Ronald Crane
Ronald Salmon Crane (January 5, 1886 – July 12, 1967) was a
Early life
Ronald Crane was born in
The Chicago School of Critics
The School has often been called “Neo-Aristotelian,” though in the introduction to Critics and Criticism (and in other works, such as “Toward a More Adequate Criticism of Poetic Structure”) Crane argued strongly against that title. Regardless, Aristotle's Poetics and the method of inquiry he created played an important and obvious role in their works: Crane emphasized Form and Matter in his writings as inseparable entities within poetry, and frequently referred to Aristotle's distinction between imitative and non-imitative poetry. The prefix “Neo” is applied because of the modifications Crane makes to Aristotle's original theories in Poetics. The Chicago Critics also emphasized a necessity of multiple theories of criticism. Ronald Crane continually warned against “any effort to define authoritatively the frontiers and problems of our subject.” (Toward a More...). Instead of pursuing a final
Death
Crane held positions in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a member of the London Bibliographical Society. He was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy one month before he died following a long illness. His obituary included a retelling of the story that upon his death bed, Wayne C. Booth, one of his former students and another leader in the Chicago School, came to visit and suggested that Crane was looking better, upon which Crane retorted, “What is your evidence?” He died on July 12, 1967, in his home in Chicago, Illinois.
Works By Crane
- New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith editor (1927)
- A Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1620–1800 (1927) co-author
- A Collection of English Poems, 1660–1800 (1932) editor
- Critical and Historical Principles of Literary History author
- Languages of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry (1953)
- Critics and Criticism: Ancient and Modern (1952) editor and contributor
- Critics and Criticism: Essays in Method (1957) editor and contributor
- The Idea of the Humanities (1967)
References
- ^ "Guide to the Ronald S. Crane Papers". University of Chicago Library. University of Chicago Library. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
Bibliography
- Critical Theory Since Plato edited by Hazard Adams. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1971.
- Critical Understanding: The Powers and Limits of Pluralism Wayne C. Booth. University of Chicago Press, 1939.
- "R.S. Crane Dead: Founder of Chicago School Opposed New Criticism" New York Times August 29, 1967. Page 40.
- Ronald S. Crane Papers. Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
- The Johns Hopkins guide to literary theory and criticism 2nd ed. edited by Michael Groden, Martin Kreiswirth, and Imre Szeman. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.
External links
Media related to Ronald Crane at Wikimedia Commons