Joseph (not Juan) Epstein

Mindlessly surfing while working off the effects of an evening at the drinking club, we ran across this nice overview of the work of our favorite essayist, Joseph Epstein. Link. Excerpt:

"I have always thought," says Joseph Epstein, "that if one wants to be a writer, he must first make himself incompetent in everything else." . . .

Epstein has a unique knack for writing familiarly on topics ranging from the maxims of La Rochefoucauld to the pleasures of owning a cat. He has been known to invoke the likes of Plutarch and Montaigne in considering the cultural significance of the hairdo. And then there is, of course, his celebrated work on the theretofore mostly uncharted territory of the snob in America.

"For those of us who make this goofy decision to be a writer," he says, "all life is material. . .