Lucille Erskine (born January 6, 1879 in St. Louis,

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

) was an American writer, educator and

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press agent.

Biography

Lucille Erskine was born in St. Louis in 1879, the daughter of Samuel Erskine, Esq., a lawyer and famous orator, prosecutor attorney in St. Louis, and Marie Erskine-Robinson. Samuel Erskine addressed large audiences at Cooper's Union, New York, on the Irish questions. He was a son of Stuart Erskine, of Edinburgh, attended

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

, Wisconsin, and taught English at night in the German Institute of St. Louis before studying law, and later was called upon for the important work of revising its charter. He died at the early age of 42 years when Lucille Erskine was four years old. Her mother later remarried and became a teacher at the Bellefontaine Farms. Erskine's literary education, in particular, was undertaken by her mother. Erskine graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1901, summa cum laude. Erskine taught at the Irving School in St. Louis in 1902 and the following year she joined the Central High School. In 1903 the summer was spent in New England, visiting the homes and places associated with Hawthorne, Emerson and

Washington Irving Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and " The Legen ...

. The summers of 1904 and 1905 were passed in the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

in post-graduate work in English. In 1907 she received a degree as Master of Arts from Washington University. Her thesis on

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

as a critic was published in '' The St. Louis Mirror'', and quoted in ''Current Literature'', New York, on the poet's centenary. Erskine travelled several successive summers in Europe doing foreign correspondence for St. Louis newspapers and the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

''. One entire summer she lived in Dublin writing weekly letters on '' The New Ireland''. In 1909 her first story was published in ''The St. Louis Mirror'', and commented on by the '' New York Dramatic Mirror''; they said it was a tale of surpassing art. The story was entitled ''The Crystal''. In 1911 she went to New York to do syndicate journalistic work for the Publishers' Press syndicate. This consisted mostly of interviews with women in new lines of endeavor which were published in papers throughout the country. She also contributed to the ''

'', ''

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'', and the '' Theatre Magazine'', her sketches of some of the leading women being most unusual, because of their brilliant style of delineation. However, she preferred to give up this work when she realized that she could never make it commercial and she devoted herself for six months to writing ''The Crossbreed; or. An Irish Story''. Erskine returned to teaching in 1913 as instructor of Latin and English literature in the Central High School. She previously taught at the McKinley High School for several years. In the 1920s she moved to Hollywood to work as screenwriter. In the late 1920s she was working as press-agent. In 1929 she was the public representative of

Jack Cunningham John Anderson Cunningham, Baron Cunningham of Felling, PC, DL (born 4 August 1939) is a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament for over 30 years, serving for Whitehaven from 1970 to 1983 and then Copeland until the 2005 ...

. In the 1940s census she was living in Los Angeles, as a lodger of Florence McCleary, with McCleary's mother, Anna Reynolds, and children, William G. McCleary and Rose Anne McCleary. Other lodgers include: Juanita Hicks, Yvonne Minnette, Anne L. Fritz and Thelma Lang.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erskine, Lucille 1879 births 19th-century American writers 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American educators 19th-century American women educators Year of death missing Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of Chicago alumni