ABSTRACT
The first mention of Richards' famous reading experiment is an entry in A. C. Benson's Diary for 13 October 1923: "Rather a big dinner. Richards next to me, very interesting. He suggested as a good examination for English students to print five extracts of poetry and prose, with no clues as to the author and date, and containing one really worthless piece-and ask for comments and opinion."1 This eventually formed the basis of Richards' courses on "Practical Criticism" in 1925, 1927, and 1928; became the examination question (though the poem was a worthy one) in the reformed tripos of 1926; and led to Richards' masterpiece Practical Criticism in 1929.
