Richard D. Altick (1915–2008)

Author of Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion for the Modern Reader of Victorian Literature

24+ Works 1,132 Members 15 Reviews 3 Favorited

About the Author

Richard D. Altick is Regents' Professor of English Emeritus, The Ohio State University, and an internationally recognized authority on Victorian literature and social history. Mr. Altick's many books are familiar to academics but this memoir draws most upon his love for his birthplace and his sense show more of the American experience show less

Includes the names: RD ALTICK, Richard Altick, Altick richard, Richard D. Altick, Richard D. Altick, Altick Richard D., Richard D Altick's, Richard Dani Altick, Richard Daniel Attick

Image credit: The Times (London) 20 March 2008; Richard Altick obituary

Works by Richard D. Altick

The Art of Literary Research (1964) 234 copies, 2 reviews

The Scholar Adventurers (1950) 169 copies, 5 reviews

The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900 (1957) 137 copies, 3 reviews

Selective Bibliography for the Study of English and American Literature (1975) 57 copies

Preface to Critical Reading (1969) 51 copies

Victorian Studies in Scarlet: Murders and Manners in the Age of Victoria (1970) 32 copies, 1 review

The Shows of London (Belknap Press) (1978) 26 copies

Deadly Encounters: Two Victorian Sensations (1986) 20 copies

The Nineteenth Century and After (1959) 15 copies

The Presence of the Present: Topics of the Day in the Victorian Novel (1991) 14 copies

PUNCH: THE LIVELY YOUTH OF A BRITISH INSTITUTIO (VICTORIAN LIFE & LITERATURE) (1997) 12 copies

To be in England (1969) 11 copies

Lives and letters; a history of literary biography in England and America (1979) 10 copies

Paintings from books : art and literature in Britain, 1760-1900 (1986) 9 copies

A little bit of luck : the making of an adventurous scholar (2002) 8 copies

Writers, Readers, and Occasions: Selected Essays on Victorian Literature and Life (Studies in Victorian Life &… (1989) 5 copies

Browning's Roman murder story; a reading of The ring and the book (1968) 4 copies

Of a Place and a Time: Remembering Lancaster (1991) 3 copies

Cope's tobacco plant: An episode in Victorian journalism (Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America ; v. 45,… 1 copy

Newsletter, The International Panorama & Diorama Society, v 3(4), winter 1987; 1(1), spring 1985; no. 3, spring 1990 +… 1 copy

Richard Owen Cambridge: belated Augustan 1 copy

The Cowden Clarkes, (1973) 1 copy

La democrazia fra le pagine (1990) 1 copy

Work Explorer

Associated Works

Little Dorrit (1857) — Afterword, some editions — 5,821 copies, 91 reviews

The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824) — Introduction, some editions — 446 copies, 4 reviews

Past and Present (1843) — Editor, some editions; Introduction, some editions — 347 copies, 3 reviews

The Historian as Detective: Essays on Evidence (1968) — Contributor — 281 copies, 2 reviews

221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes (1994) — Contributor — 95 copies, 2 reviews

Mary Barton [Norton Critical Edition] (2008) — Contributor — 72 copies, 2 reviews

A Companion to Victorian Literature and Culture (1999) — Contributor, some editions — 56 copies

Studies in Bibliography (Vol. 22) (1969) — Contributor — 4 copies, 1 review

Studies in Bibliography (Vol. 11) — Contributor — 2 copies

Studies in Bibliography (Vol. 39) — Contributor — 1 copy

Studies in Bibliography (Vol. 6) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

19th century (31) academia (6) American literature (11) bibliography (14) biography (8) book history (8) books (11) books about books (21) books and reading (6) Britain (17) British (8) British history (13) British literature (6) crime (5) criticism (20) cultural history (8) cultural studies (7) education (7) England (16) English literature (14) essays (7) history (73) literary criticism (41) literary history (13) literary research (12) literary studies (5) literary theory (5) literature (50) non-fiction (63) reading (21) reference (43) research (26) research methods (7) scholarship (6) social history (8) to-read (29) true crime (5) Victorian (39) Victorians (5) writing (11)

Common Knowledge

Birthdate: 1915-09-19
Date of death: 2008-02-07
Gender: male
Nationality: USA
Birthplace: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA
Education: Franklin and Marshall College
University of Pennsylvania
Occupations: Regents Professor of English
Organizations: Ohio State University
Awards and honors: Regents Professor of English, Ohio State University

Members

Reviews

The Scholar Adventurers: Enduring Account of… by Richard D.; Richard D. Altick (Author) Altick

12/5/22

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laplantelibrary | 4 other reviews | Dec 5, 2022 |

Victorian people and ideas; a companion for the… by Richard D. Altick

I enjoyed reading this overview of the Victorian period because it summarized very neatly all of the cultural background that you find in Victorian novels. Altick is a master of sentence structure and he pulls together complex ideas into easily understood synopses.

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PatsyMurray | 3 other reviews | Aug 11, 2019 |

Victorian Studies in Scarlet by Richard Daniel Altick

Wry and smirking Altick does it again. Victorian Studies in Scarlet is a rundown of some of the most notorious crimes of the Victorian Age. Altick is a pleasure to read. He often gives the impression the reader is being let in on a little secret. Skip the chapters on yellow journalism and the Victorian mind, unless you want enlightening about the origin of the term ‘penny dreadful’ and theories on their role in improving English literacy.

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Seafox | Jul 24, 2019 |

The English Common Reader: A Social History of the… by Richard D. Altick

A terrific look at how libraries and periodicals exploded in the nineteenth century. Solid, old-school writing, free of -isms and hand-wringing, and jargon.

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Stubb | 2 other reviews | Aug 28, 2018 |

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