F.R. Leavis

F.R. Leavis was undeniably one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century. His work on literature exerted a profound and lasting influence on the teaching of English throughout the world. The story of his life, as recounted by Ian MacKillop, who was one of Leavis's students, is therefore a chronicle of the development of the study of modern literature. MacKillop charts the influences on Leavis's life and work, from I.A. Richards to T.S. Eliot and William Empson. He chronicles Leavis's famous public disagreement with C.P. Snow in the Two Cultures Debate; discusses the genesis and…