• A father to three children and a grandfather to two (as of the time of writing in his bio in CUFOS)
• Has been a writer, reporter, and editor for several magazines that cover UFOs and the paranormal, the most notable of which are Fate magazine and CUFOS’s International UFO Reporter
• A frequent guest on UFO documentaries, TV series, and news stories, such as Unsolved Mysteries, Sightings, Peter Jennings Reporting: UFOs – Seeing Is Believing, and the ABC News Special Report
• Is a songwriter on roots music (country, folk, and blues) and regularly writes song reviews on this genre at Rambles.Net
• Was a board member of CUFOS
• Left Chicago (where the CUFOS’s HQ was) to return to his hometown, Canby, in 2007
• A recipient of the:
  • Fund for UFO Research, Inc.’s Isabel Davis Memorial Award in 1992 for promoting rationality in UFO studies
  • Society for Scientific Exploration’s Dinsdale Award in 2008 for expanding people’s understanding of the unexplained in a clever and thoughtful manner

His Correspondence with David Halperin

Our letters became testing grounds for wild and not-so-wild ideas about the cosmic enigmas we’d committed our young lives to exploring.

UFO investigator David Halperin has been Clark’s longtime pen pal and friend. The two have known each other since their teenage years in the 1960s.

They initially got in touch through the New Jersey Association on Aerial Phenomena (NJAAP), where he (15) would later serve as director and Clark (16) as assistant director.

Halperin said they’d exchanged letters, which could run 10–20 pages long, about the “mysteries with which early 1960s Ufology was studded,” including:

• The tale of the supposed contactee, George Adamski
• The Bender mystery and the involvement of men in black
• The Allende mystery and the strange story of a naval ship turning invisible while at sea

In these letters, Halperin noticed that Clark’s way of writing wasn’t how you’d expect a 16-year-old to write. Take, for example, his comment on the Bender mystery:

Actually, the idea of organized evil as an end in itself is too naive even for the most avid Ian Fleming fan.

The sentence was “clear, astringent, slightly ironic, and compellingly readable.” This distinctive style, which would become more polished over the passing decades, enabled Halperin to recognize Clark’s writing anywhere.

His Fascination with and Stance on Ufology

In my darker moments, I have come to suspect that UFOs may represent something so far beyond us that our attempts to understand them may be comparable to an ant’s efforts to comprehend the principles of nuclear physics.

Jerome Clark’s curiosity about the unexplained started when he was young. He became more active in his inquiry when he became a teenager. He co-founded the Project Trojan Horse, where his group analyzed UFO reports and supposed contactees. This project was the beginning of his exploration of the unknown, tackling it with “open-minded rigor rather than blind belief.”

In the 1970s, he sought other explanations for the UFO phenomenon. He found them in some paranormal ideas (due to the influence of John Keel’s ultraterrestrial theory and Jacques Vallée’s interdimensional hypothesis). These paranormal ideas eventually led him to write a book with his friend, Loren Coleman, like The Unidentified and Cryptozoology A to Z.

However, he eventually grew disillusioned with associating the UFO phenomenon with the paranormal. He found them unscientific. It also didn’t help that the people supporting the paranormal explanation were making groundless conclusions without evidence.

Since then, he had become agnostic on all UFO theories. Even so, his agnosticism didn’t mean indifference; he remained open to persuasion by credible data, and in later years, this openness led him to lean once again toward the extraterrestrial hypothesis. He shared with Halperin that the “old-fashioned ‘extraterrestrial hypothesis’ was the best way to go after all.”

Overall, his stance could, at most, be best described as “skeptical Fortean.” To put it simply, it means that since we’ve always been good at questioning other people’s nonsense, we should make sure to question our own, too.

His Published Works

Jerome Clark’s most significant contribution to Ufology is his books. The UFO community unanimously agrees that his way of presenting information is objective and unbiased—traits that made him deserving of the title “lead historian.”

It can be seen in his books that he treats each UFO case as part of our history, three of which we have featured below.

The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomenon from the Beginning

The two-volume UFO Encyclopedia, now in its fourth edition (released in 2024), is Clark’s magnum opus.

It’s a must-have reference guide for people who are serious about studying the phenomenon. It covers the key sightings, close encounters, figures, and government investigations that happened, arranged alphabetically so you can easily locate specific topics.

David Albaugh of David’s Basement of the Bizarre’s review perfectly describes the book:

This isn’t just a collection of anecdotes. It’s a meticulously crafted compendium of historical records, scientific hypotheses, and cultural interpretations. All of this is presented with a balanced and discerning eye.

Clark skillfully balances the presentation of compelling evidence with the necessary skepticism, allowing readers to form their own informed conclusions.

The UFO Book: Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial

The UFO Book (1997) is an abridged, one-volume edition of The UFO Encyclopedia. It won the Independent Book Publishers Association’s 1998 Benjamin Franklin Award (Science/Environment category). 

Similar to The UFO Encyclopedia, it alphabetized 200 of the intriguing UFO encounters in history. Clark thoroughly researched each entry and provided objective views of the facts to ensure you can draw your own conclusions about whether UFOs and extraterrestrials could exist.

The book also covers the following:

• The work of prominent UFO investigators and reporters
• Detailed accounts of contact and abduction cases
• Introduction to the world’s important UFO organizations

Extraordinary Encounters: An Encyclopedia of Extraterrestrials and Otherworldly Beings

Extraordinary Encounters (2000) is another alphabetized encyclopedia—this time focused on the beings from our legends and myths, from beyond Earth, and from entirely different universe(s).

The book draws on our ancestors’ long-held belief that humans have regularly interacted and communicated with such entities, delving into the stories and cultural impact of these encounters.

Who are these beings? Why do they contact us, and how? Clark sets out to answer these questions, taking you on a fascinating exploration of these beings that have shaped our folklore, imagination, and pop culture.

His Legacy in Ufology

Jerome Clark’s extensive research and writings, especially his magnum opus, The UFO Encyclopedia, created a lasting impact on the study of Ufology.

The community appreciates his thoughtful approach in documenting his investigations, showing them that:

• You can conduct scientific inquiry as both a believer and a skeptic
• You can balance curiosity and critical thinking in UFO publications

And the best part of this all? He has left a great influence on the general public, especially his readers. He encourages them to approach UFOs and the unexplained phenomena with open-mindedness and scientific rigor.

Today, platforms like UFO Connect, a dedicated UFO research hub, continue to honor his legacy by sharing credible UFO insights and preserving historical records through their growing UFO archive.

FAQ

What is his most notable work in Ufology?

Jerome Clark’s most significant contribution is The UFO Encyclopedia, which offers a comprehensive exploration of UFO sightings, encounters, and theories across history.

Has he faced any controversies in his career?

Yes. Skeptical academic Paul Kurtz criticized Jerome Clark for “attacking skeptics for being closed-minded and dogmatic,”⁷ yet he himself readily accepts questionable evidence.

References