Elementos de identidad
Nombre y localización del repositorio
Nivel de descripción
Colección
Título
I. A. Richards collection
Fecha(s)
- 1929-1997 (Creación)
Extensión
14 Boxes
Nombre del productor
Historia biográfica
Ivor Armstrong Richards was born on February 26, 1893, in Sandbach, Chesire, England. He attended Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honors in moral sciences. Known as the founder of modern literary criticism, Richards participated in groundbreaking work in aesthetics, semantics, literary criticism, elementary reading, and second-language training. While participating as a lecturer at Magdalene College from 1922 to 1929, Richards authored some of his most famous and influential works, collaborating with C.K. Ogden, a British writer and English teacher. The two coauthored Foundations of Aesthetics (1922),which developed the theory of synaesthesis, and The Meaning of Meaning(1923), where Richards and Ogden created the triadic theory of semantics. During this time, Richards also wrote Principles of Literary Criticism (1924) and Practical Criticism (1929), which outline Richards' method of close reading and other aspects of his literary criticism, known as New Criticism.
In 1929, Richards took a position as a visiting professor at Tsing Hua University in China. He then served as director of the Orthological Institute of China from 1936 to 1938. While serving these positions, he taught Basic English to Chinese students and began utilizing media for reading and second language instruction. Basic English, created by Ogden, was seen as a “beginner’s first” language. With only 850 words, this simplified version of English was intended to become an international language that all would be able to understand. Richards collaborated with Christine Gibson to create a Language Through Pictures series, which combined the use of textbooks, workbooks, film, audio, and other media for learning both primary and secondary languages. These were adapted into many different languages, including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian.
In 1939, Richards became an English professor at Harvard University, where he continued work in primary education and author books on criticism, poetry, semantics, and language instruction. He is also known for acting as a mentor and influence to other prominent critics, including William Empson and F.R. Leavis. Richards served as a professor at Harvard until 1963, when he began to write his own poetry, publishing four collections and three verse plays. In 1974, Richards returned to Cambridge, England. He fell ill a few years later while lecturing on language instruction in China and died on September 7, 1979
Área de contenido y estructura
Alcance y contenido
Dr. I. A. Richards (1893-1979) was an influential English literary critic and rhetorician. His books on literary criticism, especially The Meaning of Meaning, Principles of Literary Criticism, Practical Criticism, and The Philosophy of Rhetoric, are taken to be founding influences for the New Criticism. Richards is also considered one of the founders of the contemporary study of literature in English.
The I. A. Richards Collection at the Special Collections department contains a large selection of Richards' work in language learning and literacy, in the form of textbooks, workbooks, brochures, audio-visual materials, index cards, phonograph records, and slides.
Sistema de arreglo
Condiciones de acceso y uso de los elementos
Condiciones de acceso
This collection is open for research.
Acceso físico
This collection is kept in an off-campus storage facility. Please contact Special Collections at asc.library@miami.edu with the boxes you are interested in prior to your visit, and allow up to 1 week for delivery of materials.
Acceso técnico
Condiciones
I A. Richards Collection Finding Aid © 2009 University of Miami. All rights reserved. Requests to reproduce or publish materials from this collection should be directed to asc.library@miami.edu.
Idiomas del material
- inglés
- francés
- alemán
- italiano
- ruso
- español
Escritura(s) de los documentos
- latín
Notas sobre las lenguas y escrituras
Instrumentos de descripción
instrumento de descripción generado
Elementos de adquisición y valoración
Historial de custodia
Origen del ingreso
Gift of Professor John Paul Russo.
Valoración, selección y eliminación
Acumulaciones
Elementos de material relacionado
Existencia y localización de originales
Existencia y localización de copias
Unidades de descripción relacionadas.
Descripciones relacionadas
Elemento notas
Nota general
2012 accession inventory by UM Foote Fellow, Marie Hanewinckel (Student Assistant). New materials added to finding aid and biography edited by Andrew Scott Thompson under the supervision of Jay Sylvestre, Special Collections Librarian, summer 2017.