Joseph Epstein (writer)

Joseph Epstein (born January 9, 1937 in Chicago) is an essayist, short story writer, and editor, best known as a former editor of the Phi Beta Kappa Society's The American Scholar magazine and for his recent essay collection, Snobbery: The American Version. He was also a lecturer at Northwestern University from 1974 to 2002. He is a Contributing Editor at The Weekly Standard and a long-time contributor of essays and short stories to The New Criterion and Commentary. The late William F. Buckley, Jr., in his review of Snobbery, called Epstein the wittiest writer alive.

Epstein's body of work reveals his fascination with common everyday situations, amusing trends and small pleasures that he brings to his reader's attention. He also specializes in essays that shed light on the musings and ideas of famous and forgotten authors and writes short stories that prominently feature the city of Chicago and the characters that have populated his 70 years as an observer of the city.

Selected works

Essay collections and books

• Divorced in America: Marriage in an Age of Possibility (1974)
• Familiar Territory: Observations on American Life (1979)
• Ambition: The Secret Passion (1980)
• Middle of My Tether: Familiar Essays (1983)
• Plausible Prejudices: Essays on American Writing (1985)
• Once More Around the Block: Familiar Essays (1987)
• Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives (1988)
• A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays (1991)
• Pertinent Players: Essays on the Literary Life (1993)
• With My Trousers Rolled: Familiar Essays (1995)
• Life Sentences: Literary Essays (1997)
• Narcissus Leaves the Pool: Familiar Essays (1999, paperback 2007)
• Snobbery: The American Version (2002)
• Envy (2003)
• Friendship: An Exposé (2006)
• Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy's Guide (2006)
• In a Cardboard Belt!: Essays Personal, Literary, and Savage (2007)
• Fred Astaire (2008)
• Gossip: The Untrivial Pursuit (2011)

Short story collections

• The Goldin Boys: Stories (1991)
• Fabulous Small Jews (2003)
• The Love Song of A. Jerome Minkoff: And Other Stories (2010)

Short Stories

My Brother Eli appearing in The Best American Short Stories 2007 pp. 85–112. "Beyond the Pale" appearing in "The Best American Short Stories 2009" pp. 41–59

External links

• "The Culture of Celebrity: Let us now praise famous airheads" in The Weekly Standard

• "Friends Aren't What They Used to Be: The New Ethos of Intimacy" a review of Friendship: An Exposé, in Slate

• "Kid Turns 70: And Nobody Cares" in The Weekly Standard

• "Golden Juggler" a review of In a Cardboard Belt! by Joseph Tartakovsky, in the Claremont Review of Books