of the strengthening referred to is to be found in a number of important additions to the staff. James Holly Hanford (Rochester '04, Ph.D. Harvard '09), a leading authority on Milton and now of Western Reserve University, came in 1921. In the same year came Oscar James Campbell (Harvard '03, Ph.D. ibid. '10), now of Columbia University, whose activity both as teacher and scholar has been largely devoted to the drama. Earl Leslie Griggs (Colorado '22, Ph.D. London '27), who came in 1929 and is now at the University of Pennsylvania, is well known as a Coleridge specialist. Howard Mumford Jones (Wisconsin '14, A.M. Chicago '16) joined the department in 1930. Now at Harvard University, he continues his widely read studies in American literature and American culture. These men were members of the department for eight, fifteen, ten, and six years respectively. Their contributions were varied, but they were all alike in the stimulus which they brought to our teaching, and in their help in building the program for graduate study. Others who began their work at Michigan in Strauss's or in Demmon's time might be spoken of in similar terms; but since, happily, they are still active in the department, no account of their achievements is ready to be written.
The following holders of the fellowship in creative arts, which was established and maintained during President Burton's administration, were in effect and to its great advantage associate members of the English Department: Robert Frost, then as well as now perhaps the most eminent of American poets; Robert Bridges, poet laureate of England; and Jesse Lynch Williams, American dramatist and novelist (see Part II: Fellowships in Creative Arts) .
Many distinguished scholars have been at times, oftenest during summer sessions, guest members of the department. Among them were: V. L. Parrington, already mentioned with reference to his Main Currents in American Thought, from the University of Washington; Ernest de Selincourt, of Birmingham, England; H. E. Woodbridge, from Wesleyan University; T. M. Parrott, from Princeton; H. S. V. Jones, from the University of Illinois; Douglas Bush, from Harvard; Ernest Sutherland Bates, editor of The Bible as Living Literature and celebrated historian of American traditions; G. E. Reynolds, from the University of Colorado; R. P. McCutcheon, from Tulane University; Louis B. Wright, from the Huntington Library; and Jacob Zeitlin, from the University of Illinois.
One of the earliest policies adopted during Strauss's chairmanship involved the abandonment of the survey course as an introduction to English literature. Instead of attempting to teach sophomores the history of English literature, the staff turned to the less ambitious but still hard task of teaching them how to read, introducing historical considerations only as they might be needed for the appreciation of individual authors. Like Moses Tyler long ago, we were conscious of "the difficulty of interesting young people in critical estimates of books which they had never before seen or heard of." If we did not commit ourselves to Tyler's hope, that they might "come to know for themselves the exhilaration of original research," it was partly because we were trying to adapt the method to students who were younger and possibly not as well prepared as his.
The year 1924 saw the introduction of the English honors course for seniors, an offering which put on record again the department's belief in the value of emphasis on the student's own reading. Admission to this course was limited "to students of high standing and to those deemed qualified to do independent work." At first nine hours of credit were
