Educated at Columbia University where he received his PhD in 1903, Erskine first taught English at Amherst College for some years before returning to Columbia as professor of literature in 1909. His relationship with Columbia continued until 1937. From 1917 to 1919 he was a co-editor of the Cambridge History of American Literature. In 1920, he developed a course entitled General Honors which would form the basis of Columbia's humanities program for years to come. Erskine was also a gifted composer and musician and, in 1928, became the first president of the Julliard School of Music. In 1935, he was named a director of the Metropolitan Opera Association. In 1903, he published his first book, The Elizabethan Lyric, and over the next 20 years produced a number of poetical and academic works. In 1925, he published The Private Life of Helen of Troy, and it was an instant success, reaching number one on the best-seller list for 1926. Erskine won the Butler Medal in 1919 and the David Bispham Opera Medal in 1933. His other works include Leading American Novelists (1910), The Kinds of Poetry (1913), The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent (1915), The Shadowed Hour (1917), Galahad (1926), Adam and Eve (1927), Penelope's Man (1928), Uncle Sam in the Eyes of His Family (1930), The Start of the Road (1938), The Memory of Certain Persons (1947), My Life as a Teacher (1948) and My Life in Music (1950). |
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