By the time William Cleaver Wilkinson was selected in 1892 as one of the founding members of the new University of Chicago faculty, he had already risen to prominence as an American educator. Serving as counselor of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, he had published six popular volumes of Greek, Latin, French, and German literature in translation. These books, republished by the Chautauqua Press as The After-School series, were widely acclaimed by leading scholars as effective introductions to classic and foreign literature. Selling over 500,000 copies, Wilkinson's foreign classics furthered the aim of the Chautauqua movement: "to increase popular culture, both by broadening it in its base, and by building it higher." "It is not extravagant," Wilkinson added, "to expect that the ultimate influence of this movement for extending popular culture will report itself in augmented numbers of applicants for admission to college...." In addition to his important role...