SEVERAL OF THE ESSAYS COLLECTED in this volume were produced for specific publications. I am deeply grateful to the sympathetic editors who commissioned and indeed helped me to polish them—notably Mary-Kay Wilmers at the London Review of Books, a spectacularly generous reader and critic of my work over the years, and the equally inspiring Benjamin Schwarz and Jon Zobenica at the Atlantic. I also wish very much to thank Rakesh Satyal and Tina Bennett, whose discerning comments and suggestions—on the long final piece especially—have been indispensable. Blakey Vermeule, Margo Leahy, and Beverley Talbott have likewise been of inestimable assistance. Needless to say, all errors, infelicities, and lapses in judgment are my own.
The essays appear in the order they were written. The earliest, “Courage, Mon Amie,” is from 2002; the latest, “The Professor,” was written just last year. All have autobiographical elements. Having labored in the dusty groves of academe for over twenty years, I felt—as a new millennium unfolded—a desire to write more directly and personally than had previously been the case.
It should also be noted that in several essays, notably the title-piece, “The Professor,” I have changed names, places, and other details to protect the privacy of various individuals involved.