Ashley Horace Thorndike (1871 – April 17, 1933) was an American educator and expert on William Shakespeare. He was the son of a clergyman Edward R Thorndike, and the brother of Lynn Thorndike, an American historian of medieval science and alchemy, and

Edward Lee Thorndike Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory o ...

known for being the father of modern

educational psychology Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences i ...

. He taught at Columbia University and wrote several notable textbooks, including ''Facts about Shakespeare'' (as coauthor), ''Tragedy'', and ''English Comedy''. He died of a heart attack in Manhattan as he was walking home from a club dinner. He was the brother of the medieval historian Lynn Thorndike. He introduced the term "revenge tragedy" in 1900 to label a class of plays written in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras. In 1927 he delivered the

British Academy The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the same year. It is now a fellowship of more than 1,000 leading scholars span ...

's Shakespeare Lecture.

Selected publications

''The Influence of Beaumont and Fletcher on Shakespere''
(1901)
''The Elements of Shakespeare and Composition''
(1905)

(1908) * with

William Allan Neilson William Allan Neilson (28 March 1869 – 1946) was a Scottish-American educator, writer and lexicographer, graduated in the University of Edinburgh in 1891 and became a PhD in Harvard University in 1898. He was president of Smith College betwee ...

: ''The Facts about Shakespeare'' (1913)
1923 reprint

''Shakespeare's Theatre''
(1916)
''Literature in a Changing World''
(1920) * ''English Comedy'' (1929)
1965 edition

References

*Staff report (April 18, 1933) Dr. A.H. Thorndike Dies in a Taxicab; World Famous as Shakespearean Scholar. '' The New York Times''

External links

* *
Finding aid to Ashley Horace Thorndike papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
1871 births 1933 deaths Shakespearean scholars Presidents of the Modern Language Association {{US-academic-bio-stub