Richard Foster Jones (July 7, 1886 – September 12, 1965) was a professor of English at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and executive head of the university's English department. His research interests included early modern

English literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

(especially

Sir Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both n ...

), the

history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...

, and the writings of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

Life

Born in

Salado, Texas Salado ( ) is a town in Bell County, Texas, United States. Salado was first incorporated in 1867 for the sole purpose of building a bridge across Salado Creek. In 2000, the citizens of Salado voted in favor of reincorporation, before which it was ...

, he was the son of Samuel J. Jones, who had been the head of

Salado College Salado College was a college in Salado, Texas, United States that operated from 1860 until 1885. History Salado College began on October 8, 1859 at a tent meeting at Salado Springs of prominent men from throughout Bell County with a desire to cr ...

before it closed, and who then established in its former building the Thomas Arnold High School, a private academy which he headed from 1890 until 1913. Following his graduation from his father's school, Jones attended the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, from which he received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in 1907. He then went to

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, where he received a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

, and a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

in 1918. Jones joined the faculty of

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

in 1919 and remained at that school until 1945, by which time he had risen to the position of Dean of the Graduate School. He retired from teaching in 1952 but continued his research and publishing until near the end of his life. Though Jones spent only the last seven years of his academic career at Stanford, his name is closely associated with it. Stanford's Jones Room, a meeting and reading room for students in Stanford's creative writing program, is named for both Richard Foster Jones, who established the program, and his brother, Dr. E. H. Jones, who financed the program's establishment and whose E. H. Jones Endowment has been the primary source of the grants provided to recipients of the program's Stegner Fellowships.

Works

* Ancients and Moderns: A Study of the Rise of the Scientific Movement in Seventeenth Century England * Ancients and Moderns: A Study of the Background of The Battle of the Books. St. Louis: Washington University Studies, 1936. * Bacon, Francis. Essays, Advancement of Learning, New Atlantis and Other Pieces. New York: Odyssey Press, 1937, editor * The Seventeenth Century: Studies in the History of English Thought and Literature from Bacon to Pope. Stanford University Press, 1951, (with others) * Triumph of the English Language. Stanford University Press, 1953.

References

Brief history of Salado, Texas

PDF of a memorial resolution issued by Stanford University on Professor Jones' death

Article on Wallace Stegner noting the establishment of the Stanford creative writing program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, Richard Foster 1886 births 1965 deaths Stanford University Department of English faculty Washington University in St. Louis faculty American academics of English literature