ABSTRACT
This is a familiar cameo of I.A.Richards (1893-1979): the polemically antihistorical critic, keen on the meaning and value of words on the page, but apparently uninterested in the social context of literary works or the actual human experiences which produced them. But the image is of course a stereotype, as simplified as any other; and it has become a slightly dangerous stereotype, in so far as it circulates not only in casual conversation but sometimes also in serious academic debate. One of the many values of John Paul Russo’s lengthy and detailed account of Richards’ life, therefore, is that it sets the stereotypical image in a much fuller historical and intellectual context than is common in projections of Richards which are made backwards from the partial vantage point of modern literary theory.
