Richard Todd was an editor and author. He spent many years as a magazine and book editor at Atlantic Monthly, New England Monthly, and Houghton Mifflin. His essays and cultural reportage appeared in numerous magazines including Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, The New York Times, and Worth. His book, The Thing Itself: On the Search for Authenticity, was published in 2008. He collaborated with Tracy Kidder on Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction, which was published in 2013. He died from injuries sustained in a fall on April 21, 2019 at the age of 78.