 Beardsley is best known for his work in aesthetics—and this article will deal exclusively with his work in that area—but he was an extremely intellectually curious man, and published articles in a number of areas, including the philosophy of history, action theory, and the history of modern philosophy. Indeed, his interests weren’t confined to “pure philosophy” or even to philosophy broadly conceived. Practical Logic, his first book (1950), was one of the first informal logic or critical thinking texts of the contemporary era, and Thinking Straight, (1950) a related book, saw four very different editions over a period of 25 years. Outside of philosophy, he wrote literary criticism and books and articles on style, writing, and the humanities. In short, Beardsley had broad humanistic interests that were centered in philosophy, and aesthetics in particular.