René Wellek was an influential literary critic and theorist known for his pioneering work in the field of comparative literature. He taught at numerous institutions throughout his career, including Yale and the University of Iowa. Best known for his works Theory of Literature (1949) and A History of Modern Criticism (1955), he was an advocate of the “intrinsic” literary critical method, which rejects the political and social influences on works of literature and stresses the content of the work itself. This collection primarily documents Wellek’s academic career as a specialist in Slavic and English literature, as well as a historian of literary criticism. This collection contains manuscripts, correspondence, lecture notes, notebooks, reprints, reviews, clippings, and family materials. Since 1981, the Critical Theory Institute at UC Irvine has sponsored an annual Wellek Library Lecture Series named in his honor.