John Glassie is the author ofA Man of Misconceptions (Riverhead, 2012), a non-fiction book about a great and strange 17th-century polymath named Athanasius Kircher. A New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice,” it was called one of the best books of 2012 by Atlantic Wire and Scientific American. Glassie’s written work has been published by The Believer, The New York Times, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Salon, Wired, and many other venues. In addition to writing articles about books, the arts, and ideas, he has interviewed dozens of public figures, from Gene Simmons to Anita Hill to Jhumpa Lahiri. For many years, Glassie worked as an editor for The New York Times Magazine.