Ronald S. Crane

Ronald Salmon Crane (January 5, 1886 – July 12, 1967) was a literary critic, historian, bibliographer, and professor. He is credited with the founding of the Chicago School of Literary Criticism.

Ronald Crane was born in Tecumseh, Michigan. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1908 and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911. That same year he became an instructor of English at Northwestern University. He was soon promoted to Assistant Professor, and then to Associate Professor in 1920. He continued to teach there until 1924, when he moved to the University of Chicago.

The Chicago School of Critics began its development during the mid-1930s, around the time that Crane was named head of the University of Chicago’s English Department. During this time (from 1930 to 1952) Ronald Crane took on the role of managing editor for the University’s publication Modern Philology publication. His essay titled “History Versus Criticism in the Study of Literature,” published in 1935, is considered the first publication of the Chicago School. Other members of the early School included W. R. Keast, Richard McKeon, Norman Maclean, Elder Olson, and Bernard Weinberg. The “group of friends” (as Crane called them) worked together to publish an anthology of their writings in 1952 titled Critics and Criticism: Ancient and Modern. That same year, Crane was named a Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Chicago.

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