I. A. Richards

I. A. Richards

Ivor Armstrong Richards (26 February 1893 – 7 September 1979) was an influential English literary critic and rhetorician. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge where his love of English was nurtured by the scholar 'Cabby' Spence. His books, especially The Meaning of Meaning, Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism, and The Philosophy of Rhetoric, proved to be founding influences for the New Criticism. The concept of 'practical criticism' led in time to the practices of close reading, what is often thought of as the beginning of modern literary criticism. Richards is regularly considered one of the founders of the contemporary study of literature in English.

Read more about I. A. Richards:  Contributions, Further Reading

Famous quotes containing the word richards:

    There are women in middle life, whose days are crowded with practical duties, physical strain, and moral responsibility ... they fail to see that some use of the mind, in solid reading or in study, would refresh them by its contrast with carking cares, and would prepare interest and pleasure for their later years. Such women often sink into depression, as their cares fall away from them, and many even become insane. They are mentally starved to death.
    —Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)