About the Author

John Williams (1922-1994) was a professor of English and Lawrence Phipps Professor of the Humanities at the University of Denver and founding editor of The Denver Quarterly. His novels include Butcher's Crossing (1960), Stoner (1965), and Augustus (1972), co-winner of the National Book Award.

Daniel Mendelsohn teaches literature at Bard College and is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. His books include The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic, and, most recently, Three Rings: A Tale of Exile, Narrative, and Fate.