author
Ashley Horace Thorndike
1871–1933
A longtime Columbia University professor and Shakespeare scholar, he helped shape how generations of students approached English drama. His books on Shakespeare, tragedy, and comedy made literary history feel organized, lively, and teachable.
2 Audiobooks
The Facts About Shakespeare
by William Allan Neilson, Ashley Horace Thorndike
Tragedy
by Ashley Horace Thorndike
About the author
Born in Houlton, Maine, in 1871, Ashley Horace Thorndike became an American educator best known for his work on Shakespeare and English drama. Reliable sources identify him as a professor at Columbia University, and Columbia's archival records show that his teaching materials also covered courses he taught earlier at Western Reserve and Northwestern.
Thorndike wrote several influential literary studies, including The Facts About Shakespeare, Tragedy, and English Comedy. He is especially associated with the study of Elizabethan theater and with making big literary subjects clearer for students and general readers.
He died in 1933. Columbia University preserves papers that include lecture notes and bibliographical lists from the courses he taught, giving a sense of both his scholarship and his life in the classroom.