ABSTRACT
The John Erskine family in Weehawken also lived in an atmosphere of Gilded Age gentility. When scholars of history and education mention John Erskine—which they do with curiously accelerating frequency—they generally cite him as the man responsible for introducing Great Books courses and programs into the college curriculum. Between 1928 and 1937, Erskine managed to set the Juilliard School on a course that secured its excellence and prominence while he continued to prodigiously lecture, travel, and party. Complicating the conundrum of Erskine's move to Juilliard—but perhaps explaining why the Juilliard presidency fell into the hands of a famous novelist and well-known teacher, rather than those of an individual with serious music stature—was the question of the uncertain Juilliard venture itself. Resignations and firings—not unusual at colleges and universities nationwide during this time of powerful, controlling institutional leaders—would mark Nicholas Murray Butler's presidency. Erskine's accomplishments as an academic leader were greatly intertwined with his image as a novelist and urbane celebrity.
