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The son of Harry and Sarah ( Lee ) Whorf, Benjamin Lee Whorf was born on April 24, 1897 in Winthrop, Massachusetts.

Harry Church Whorf was an artist, intellectual and designer – first working as a commercial artist and later as a dramatist.

Benjamin had two younger brothers, John and Richard, who both went on to become distinguished artists.

John became a painter and illustrator ; Richard was an actor in films such as Yankee Doodle Dandy and later an Emmy-nominated television director of such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies.

Benjamin was the intellectual of the three and at a young age he conducted chemical experiments with his father's photographic equipment.

He was also an avid reader, interested in botany ( learning the Latin nomenclature of thousands of plants ), astrology, and Middle American prehistory.

He read William H. Prescott's Conquest of Mexico several times.

At the age of 17 he began to keep a copious diary in which he recorded his thoughts and dreams.