Colm Tóibín is the author of nine novels, including The Master, Brooklyn and, most recently, House of Names. He is Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University.

Marc Simpson, an independent historian of American art, has worked at museums in New Haven, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Williamstown and has taught at Williams College. He has written on such artists as Sargent, Homer, Eakins, and Whistler.

Declan Kiely is Robert H. Taylor Curator and Head of the Literary and Historical Manuscripts Department at The Morgan Library & Museum.