SOURCE: "John Erskine: Enough of His Mind To Explain His Art," in The Sewanee Review, Vol. XXXV, 1927, pp. 154-74.

In the following essay, Knickerbocker examines The Private Life of Helen of Troy and Galahad: Enough of His Life to Explain His Reputation in light of moral concerns raised by Erskine's portrayals of his characters.

There was a time, not so very long ago, when John Erskine was known chiefly to those who had been students under him in Columbia and possibly to a few others who had read his poems and literary criticism; but now that he has published two novels which have had an unusual success, his name is conspicuous on all railroad news-stands throughout the country. "Translations [of The Private Life of Helen of Troy and of Galahad: Enough of his Life to Explain his Reputation] are now"—so runs the publisher's blurb—"appearing in one...