Steven Zwicker was born in California and graduated from Brown University; he is Stanley Elkin Professor of Humanities and Professor of English Emeritus at Washington University where he has directed a number of literary programmes, including the Literature and History Program; the Mellon Postdoctoral Program; and the Mellon Summer Dissertation Seminar Program. He has held visiting appointments at The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan, and the California Institute of Technology and was British Academy Visiting Lecturer at the Universities of Liverpool and Aberdeen.