Robert Van Norden Hine Jr. (26 April 1921, Los Angeles – 27 March 2015,

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...

) was an American memoirist, historical novelist, and history professor who wrote several books. His 1993 memoir ''Second Sight'' recounts his experience of becoming blind at age 50 and partially recovering his sight 15 years later with the benefit of a high-risk operation. He grew up in Beverly Hills, where his father was a real estate developer. In high school, Robert V. Hine developed severe juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. He was hospitalized for six weeks to undergo intensive therapy but graduated on schedule from high school. He started college at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA) but withdrew after he began to have hemorrhages in both eyes. The hemorrhages resulted from

uveitis Uveitis () is inflammation of the uvea, the pigmented layer of the eye between the inner retina and the outer fibrous layer composed of the sclera and cornea. The uvea consists of the middle layer of pigmented vascular structures of the eye and ...

caused by his rheumatoid arthritis. As he grew older, the uveitis made removing his cataracts too risky. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1948 from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

and a Ph.D. in history in 1952 from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. 1949 as a graduate student, he married Shirley McChord (1920–1996), whom he had met when they were students at UCLA. As his eyesight deteriorated, she became his reader and research assistant. After graduating from Yale he published in 1953 his first book and spent a year as a fellow at the Huntington Library in

San Marino, California San Marino is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It was incorporated on April 25, 1913. At the 2020 United States census the population was 12,513, a decline from the 2010 United States census. History Origin of name Th ...

. From 1954 to 1990 he was a faculty member of the history department of the

University of California, Riverside The University of California, Riverside (UCR or UC Riverside) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Riverside, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses of the University of Cali ...

. There he was the chair of the department from 1962 to 1967. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic years 1957–1958 and 1967–1968. Upon his death in 2015, he was survived by a daughter and a grandson.

Selected publications

* "continuously in print to this day" * * *, 2d ed. 1984 * * * * * *with John Mack Faragher: * *with John Mack Faragher: * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hine, Robert V. 1921 births 2015 deaths Pomona College alumni Yale University alumni University of California, Irvine faculty 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American memoirists American blind writers Blind scholars and academics Historians of the American West Historians of California 20th-century American male writers American blind people