F. E. (Frederick Erastus) Pierce

Born on March 11, 1878, in South Britain, Connecticut, Frederick Erastus Pierce was an American scholar of English and a writer whose career was closely tied to Yale. A Yale archival guide identifies him as a member of Yale’s Class of 1904, and surviving records describe him as both a private tutor and a scholar of English literature.

Pierce wrote across several genres. His books include The Collaboration of Webster and Dekker (1909), a study of early modern drama; The World That God Destroyed, and Other Poems (1911); Currents and Eddies in the English Romantic Generation (1918); and Poems of New England and Old Spain (1918). He also helped write An Introduction to Shakespeare and edited Shakespeare texts, showing how comfortably he worked as both a critic and a teacher.

He died in New Haven, Connecticut, on March 26, 1935. Though not widely known today, his books show a writer deeply interested in poetry, drama, and the long conversation of English literature.