Robert Alter is a pro­fes­sor of the Grad­u­ate School and emer­i­tus pro­fes­sor of Hebrew and com­par­a­tive lit­er­a­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley. His many books include The Plea­sures of Read­ing in an Ide­o­log­i­cal Age, Imag­ined Cities: Urban Expe­ri­ence and the Lan­guage of the Nov­el, and Pen of Iron: Amer­i­can Prose and the King James Bible (Prince­ton). He lives in Berke­ley, California.