Mark Edmundson teaches at the University of Virginia, where he is a University Professor. A prizewinning scholar, he is also the author of Why Teach?, Why Read?, Teacher, The Death of Sigmund Freud, The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll and Literature Against Philosophy: Plato to Derrida, among other books. His writing has appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New York Times Magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Nation, the American Scholar, London Review of Books, Raritan, and Harper’s Magazine. He lives in Batesville, Virginia.