Elizabeth Hardwick (1916-2007) was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at the University of Kentucky and Columbia University. A recipient of a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she wrote three novels, a biography of Herman Melville, and four collections of essays. She was a cofounder and advisory editor of the New York Review of Books and contributed more than one hundred reviews, articles, reflections, and letters to the magazine.
