Arhival photo of Wayne Booth sittign in his office. A sculpture of a man's head that looks like him in the background.

Welcome to the Pluralistic World of Wayne Booth

There is pleasure from learning the simple truth, and there is a pleasure from learning that the truth is not simple. 
 

Wayne C. Booth, The Rhetoric of Fiction

Wayne Clayson Booth (1921 - 2005) is one of the most consistently interesting, but also one of the most consistently underestimated, critics of the latter 20th C. A rhetor and rhetorician, a philosopher, pluralist, literary critic, editor, and English professor, his driving theme was the rhetorical resources that encourage, obstruct, or refine agreement: and, therefore, belief, knowledge, and action.

In this site we overview a range of his books, engage his issues, and seek agreement about the value of his critical pluralism, not only for understanding texts, but also for understanding each other.