John Erskine (October 5, 1879 – June 2, 1951) was an American educator and author, pianist and composer. He was an English professor at Amherst College from 1903 to 1909, followed by Columbia University from 1909 to 1937. He was the first president of the Juilliard School of Music. During his tenure at Columbia University he formulated the General Honors Course—responsible for inspiring the influential Great Books movement. He published over 100 books, novels, criticism, and essays including his most important essay, The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent (1915).
Early life and education
Erskine was born in New York City, New York, the son of Eliza Jane (née Hollingsworth) and James Morrison Erskine.[1][2] and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey.[3] He graduated from Columbia University, B.A., 1900, M.A. 1901 and Ph.D., 1903 and D.Litt. 1929, besides D.Litt. degree from Amherst in 1923.[2]
Career
Erskine was English professor at Amherst College from 1903 to 1909, and subsequently taught at Columbia University from 1909 to 1937. In 1910, he led foundation of the Boar's Head Society for literature.[4] In 1920, he instituted Columbia College's General Honors Course, a two-year undergraduate seminar that would later help inspire "Masterworks of Western Literature", now known commonly as "Literature Humanities", the second component of Columbia College's Core Curriculum. This course taught the classics in translation instead of the original Latin or Greek, a concept he elaborated in his noted essay The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent. He found little support for the course from the senior faculty, and junior faculty members like Mark Van Doren and later after 1923, Mortimer Adler took up sections of the course. This course would later go on to inspire the Great Books movement, centered on the Great Books of the Western World. The course was discontinued in 1928, though later reconstituted. In 1929, Adler left Columbia to join University of Chicago, where he continued to work on the theme with Robert Hutchins, president of the university. Together they subsequently went on to found the Great Books of the Western World program and the Great Books Foundation.[5][6]
To commemorate the seven hundredth anniversary of Roger Bacon, Erskine wrote A Pageant of the Thirteenth Century, a biographical play which was produced at Columbia University and published as a book by Columbia University Press in 1914. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a collection of his papers. In 1946 he served as the first chairman of the American Writers Association.[14]
Personal life
He was married twice, to Pauline Ives (m. 1910–1945) and Helen Worden Erskine (m. 1946–1951). With his wife Pauline (Ives), he was the grandfather of actress Lindsay Crouse and the great-grandfather of actress Zosia Mamet. He died on June 2, 1951, in New York at the age of 71.
^Nugent, Frank S. (27 February 1940). "THE SCREEN; The French Are Telling the Scandalously Funny Story of 'The Baker's Wife' at the World Theatre". New York Times.
^"The Spirit and the Flesh [review]". Showmen's Trade Review. August 28: 21. 1948.
