Richard Kre­it­ner is the author of Break It Up: Seces­sion, Divi­sion, and the Secret His­to­ry of Amer­i­ca’s Imper­fect Union and Booked: A Trav­el­er’s Guide to Lit­er­ary Loca­tions Around the World. He has writ­ten for The New York Times, The Wash­ing­ton Post, The Boston Globe, The Nation, Slate, Rar­i­tan, The Baf­fler, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. He lives in the Hud­son Val­ley, New York.