John Erskine

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 the 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. and raised in Weehawken, New Jersey. 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. At Columbia, John Erskine was a member of the Philolexian Society and later an honorary faculty member.

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. 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.