Louis Auchincloss is a highly renowned novelist, literary critic, and historian. The author of more than fifty books, including The Rector of Justin, The House of Five Talents, and The Atonement, he is the former president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New York City.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., is arguably the preeminent political historian of our time. For more than half a century, he has been a cornerstone figure in the intellectual life of the nation and a fixture on the political scene. He served as special assistant to John F. Kennedy; won two Pulitzer Prizes for The Age of Jackson (1946) and A Thousand Days (1966); and in 1998 received the National Humanities Medal. He published the first volume of his autobiography, A Life in the Twentieth Century, in 2000.