Throughout a luminous career, Northrop Frye has brought the focus of his critical perceptions to bear on a topic of fundamental importance not only to literary criticism but to the life of the mind. The topic is education.

Spanning forty years, On Education is a landmark collection of Dr. Frye's essays on educational theory. The pieces have been garnered from a variety of sources not readily available to the reader. They are an absorbing portrait of continuity and change - in the theory and practice of education, and in the thinking of this great teacher.

The degree to which the context for some of the pieces has changed over the years serves to underscore the timelessness of Dr. Frye's central thesis: much of what we respect as intelligence is the ability to manipulate words and numbers; a truly basic education teaches that language is a way of thinking.

Northrop Frye (1912-1991) was one of Canada's most distinguished men of letters. His first book, Fearful Symmetry, published in 1947, transformed the study of the poet William Blake, and over the next forty years he transformed the study of literature itself. Among his most influential books are Anatomy of Criticism (1957), The Educated Imagination (1963), The Bush Garden (1971), and The Great Code (1982). Northrop Frye on Shakespeare (1986) won the Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction. A professor at the University of Toronto, Frye gained an international reputation for his wide-reaching critical vision. He lectured at universities around the world and received many awards and honours, including thirty-six honorary degrees.

Northrop Frye's profile page