Pierce family papers

Frederick Erastus Pierce, B.A. 1904.

Born March 11, 1878, in South Britain, Conn.; Died March 26, 1935, in New Haven, Conn.

Father, Rev. David French Pierce, a Congregational minister in Southbury, Conn.; son of Erastus and Elosia (Platt) Pierce, of South Britain. Yale relatives include: Granville T. Pierce, '55 (uncle).

Private tutor. First McLaughlin Prize, first grade Berkeley Premium, and first Benjamin F. Barge Mathematical Prize Freshman year; second Benjamin F. Barge Mathematical Prize and Robert Callender Scholar Sophomore year; third TenEyck Prize, John Hubbard Curtis Prize, Cook Prize in Poetry, Waterman Scholar, Yale Literary Medal, and Pundit Club Prize Junior year; DeForest Prize Medal Senior year; philosophical oration appointments Junior and Senior years; treasurer Yale Union Junior year and president Senior year; on University Debating Team and board of Yale Literary Magazine Senior year; Class Poet, and Valedictorian; member Zeta Psi, Chi Delta Theta, Phi Beta Kappa, and Skull and Bones.

Studied in Yale Graduate School 1904-1908 (M.A. 1905, Ph.D. 1908); instructor in English, Yale 1906-1910, instructor in debating 1907-1908, assistant professor of English 1910-1926, associate professor since 1926; instructor summer session State Teachers' College, Greeley, Colo., 1921; author: The Collaboration of Webster and Dekker (1909), The World That God Destroyed and Other Poems (1911), Jordan Farms. An Epic in Homespun (1916), Currents and Eddies in the English Romantic Generation (1918), Poems of New England and Old Spain (1918); editor The Merchant of Venice (1911), Selections from the Symbolic Poems of William Blake (1915), and The Winter's Tale (for the Yale Shakespeare series 1918); co-author (with H. N. MacCracken and W.H. Durham, '04) An Introduction to Shakespeare (1911), and (with H. S. Canby, '99 S., and W.H. Durham) Facts, Thought and Imagination, a book on writing (1917); editor in collaboration (with S. Thurber) Macaulay's Essays on Clive and Hastings (1911), (with H.S. Canby) Selections from Robert Louis Stevenson (1911), (with H.S. Canby and W.H. Durham) Poems by John Masefield (1927), and (with Carl F. Schreiber, Ph.D. 1914) Fiction and Fantasy of German Romance (1927); contributed to: Philological Quarterly, Modern Philology, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Modern Language Notes, North American Review, Literary Review, Yale Review, Anglica, and The Nation; member United (Congregational) Church, New Haven.

Married June 25, 1910, in West Haven, Conn., Delma Louise, daughter of Rev. Norman Jairus Squires (B.A. Wesleyan 1871; B.D. Methodist General Biblical Institute) and Mary Matilda (Minor) Squires. Children: David Frederick, Dartmouth '35; and Mary Eleanor, Wellesley '37. Mrs. Pierce died August 20, 1929.

Took his own life. Buried in Center Cemetery, South Britain. Survived by children and a sister, Miss Anna H. Pierce (B.F.A. 1916). His sister, Miss Mary E. Pierce (M.A. 1927), died October 7, 1934.

From Yale University Obituary Record.