Richard Altick (1915-2008), professor with the Department of English at Ohio State, published more than 40 books throughout his career. He focused his scholarly pursuit on the literary culture of Victorian England in which he showed a fascination for the exuberant side of 19th-century society. Throughout his career, he wrote about subjects as varied as literary forgery, London freak shows, and notorious murderesses, helping turn the once-neglected subject of 19th-century British social history and literary culture into a flourishing academic field.
He wrote two of his most widely read books while at Ohio State – The Scholar Adventurers (1950) and The Art of Literary Research (1963). These books contributed to the study of Victorian times and championed both the joys and the rigorous methods of literary research.