John Erskine was born in New York City, the son of a textile merchant. He showed early promise as a pianist and, years later, liked to say that he would have chosen a career in music had not his father advised against it and encouraged him instead to enroll at Columbia College in pursuit of an academic career. Erskine received his B. A. (1900), M. A. (1901), and Ph.D. (1903) from Columbia (his dissertation was The Elizabethan Lyric), and, after six years teaching at Amherst College (1903-1909), he returned to his alma mater as a member of the faculty. Erskine was a popular lecturer with the Columbia undergraduates, in part because he believed that college subjects should be related to life, not studied for their own sakes. He thought that literature, philosophy, and history should be taught as one subject, and his primary aim in teaching was to impress his...