Herbert August Wichelns (December 29, 1894 – March 4, 1973) was an American rhetorician.

Personal life

Wichelns grew up in New York, attending Boys’ High School in Brooklyn. He attended college at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

. Wichelns was awarded an A.B. degree in 1916 and a Ph.D in 1922. He was a second lieutenant in the US Army during the First World War.

University career

He taught at Cornell as an assistant instructor and instructor from 1916-1917 and, after his military service, as an instructor at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

from 1920-1921 and at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1922. After that he became an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 1923-24. He returned to Cornell as an assistant professor until 1931, when he became a full professor. Wichelns retired in 1962.

Rhetoric

Herbert Wichelns addressed Neo-Aristotelianism in his work " The Literary Criticism of Oratory", which "has justly been hailed as one of the most fruitful and influential studies produced in our day in the field of Speech." Wichelns focused on discovering criticism through rhetoric. He developed the study of the single speaker. Wichelns judged a rhetorician in terms of preparation, main ideas, credibility, personality, audience and other factors.

Recognition

The James A. Winans-Herbert A. Wichelns Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address has been awarded annually since 1966 by the

National Communication Association The National Communication Association (NCA) is a not-for-profit association of academics in the field of communication. Organization NCA is governed by the Legislative Assembly, which meets during the NCA Annual Convention. Between annual me ...

(NCA) for scholarship published during the year by NCA members.

Publications

*A History of the Speech Association of the Eastern States 1909-1959 (1969) *James Albert Winans, 1872-1956 (1957) *Colleague and Scholar (1955) *Burke’s Essay on the Sublime and its Reviewers (1922) *James Albert Winans (1961) *Great Teachers of Speech: Wayland Maxfield Parrish: Colleague and Scholar (1955) * The Literary Criticism of Oratory (1925) *Analysis and Synthesis in Argumentation (1925) *Public Speaking and the Dramatic Arts (1959) *Ralph Waldo Emerson (1960)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wichelns, Herbert American rhetoricians 1894 births 1973 deaths Cornell University alumni Cornell University faculty