Russian-American historical Writer who co-wrote a multi-volume work entitled The Story of Civilization. The work's tenth volume, Rousseau and Revolution, received the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
She was born to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire (in what is modern-day Ukraine). Durant -- then known as Chaya Kaufman -- moved to the United States at the age of three.
In 1978, she and her husband published a joint memoir.
She met her husband and Story of Civilization co-author, Will Durant, while he was teaching and she was studying at New York's Ferrer Modern School. The couple married when Ariel Durant was only fifteen years old.
She and her husband were awarded the 1977 Presidential Medal of Freedom by U.S. President Gerald R. Ford.
