Erskine's Books

The beloved Columbia University Professor of English, John Erskine, edited and published many volumes of Lafcadio Hearn's lectures for Tokyo Imperial University. These lectures were primarily about English Literature and were taken down somehow by hand by his dedicated students. Although English literature was not something Hearn considered himself an expert in, Erskine's volumes prove the writer to be a master of criticism. It is easy, however, for us-so many years later-to get confused about the contents of Erskine's books... So allow me to make sense of it.

There are a core of FOUR books Erskine had published that provide almost the entire contents of Hearn's Tokyo Imperial University lectures:

1) Interpretations of Literature Vol. 1 - 1915
2) Interpretations of Literature Vol. 2 - 1915
3) Appreciations of Poetry - 1916
4) Life and Literature - 1917

I made the mistake, earlier in my Hearn studies, of mistaking Life and Literature for Bisland's oft-cited Life and Letters. Also adding to the confusion of Erskine's books is the fact that the original volumes were created primarily for libraries thus resulting in bulky and expensive copies. Subsequently, in the 1920s, Erskine-due to a purported demand for access to Hearn's lectures-put out THREE additional books which are merely selections from the previous FOUR with ONE exception: Books and Habits [which contains three previously unpublished lectures]. The THREE books from the 20s are:

1) Talks to Writers - 1920
2) Books and Habits - 1921
3) Pre-Raphaelite and Other Poets - 1923