Novelist, journalist and screenwriter Mordecai Richler was born on January 27, 1931 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He attended Sir George Williams College for two years. He lived in Paris, Spain and England, and while in England worked as a journalist and radio and television scriptwriter. His fourth novel, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959), was received with far more enthusiasm than previous efforts. He has written a number of screenplays (including Fun with Dick and Jane and the script for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz). His awards include the Governor-General Awards, the Commonwealth Writer's Prize and the Ruth Schwartz Children's Book Award.
Shelley Fisher Fishkin received her B.A. from Yale College. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at Yale University. She taught American Studies and English at the University of Texas from 1985 to 2003, and was Chair of the Department of American Studies. Since 2003 she has been a professor at the English Department of Stanford University. She has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, was a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Japan and was the winner of a Harry H. Ransom Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Texas. Much of her work is focused on Mark Twain but she has also published works on writers such as Frederick Douglass and Theodore Dreiser. Her research… interests have lead her to focus on the influence of African American voices on American literature. Dr. Fishkin is the author, editor or co-editor of over forty books and has published over eighty articles and reviews. Her book Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices was selected as an "Outstanding Academic Book" by Choice in 1993.