The Brief Hour of Francois Villon

365 pp. A 1937 biographical novel by American author John Erskine that chronicles the tumultuous life of the 15th-century French poet. The story depicts Villon as a brilliant but reckless figure, navigating poetry, romance, and criminal scrapes in medieval Paris. "John Erskine (October 5, 1879 - June 2, 1951) was an American educator and author, pianist and composer. He was first an English professor at Amherst College from 1903 to 1909, followed by Columbia University from 1909 and 1937, during his tenure he formulated the General Honors Course, which later founded the influential Great Books movement. He published over 100 books, novel, criticism, essays including his most important essay, The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent (1915)."