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|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1937|01|09}}
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1937|01|09}}
|birth_place = [[Chicago]], Illinois
|birth_place = [[Chicago]], Illinois
|occupation = Essayist, short-story writer, editor, teacher
|occupation =Misogynistic condescending jackass, Essayist, short-story writer, editor, teacher
|language = English
|language = English
|nationality = American
|nationality = American

Revision as of 17:40, 12 December 2020

Joseph Epstein
Born (1937-01-09) January 9, 1937 (age 87)
Chicago, Illinois
Pen nameAristides
OccupationMisogynistic condescending jackass, Essayist, short-story writer, editor, teacher
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipU.S.
EducationB.A.
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
GenreEssay, short story, literary criticism
Years active1975–present
Notable awardsNational Humanities Medal

Joseph Epstein (born January 9, 1937) is an essayist, short-story writer, and editor. He is currently an Emeritus Lecturer of English at Northwestern University. From 1974 to 1998[1] he was the editor of the magazine The American Scholar.

Biography

Epstein was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1937. He graduated from Senn High School and attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.[2] He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Chicago and served in the U.S. Army from 1958 to 1960. From 1972 to 2002, he was a lecturer in English and Writing at Northwestern University and is an Emeritus Lecturer of English there.

From 1974 to 1998 he served as editor of The American Scholar and wrote for it under the pseudonym Aristides.[3][4] He edited The Best American Essays (1993), the Norton Book of Personal Essays (1997), and Literary Genius: 25 Classic Writers Who Define English & American Literature (2007). His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Commentary, Harper's, The New Criterion, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, and First Things. His short stories were included in The Best American Short Stories 2007 and The Best American Short Stories 2009.[4] In 2003, he was awarded a National Humanities Medal by the National Endowment for the Humanities.[5]

Epstein's removal as editor of The American Scholar in 1998 (following a 1996 vote of the Phi Beta Kappa senate) was controversial.[6] Epstein later said that he was fired "for being insufficiently correct politically".[7] Some within Phi Beta Kappa attributed the senate's decision to a desire to attract a younger readership for the journal.[8]

In September 1970, Harper's Magazine published an article by Epstein called "Homo/Hetero: The Struggle for Sexual Identity"[9] that was criticized for its perceived homophobia.[10] Epstein wrote that he considered homosexuality "a curse, in a literal sense" and that his sons could do nothing to make him sadder than "if any of them were to become homosexual."[10][11] Gay activists characterized the essay as portraying every gay man the author met, or fantasized about meeting, as predatory, sex-obsessed, and a threat to civilization.[12] In the essay, he says that, if possible, "I would wish homosexuality off the face of the earth", a statement that was interpreted by gay writer and editor Merle Miller as a call to genocide.[13] A sit-in took place at Harper's by members of the Gay Activists Alliance.[14][12]

In 2015 Epstein wrote an article for The Washington Examiner in which he mentioned the Harper's article from 1970. He wrote, "I am pleased the tolerance for homosexuality has widened in America and elsewhere, that in some respects my own aesthetic sensibility favors much homosexual artistic production... My only hope now is that, on my gravestone, the words Noted Homophobe aren’t carved."[15][16][17]

In a December 2020 Wall Street Journal article he attacked Dr. Jill Biden for using the academic and professional title she had earned as a Doctor of Education.[18] The article that widely criticized by other academics and writers for being inaccurate[19][20] and disrespectful of women.[21] Benjamin Wittes of the Brookings Institution criticized the piece, saying "Translation of this piece: 'I have status anxiety and I’m playing it out by attacking a woman for using the title Dr.—which she is fully entitled to use.'"[22]

References

  1. ^ Widmer, Ted (December 1, 2006). "The American Scholar: THE SCHOLAR AT 75: An Educated Guess". theamericanscholar.org.
  2. ^ Birnbaum, Robert (31 August 2003). "Joseph Epstein - Identity Theory". Identity Theory.
  3. ^ "Joseph Epstein: Department of English, Northwestern University". www.english.northwestern.edu.
  4. ^ a b "Joseph Epstein". Contemporary Authors Online. Gale. 5 June 2015. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
  5. ^ "Joseph Epstein". National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  6. ^ Grenier, Cynthia (3 January 1998). "Conservatives on the Move". Highbeam. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
  7. ^ Cohen, Joshua (25 September 2007). "Uncle Joe the Exquisite". Forward.
  8. ^ Mahler, Jonathan (28 February 1998). "Fresh Vision for an Intellectual Journal: Diversity, Brevity, Even a Cover Picture". The New York Times.
  9. ^ Joseph Epstein, Homo/Hetero: The Struggle for Sexual Identity, Harper’s Magazine, September 1970
  10. ^ a b Larry P. Gross & James D. Woods, The Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics (Columbia University Press, 1999), ISBN 978-0231104463, p. 595. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  11. ^ Christopher Bram, Eminent Outlaws: The Gay Writers Who Changed America (Hachette Digital, 2012), ISBN 978-0446575980, p. 142. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  12. ^ a b David Ehrenstein (August 30, 2002). "Sexual Snobbery: The Texture of Joseph Epstein". LA Weekly.
  13. ^ Emily Greenhouse (11 October 2012). "Merle Miller and the Piece That Launched a Thousand "It Gets Better" Videos". The New Yorker.
  14. ^ Larry P. Gross, Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men, and the Media in America (Columbia University Press, 2001), ISBN 978-0231119535, pp. 43ff. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  15. ^ Joseph Epstein (18 May 2015). "The Unassailable Virtue of Victims: On the rise of Hillary Clinton and other underdogs". The Washington Examiner.
  16. ^ See also Claude Summers, "Author Fears 'Noted Homophobe' Will Be Carved on His Gravestone" "The New Civil Rights Movement," 17 July 2016: |url=http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/claude_summers/the_sad_case_of_joseph_epstein?recruiter_id=833168
  17. ^ Epstein, Joseph (2018). The Ideal of Culture (1 ed.). Edinburg, Virginia: Axios Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-60419-123-3.
  18. ^ Epstein, Joseph (2020-12-11). "Opinion | Is There a Doctor in the White House? Not if You Need an M.D." Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  19. ^ "https://twitter.com/dov_levin/status/1337745109597577217". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-12-12. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  20. ^ "https://twitter.com/sarahebond/status/1337774616945811459". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-12-12. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  21. ^ "https://twitter.com/chasten/status/1337776851423551489". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-12-12. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  22. ^ "https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/1337778764948926465". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-12-12. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
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