Talk:John P. Clay

Victuallers (talk) 21:40, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

A fact from John P. Clay appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 16 January 2008, and was viewed approximately 1,102 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that investment banker John P. Clay pursued his interest in Sanskrit literature by endowing the Clay Sanskrit Library, a 100-volume series of Sanskrit works translated into English? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/January.

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This article begins as follows:

John Clay was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1934. A 1957 graduate of Oxford University, Clay took first class honors in Sanskrit, Avestan and Old Persian. He went on to a long career in global investment banking with Clay Finlay, Inc, New York, and before that with Vickers da Costa, New York, and the London Stock Exchange.

In 1999 he decided that he wanted to give enduring patronage to his real passion: Sanskrit literature and his vision of a series that would make all the classics available to the general public for the first time. With his wife Jennifer, John founded the JJC Foundation and he shared his vision for the Clay Sanskrit Library with

It tell us about first class honors in several ancient languages, so maybe the guy is notable for his expertise in those. Then it says he had a long career in global investment banking, so maybe he's notable for that. Then it says he wanted to return to his real passion. Maybe the first impression, not stated explicitly, was right. Then it says he had this idea of the "Clay Sanskrit Library" so maybe what he's notable for is founding that. Or maybe if I read further I'll find out it was something else that the article will tell me about later!!

But after reading that far, I still don't know!!

That is not how articles should be written. If the reason for notability is that he founded a Sanskrit Library, it should say that in the first sentence: "John Clay is the founder of the Clay Sanskrit Library."---or something like that. If it's something else, then that should similarly be stated at the beginning. Michael Hardy (talk) 15:12, 16 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]