Claude Gernade Bowers was born on November 20, 1878, in Westfield, IN, to Lewis Bowers and Juliet Tipton. He spent his childhood in rural Indiana and his adolescence in Indianapolis. After graduating from Indianapolis High School in 1898, Bowers worked a few years for the publisher Bowen-Merrill Company. His journalistic career began in 1901 when Bowers became an editorial writer for the Sentinel. A passionate Democrat, Bowers advocated for progressive reforms in both print and public speeches; he gained a reputation as the "Gatling Gun Orator of the Wabash." A couple of years later in 1903, Bowers moved to Terre Haute, IN, to write for the Gazette and Star and served on the city's Board of Public Works from 1906 to 1911. In 1904 and 1906, he ran as a Democratic candidate for the congressional representative of Terre Haute's district but lost both times to the Republican incumbent. In 1911, Bowers married Sybil McCaslin; the couple had one daughter, Patricia. Bowers moved to Washington, D.C., to work as secretary to John Worth Kern, the U.S. senator from Indiana, from 1911-1917. While in the nation's capital, Bowers wrote political articles for a number of Indiana newspapers and assisted Senator Kern in his efforts to push New Freedom legislation through the Senate. In 1916, Senator Kern lost his bid for reelection, and the following year, Bowers moved back to Indiana, this time settling in Fort Wayne, where he was editor of the Journal-Gazette.

In 1923, Bowers moved to New York City and worked as an editorial writer for New York World from 1923-1931 and a political columnist for the New York Journal from 1931-1933. While in New York City, Bowers also wrote speeches for the politicians Al Smith, Robert F. Wagner, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a keynote speaker at the 1928 Democratic convention, Bowers notably criticized Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, and he campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. From 1933 to 1939, Bowers served as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Spain; as an American diplomat to Spain, he worked to improve Spanish-American trade and supported the side of the Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). From 1939 to 1953, Bowers served as a U.S. ambassador to Chile, and during World War II, he persuaded the Chilean government to break ties with the Axis powers. Aside from his career as a newspaperman and diplomat, Bowers succeeded as a historical writer and biographer. Among his notable historical works are Jefferson and Hamilton (1925) and The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln (1929); he authored biographies of Senator John Kern (1918), Senator Albert J. Beveridge (1932), and Pierre Vergniaud (1950). His autobiography, My Life: The Memoirs of Claude Bowers, was published in 1962. Bowers died in New York City on January 21, 1958, at the age of 79.