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1910 – 1973

<b>Mark Benney</b> (1910–1973), born Henry Ernest Degras, was an influential writer and sociologist in the mid-20th century. Almost entirely self-taught, he may have been the only University of Chicago professor ever to have no degrees at all. Born in the slums of Soho in London, Benney began his adult life as a burglar, but rocketed to fame with the publication of his first book, the memoir <i>Low Company</i>, in 1936. On the strength of his writing and analysis, Benney rose to prominence as a sociologist, and in the early 1950s he crossed to the US to work with prominent researcher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Riesman">David Riesman</a>. With Riesman's support, he was hir…