Paul Goodman (1911-1972) was an American social critic, psychologist, poet, novelist, and anarchist. His writings appeared in Politics, Partisan Review, The New Republic, Commentary, The New Leader, Dissent, and The New York Review of Books. He published several well-regarded books in a variety of fields-including city planning, Gestalt therapy, literary criticism, and politics-before Growing Up Absurd, cancelled by its original publisher and turned down by a number of other presses, was brought out by Random House in 1960.
Casey Nelson Blake is Professor of History and American Studies at Columbia University and the author of several studies in American intellectual and cultural history. He writes regularly for Commonweal, Dissent, Raritan, and other publications.
Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was a novelist, playwright, filmmaker, and one of the most influential critics of her generation. Her books include Against Interpretation, On Photography, Illness as Metaphor
