Robert Dale Richardson III (June 14, 1934 – June 16, 2020) was an American

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

Early life

Richardson was born in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

, and brought up in Medford, Massachusetts, and

Concord, Massachusetts Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the confl ...

. He graduated from Exeter, in 1952, and from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, with a PhD.

Career

He taught at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Univ ...

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, The

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body ...

Sichuan University Sichuan University (SCU) is a national key public research university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The university is wholly funded by the Ministry of Education. SCU is one of the top universities of China, and a Class A Double First Class Univer ...

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

, and the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

. Richardson was known for his biographies of

Henry Thoreau Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817May 6, 1862) was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. A leading transcendentalist, he is best known for his book ''Walden'', a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

, and

William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...

. ''Emerson: The Mind on Fire'' won the

Francis Parkman Prize The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing. The Society of American ...

in 1996, and ''William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism'' won the

Bancroft Prize The Bancroft Prize is awarded each year by the trustees of Columbia University for books about diplomacy or the history of the Americas. It was established in 1948, with a bequest from Frederic Bancroft, in his memory and that of his brother, ...

in 2007. In the first half of his career, he published as Robert D. Richardson, Jr. Later, he dropped the "Jr."

Personal life and death

Richardson was first married to Elizabeth Hall; they had two daughters. He married Annie Dillard in 1988, after she wrote him a fan letter about ''Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind.'' He was program chair for New Voices at the Key West Literary Seminar. Richardson died in Hyannis, Massachusetts on June 16, 2020, two days after his 86th birthday, from a

subdural hematoma A subdural hematoma (SDH) is a type of bleeding in which a collection of blood—usually but not always associated with a traumatic brain injury—gathers between the inner layer of the dura mater and the arachnoid mater of the meninges surround ...

suffered in a fall.

Awards

* 2007

* 1990 Guggenheim Fellowship * 1996

* Melcher Book Award

Works

This section lists only Richardson's book-length publications. For his dozens of essays, forwards, and reviews, see the author's official website. Biographical books * '' Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind''. University of California Press. 1986. *
Emerson: The Mind on Fire
'. University of California Press. 1996. * '' William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism''. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2007 *
First We Read, Then We Write: Emerson on the Creative Process
'. University of Iowa Press. 2009. *

and the Teaching of Literature''. David R. Godine, Publisher. 2013.
''Nearer the Heart's Desire: Poets of the Rubaiyat: A Dual Biography of Omar Khayyam and Edward FitzGerald''
Bloomsbury. 2016.
''Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives''
Princeton University Press. 2023. Scholarly monographs * ''Literature and Film''. Indiana University Press. 1969. * ''Myth and Literature in the American Renaissance''. Indiana University Press. 1978. Edited and introduced collections * With Burton Feldman
''The rise of modern mythology, 1680-1860''
Indiana University Press. 2000. * Emerson, Ralph Waldo. ''Selected Essays, Lectures, and Poems''. Bantam. 1990. * With Allen Mandelbaum. ''Three Centuries of American Poetry''. Bantam. 1999. (Also published as ''A Treasury of American Poetry''.) * James, William. ''The Heart of William James''. Harvard University Press. 2010. * Thoreau, Henry David. ''October'', or ''Autumnal Tints''. Norton. 2012. * Khayyam, Omar. ''The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam''. Bloomsbury. 2016.

References

External links

"Author's website""An Interview with Robert D. Richardson", ''Bookslut'', December 2006
* * ttp://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v6n1/nonfiction/richardson_r/intro.htm "A Talk by Robert D. Richardson", ''Blackbird'', Spring 2007br>"Review - The pragmatic American: William James and our homegrown way of thought", ''Harper's'', January 2007
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Robert D. 1934 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American historians 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Accidental deaths from falls Accidental deaths in Massachusetts American biographers Harvard University alumni People from Concord, Massachusetts People from Medford, Massachusetts Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Wesleyan University faculty Writers from Massachusetts Writers from Milwaukee Bancroft Prize winners