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    Erskine, John

    John Erskine 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.
    Stories 1
    Chapters 23
    Words 33.6 K
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    Reading 2 hours, 48 minutes2 h, 48 m
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    • Chapter 2

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      by Erskine, John — It ought to be possible now, as it once was, to define decency in terms outside our emotions, not variable with our private taste but fixed in the conditions of the artist’s work. When man is inspired by the world he sees to make some lasting record of his feeling about it, and selects a medium to express himself in,—wood, stone, metal, color, language,—he immediately encounters certain problems and difficulties in his medium, certain limitations in it which he must submit to, if he would convey his…
      1. The Literary Discipline
        33.6 K Words • Completed
      2.1 K Mar 19, '26 Erskine, John 0
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    • Chapter 1

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      by Erskine, John — The quarrel with indecent art is an old one, and the present discussion of improper books, with threats of censorship, begins to rally itself in two familiar camps—on one side the moralists, showing in the heat of debate less understanding of art than they probably have, and on the other side the writers, showing in the same heat somewhat less concern for morals than it is to be hoped they feel. The censorious seem disposed to suppress on the ground of indecency almost any kind of book they happen not to…
      1. The Literary Discipline
        33.6 K Words • Completed
      662 Mar 19, '26 Erskine, John 0
      Everyone E

    • Preface

      Preface Cover
      by Erskine, John — The following chapters were first published serially in The North American Review, from November, 1922, to March, 1923. For their reappearance in this volume I have made slight changes in them all, and have inserted in the fourth chapter a few paragraphs written for The Bookman of July, 1922. The editors of both magazines have my thanks for permission to reprint. The title of the book will disclose at once the critical theory underlying these essays; they are studies in the discipline which literature…
      1. The Literary Discipline
        33.6 K Words • Completed
      1.2 K Mar 19, '26 Erskine, John 0
      Everyone E
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