Erwin Kempton Mapes

Who was Erwin Kempton Mapes?

Erwin Kempton Mapes, was an American scholar of Spanish-American literature and Hispanist, renowned for his work on the Hispanic Modernists.

Mapes received his bachelors from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa in 1909. He then went to Harvard University and studied Hispanic Studies under Jeremiah D. M. Ford, receiving his masters in 1915. He received his doctorate from the University of Paris with a study on Rubén Darío, published in 1925 as L'influence française dans l'oeuvre of Rubén Darío.

Before receiving his doctorate, Mapes taught at various small colleges including Western State College of Colorado in Gunnison. Afterwards, in 1925, he was appointed as an associate professor at the State University of Iowa where he taught until his retirement. He was made full professor in 1937.

During his life he concentrated his study of literary criticism on Rubén Darío, Manuel Gutiérrez Nájera and Modernism in Spanish-American literature. He was for many years considered the highest authority in these subjects. Almost all of his work was published in American and French journals.