Crane, Ronald S. (Ronald Salmon), 1886-1967

Ronald Salmon Crane was born on January 5, 1886 in Tecumseh Michigan to Theodore Horace Crane and Bricena Chadwick Crane. He received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1908 and a Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania in 1911.

Crane’s field of interest was English literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was an instructor in English at Northwestern University from 1911 to 1915. He became an assistant professor there in 1915, and later became an associate professor in 1920. In 1924 Crane began as a professor at the University of Chicago. While at the University, Crane served as Chairman of the Department of English (1936 to 1947) and as Chairman of the Committee on Literature. He started what became know as the “neo-Aristotelian” or “Chicago” School of English Literature. Crane became a Distinguished Service Emeritus Professor in 1951 after 27 years on the University of Chicago faculty.

Crane discovered the complete prose of Oliver Goldsmith’s “Deserted Village,” which he published as New Essays by Oliver Goldsmith (1927). Crane’s other works include the Census of British Newspapers and Periodicals 1620-1800 (1927, with F.B. Kaye), A Collection of English Poems (1932), The Language of Criticism and the Structure of Poetry (1953), Critics and Criticism, Ancient and Modern (1957), and The Idea of the Humanities (1967). From 1926 to 1932 Crane edited the annual bibliography of eighteenth century studies in the Philological Quarterly. From 1930 to 1952 Crane was the editor of Modern Philology.

Crane’s professional memberships included the London Bibliographical Society, the Modern Language Association, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Crane married Julia Fuller. They had two children, Barbara Chadwick and Ronald Fuller.

Ronald S. Crane died in 1967.

From the guide to the Crane, Ronald S. Papers, 1930-1968, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)