It All Started with Freshman English

by Richard Armour

Genres: Humor

161 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Richard Armour, a college professor of English who specialized in Chaucer and the English Romantic poets, was best known as a prolific author of light verse and wacky parodies of academic scholarship. He was a professor of English at Scripps College in Claremont from 1945 to 1966.

Armour was raised in Pomona, California, where his father owned a drugstore. He graduated from Pomona College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, then obtained his master's and Ph.D. in English literature at Harvard. He was a Harvard research fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum library in London.

Reviews

[Moonkiszt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why DO they make us read the things they make us read?

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my high school English classroom, I have a bookshelf full of books discarded by the school libraryh. I picked this book off the shelf and started reading it while proctoring my ninth-grade students as they took their semester final exam. Even though Richard Armour is really referring to college freshmen in his title, I still thought it appropriate reading material.

It All Started with Freshman English is actually a collection of humorous essays previously printed in other Armour books, but as I haven't read much of Armour's writings about teaching, and literature, and teaching about literature, it was all new to me, and a light, pleasant read while I watched to make sure no student's eyes strayed onto another student's test paper.

[Meaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I don't find Richard Armour's books as funny as some people do -- too many puns -- his humor has stood the test of time. More to the point, I think this book would be of genuine help to struggling high school students and undergraduates trying to learn about the Western literary canon. His summaries of Hamlet, David Copperfield and The Scarlet Letter in particular were very good.

[Krista the Krazy Kataloguer · Rating 3 out of 5]

He's got a great sense of humor! I only regret that he had already left as an English professor at my alma mater before I could take classes from him.