received acclaim with his novel The Private Life of Helen of Troy (1925). This novel was made into a silent film by the same the name in 1927, directed by Alexander Korda. Other films based on his works included A Lady Surrenders (1930) by John M. Stahl, Bachelor of Arts (1934) by Louis King and The President's Mystery (1936) directed by Phil Rosen. The 1956 biopic of French noblewoman Diane de Poitiers entitled Diane was based on his story with a screenplay by Christopher Isherwood. He was also the author of numerous publications, including several humorous novels retelling myths and legends, besides essays, criticism, and two volumes of autobiography. These included Penelope's Man and Adam and Eve, Though He Knew Better. Erskine was also an accomplished composer, pianist and musician. He wrote several books of music and the libretto for George Antheil's opera Helen Retires (1931), which was based on The Private Life of Helen of Troy. He was the first president of the Juilliard School of Music from 1928 to 1937. He was also director of the Metropolitan Opera Association, which runs the Metropolitan Opera, a noted opera company based in New York City. Erskine is also credited with writing the subtitles for a number of films, including Sacha Guitry's Le Roman d'un tricheur (The Story of a Cheat) in 1938, Marcel Pagnol's The Baker's Wife in 1940 and Mario Camerini's The Spirit and the Flesh, an adaptation of Alessandro Manzoni's classic novel The Betrothed, in 1948. To commemorate the seven hundredth anniversary of Roger Bacon, Erskine wrote A Pageant of the Thirteenth Century, a biographical play which was produced at Columbia University and published as a book by Columbia University Press in 1914. The Archives and Special Collections at Amherst College holds a collection of his papers. In 1946 he served as the first chairman of the American Writers Association. Personal life He was married twice to Pauline Ives (m. 1910–1945) and Helen Worden Erskine (m. 1946–1951). With his wife Pauline (Ives), he was the grandfather of actress Lindsay Crouse and the great-grandfather of actress Zosia Mamet. He died on June 2, 1951, in New York at the age of 71. Erskine Place, a street in Co-op City in the New York City borough of The Bronx, was named after him. Bibliography The Elizabethan Lyric (1903) Selections from the Faerie Queene (1905) Actœon and Other Poems (1907) Leading