Richard H. Cracroft (born 1936) is an emeritus professor of English at Brigham Young University (BYU). He held the title of Nan Osmond Grass Professor in English at that university. Cracroft has been both head of BYU's English department and dean of the College of Humanities. He directed BYU's American Studies :Program (1989–1994) He directed the Center for the Study of Christian Values in Literature and edited Literature and Belief.
As a young man Cracroft served an LDS mission in the Swiss-Austrian mission. Cracroft received his bachelors degree in English from the University of Utah in 1961; an M.A. in English in 1963. He then went on to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1970 (1969).
Along with Neal Lambert, Cracroft was the editor of an anthology of Latter-day Saint literature entitled A Believing People. He also has been the president of the Association for Mormon Letters, receiving Life-Long Membership; in 2011 he received the Petitt-Smithe Award for Outstanding Contributions to Mormon Letters. Besides writing a large number of literary essays, reviews,Cracroft wrote a short story entitled That My Soul Might See. He also wrote and edited 13 books, three of them collections of 20th century literary biographies of Western Amereican authors, and sponsored several conferences about literature and belief, among them,'"Spiritual Frontiers: Beliefs and Values in the Literary West as well as a work on Washington Irving's Western-themed writing. Cracroft has also written articles on European literary views of the American west in the 19th century.
Cracroft is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in which he has served as a bishop, stake president of the Provo East Stake and mission president, among other callings. He was president of the Switzerland Zurich Mission from 1986-1989.
Cracroft and his wife, the former Janice Alger, are the parents of three children.