ABSTRACT

W. A. Paton and A. C. Littleton authored the most influential monograph of the American Accounting Association (AAA), titled “An Introduction to Corporate Accounting Standards” and published in 1940. Both were members of the Executive Committee of the AAA, which had issued “A Tentative Statement of Accounting Principles Underlying Corporate Reports” in 1936 (American Accounting Association 1936). The monograph can be seen as a detailed explanation of the relatively brief statement issued in 1936. In the preface to the monograph, the authors state, “We have attempted to weave together the fundamental ideas of accounting rather than to state standards as such. The intention has been to build a framework within which a subsequent statement of corporate accounting standards could be erected. Accounting theory is here conceived to be a coherent, coordinated, consistent body of doctrine which may be compactly expressed in the form of standards if desired.”