Joseph Epstein is the author of the best-selling Snobbery and Friendship, as well as the short story collections TheGoldin Boys, Fabulous Small Jews and Frozen in Time, among other books, and was formerly editor of the American Scholar. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. In 2003 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President George W. Bush along with John Updike, Hal Holbrook, and Robert Ballard. A long-time teacher of English at Northwestern University, he lives in Evanston, Illinois.