Stanley Fish, America's Enfant Terrible: The Authorized Biography

Olson (president, Daemen Coll., NY; A Creature of Our Own Making), who has written other books on Stanley Fish, one of the most polarizing figures in modern academia, here presents the authorized biography. During his long and continuing career, Fish has been a literary theorist, legal scholar, university politician, and advocate of academic freedom. Olson's meticulous investigation looks at Fish's life, and how his upbringing influenced his distinctive character. Born the son of an immigrant, raised in Providence, and with degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University, Fish has taught at multiple institutions as well as been a frequent contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Olson traces his subject's career through the heights and depths of academia to his current position as the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Cardozo School of Law.