Luther Carrington Goodrich (1894-1986): a bibliography.

• Author: Goodrich, Thomas D.

IN 1926 L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH began at Columbia University his graduate studies in Chinese history and soon joined the American Oriental Society. For the next sixty years he was a member of the Society and he promoted the study of Chinese history and the scholarly profession in a variety of ways.(1) This article is but an indication of one of the ways, concentrating on his research and publications spanning six decades.(2)

His interests in Chinese history were widespread, and it is difficult to note areas in which he did not involve himself, either directly or through his colleagues and students. While he did no research in the very early eras, for example, he was fascinated with archaeology in China. I recall my personal pleasure in pulling the paper tab to open the weekly Illustrated London News, which he received at home and which provided him the most recent reports of much in the field of archaeology. (We probably received it at home so that his wife could review news of Biblical archaeology, the kids could look at the pictures, and he could keep up with cricket, which he had played at his British boarding school in Cheefoo, Shantung Province.) For about thirty years after the Communist assumption of power, he was not interested in returning to China, but when in 1981 a tour of the new digs of old archaeological sites was announced, aged 86, he signed up right away, and he and his wife went off for his final trip to the land of his birth and the burial place of his parents and other members of his family. It was a very successful trip. His three best known works(3) span his career and are indicative of his interests and abilities in that they are so different in purpose and type. The Literary Inquisition of Ch'ien-lung (1935) resulted from his dissertation, and John Fairbank wrote that it "alone made him the risen star of American China studies, and there was much more to come over the next forty years"(4) (actually over fifty years). A Short History of the Chinese People (1943) originally was conceived to be one of a set of three short histories: India, Japan, and China. His was the only one completed, and it is dedicated to Robert K. Reischauer--"first American casualty in the Second World War"--who was to have written the book on Japan but was killed in Shanghai during a Japanese air raid. At its publication Hu Shih called it "the best history of China ever published in any European language."(5) For many students and other readers in the United States and elsewhere it was their first introduction to Chinese history, and it remained in print for about a quarter of a century. The third major work, The Ming Biographical Dictionary, will be a primary reference for much longer than a quarter century. Goodrich not only helped to initiate this project and raised money for it, he also edited the work meticulously and wrote many of the articles himself (and also rewrote many of the other contributions). The Institut de France's Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres granted the book the Stanislas Julien Award as the best publication in Sinology for 1976; this pleased him very much.(6)

Gathering and sharing information were important to Prof. Goodrich. Research and the ensuing articles and books were one approach, another was writing reviews in which he would put forth information not otherwise easily available, and yet another was writing letters to authors, students, and friends raising issues, adding or correcting specifics, even correcting spelling.(7) During the Depression of the 1930s with its very tight budget restraints, he was able to help make the East Asian Library at Columbia University one of the leading sinological collections in the United States, and it was fitting that his office as chairman of the Department of Chinese and Japanese Studies, shared with C. C. Wang, was connected to the wonderful space in Low Library that then housed the library. In addition he had a small study high in Butler Library that allowed him more quiet than was possible in the chairman's office or at home (until his children grew up). The bibliography of his publications in this article evidences his research interests, yet does not demonstrate the other ways in which he served his profession (much less society or religion). He believed in the work of institutions and was involved in several professional organizations. From my boyhood I can remember his evening absences every month to attend the New York Oriental Society, and the longer absences to AOS annual meetings, once even as far off, as it then seemed, as Cleveland.(8) He supported the AOS not only with his presence but also presented talks at the meetings, served in a number of official capacities, and was elected to a term as president (1946-47). He was also active in the Association for Asian Studies (and its predecessor) and served one year as president of that organization (1956-57).

Assisting students was vital to him, and he devoted much time to them, whether they were undergraduates, doctoral candidates, or degree holders. His doctoral students have gone forth all over the country and world to spread his love of things Chinese and his enthusiasm for history and historical methodology. Over the years a number of these individuals have mentioned to me the personal as well as professional concern he evidenced at the office. This personal concern continued at the social teas held at his home in the Bronx, where his wife would welcome students warmly and ply them with tea and small sandwiches; often there would be singing around the piano, which Prof. Goodrich played with enthusiasm.

Like so many professors, Goodrich assisted his students as well as making demands of them. Many are the letters of recommendation and support whose copies are in his files. (These, his notes, and other papers are on deposit at Columbia University.) Besides such support, he aided many other people when he could, and for some readers this may be remembered more than anything else: recommendations for positions, for publications, for grants, for sources of information, and for introductions to certain of his vast number of friends and acquaintances.

As is common, I had as a child no way of knowing what my father actually did in his profession. He disappeared in the morning and returned in the evening. Occasionally on the way to the dentist or some other mission, I would see him in his office in Low Library, but he would then stop what he was doing to tend to me. Now, having spent some decades myself in academe, I have come to recognize that my father, Dean Lung Professor Emeritus, former president of both the A.O.S. and the A.A.S., with honorary degrees from both Williams College and Columbia University, was not only what I knew him to be at home--a believing Christian, a fine musician, an active tennis opponent, and a loving parent and husband, he was also a model professor, scholar, and historian. His efforts live on.

1 He was active in other fields as well, and in 1927 I became the second of his five children.

2 I have collected copies of all the publications of L. Carrington Goodrich. The articles and shorter works have been duplicated, bound, and deposited with Williams College, Columbia University, and with his living offspring: Sally G. Hurlbert, West Hartford, Conn., Hubbard C. Goodrich, South Harpswell, Maine, and Anne G. Jones, Holmes Beach, Florida. "The Reminiscences of Luther Carington Goodrich" (1964), with editorial comments and notes by Edwin G. Beal Jr., (1989) are on file at the Oral History Research Office, Columbia University.

Of considerable assistance in preparing this article were Anne S. Goodrich, his wife for sixty-five years, and Edwin G. Beal, Jr., former student and life-long friend. C. Martin Wilbur wrote an obituary in Journal of Asian Studies 46 (1987): 469. K. Enoki wrote an obituary with a fairly complete bibliography for Toyo Gakuho 69 (January 1988): 100-116.

3 Also frequently cited is his revision of Thomas F. Carter, The Invention of Printing and Its Spread Westward (1955), that he did in memory of his mentor at Columbia. I recall him saying how he had altered his own writing style to blend in with that of Carter. There is so much revision and additional material that it is usually considered a joint effort.

4 John King Fairbank, Chinabound: A Fifty-year Memoir (New York: Harper & Row, 1984), 135.

5 Pacific Affairs 17 (1944): 225. Hu Shih, in another context, declared that the work of Goodrich's father, Chauncy Goodrich (1836-1925), was influential in increasing the prestige of vernacular Chinese. In the latter's pocket dictionary, translation of the Bible, and hymnology he consistently emphasized the spoken over...