Hartshorne, Richard (1899–1992)

US geographer. In 1939 he wrote The Nature of Geography, a monumental work that investigated the literature of several countries to synthesize what had been thought and written concerning the nature of geography. The book became required reading in many US graduate schools. Twenty years later, in 1959, Hartshorne published Perspective on the Nature of Geography, which provided the benefit of 20 years' further thought and reflection by the author. In 1989, on its fiftieth anniversary, the Association of American Geographers published Reflections on Richard Hartshorne's The Nature of Geography.

Hartshorne was born in Kittanning, Pennsylvania. He completed a doctorate at the University of Chicago in 1924, then taught at the University of Minnesota (1924–40) and the University of Wisconsin (1940–70, with war-time interruption). In the 1930s he published some important articles concerning political geography.