Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. All rights reserved.
© 2003 Amherst College Archives and Special Collections. All rights reserved.
John Erskine, educator, writer and musician, was born in New York on October 5, 1879. He received an A.B. in 1900, an A.M. in 1901, a Ph.D. in 1903 and an LL.D. in 1929 from Columbia University, as well as honorary degrees from Amherst College and the University of Bordeaux. He served during World War I in France, and was made a Chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. He served as instructor in English at Amherst before joining the faculty of Columbia University, where he spent most of his life. Erskine is credited with having started the system of General Education at Columbia through his Great Books colloquium. Erskine was also a musician of considerable talent, who performed occasionally at concerts and wrote two opera librettos, and a prolific writer who said that he had written something every day since the age of 16. He was married twice: to Pauline Ives until their divorce in 1945, and later to Helen Worden. Erskine died in 1951 at the age of 71.
Erskine's books include the autobiographical works
The papers consist mainly of Erskine's correspondence and a corrected typescript of his autobiography,
This collection is organized into three series:
There is no restriction on access to the Erskine Papers for research use. Particularly fragile items may be restricted for preservation purposes.
Requests for permission to publish material from Erskine Papers should be directed to the Archives and Special Collections. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
[Identification of item], in Erskine Papers [Box #, Folder #], Amherst College Archives and Special Collections, Amherst College Library
Series 1, CORRESPONDENCE, includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence from individuals as well as correspondence about many of those individuals. The series is arranged alphabetically by the individuals' names.