Harvard has persuaded a prominent American literature specialist to take a tenured position in the English Department, luring him away from a professorship at Columbia University.

Sacvan Bercovich confirmed yesterday that he has accepted a Harvard tenure offer and will assume the position in September, pending routine Corporation approval.

Several English Department members yesterday praised Bercovich--considered one of the foremost Puritan culture and literature scholars in the country.

"He was a very clear first choice for the position," said Warner B. Berthoff, professor of English and American Literature, who suggested that the offer was in part designed to fill a spot vacated by retiring Thomas Professor of English and American Literature, Daniel Aaron.

"Particularly with Professor Aaron's retirement, I think we will continue our strength in the American field," Barthoff said.

Traditions and Structures

In a telephone interview from his New York home, Bercovich said that the "traditions and structures" of Harvard American studies programs induced him to choose Harvard in what he called "the most difficult career decision" he has ever had to make.

One of Bercovich's Columbia colleagues, English Department chairman Martin Meisel, called his departure a "severe loss" for the university. "I have nothing but envy for Harvard," he said. "We fortunately have some depth in the field, but he is the sort of person who is irreplaceable.

"We did everything that we could" to keep Bercovich, Meisel said, adding "Columbia doesn't quite have the resources Harvard has "But, he said, Columbia made a "creditable response" to Harvard's offer to try to keep whom he called "the best in his field. Harvard English Department Chairman Larry, D. Benson was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Tearful Departure

"It was hard to leave I've been at Columbia a long time I have some deep attachments here," Bercovich said. "What turned it around was the opportunities in American literature and culture at Harvard."

Bercovich cited Harvard's committees on History and Literature and History of American Civilization, as well as the English Department, as the sort of "structures which invite the possibility of American culture studies in a kind of long term way.

"What I would like to do is to use these resources [to] make Harvard a center for American literature and culture," he said.

Teaching Undergrads

Bercovich has been a full professor at Columbia since 1970, and he has written two books on Puritan thought and literature as well as numerous articles on that and other aspects of American culture. He said that he planned to teach an undergraduate course covering American Puritanism and Romanticism and a graduate course on Melville--the subject of his current research.