Booth, Wayne Clayson

views updated

BOOTH, Wayne Clayson

BOOTH, Wayne Clayson. American, b. 1921. Genres: Literary criticism and history, Speech/Rhetoric. Career: Professor emeritus, 1991-, George M. Pullman Distinguished Service Professor of English, University of Chicago, 1962-91 (Dean of Coll., 1964-69; Chairman, Committee on Ideas and Methods, 1972-75). Member, Editorial Board, Philosophy and Literature, Novel, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Critical Inquiry. Assistant Instructor of English, University of Chicago, 1947-50; Assistant Professor, Haverford Coll., Pa., 1950-53; Professor of English and Chairman of Dept., 1953-62, and Trustee, 1965-75, Earlham Coll., Richmond, Indiana; Co-Ed., Critical Inquiry, 1974-85. Member, Executive Council, 1971-75, and President, 1980-82, Modern Language Association. Publications: The Rhetoric of Fiction, 1961; (ed.) The Knowledge Most Worth Having, 1967; Now Don't Try to Reason with Me: Essays and Ironies for a Credulous Age, 1970; A Rhetoric of Irony, 1974; Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent, 1974; Critical Understanding: The Powers and Limits of Pluralism, 1979; (ed. with M. Gregory) The Harper and Row Reader, 1984; (with M. Gregory) The Harper and Row Rhetoric, 1987, 1991; The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction, 1988; The Vocation of a Teacher: Rhetorical Occasions, 1967-88, 1989; The Art of Growing Older, 1992; (with Williams and Gregory) The Craft of Research, 1996; For the Love of It: Amateuring and Its Rivals, 1999.