H
AROLD
B
RODKEY
was born in 1930, in Staunton, Illinois, grew up in Missouri, and was graduated from Harvard College. Since the early 1950s his stories have appeared regularly in
The New Yorker
and other magazines. His many honors include two first-place O. Henry Awards (1975 and 1976) as well as fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has taught writing and literature at Cornell University and at City College of the City University of New York. His previous book, a collection of his early stories,
First Love and Other Sorrows,
was originally published in 1958 and was recently reissued. He lives in New York City with his wife, the novelist Ellen Schwamm.