A. C. Littleton’s Final Thoughts on Accounting: A Collection of Unpublished Essays

What is it about?

This edited volume represents Ananias Charles Littleton’s (1886-1974) final monograph on accounting theory. Its purpose is twofold. It is a continuation of his seminal monographs Accounting Evolution to 1900 (1933), Structure of Accounting Theory (1953), and Introduction to Corporate Accounting Standards (with William A. Paton, 1940). It is also a response to some of Littleton’s fiercest critics, such as Raymond J. Chambers, Robert Sterling, and William T. Baxter. The volume constitutes his last “excursion into accounting theory.” It marks Littleton’s concluding attempt to examine aspects of accounting practices with the goal of inductively deriving “… elements of implicit logic capable of convincingly demonstrating the existence of natural interrelations between accounting actions and ideas.” There is evidence that Littleton had intentions to publish this edited volume and talks were ongoing with a publisher in 1972. With Littleton’s passing less than two years later, however, these negotiations lapsed. When Littleton’s personal papers were donated to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Archives in 1997, a carbon copy of the manuscript appears to have gone unnoticed with other items of correspondence, publications, and teaching material. The present editor rediscovered this carbon copy in the summer of 2014, and it is now being published as an edited volume in Emerald Group Publishing’s Studies in Development of Accounting Thought Series.

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Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash