As author or editor of nearly twenty books, Arthur A. Cohen has produced work whose erudition, invention, and passion have established him as one of American Judaism's foremost men of letters. Although probably best known for his 1973 novel, In the Days of Simon Stern, Cohen has distinguished himself as theologian, novelist, art historian, and literary critic.

Arthur A. Cohen was born in New York City on 25 June 1928. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1946 and a master's degree in 1949. While at Chicago, Cohen, the son of Isidore Meyer and Bess Junger Cohen, affluent, nonobservant Jewish parents, underwent a religious crisis when confronted, as he put it, with "the recognition that Western culture is a Christian culture, that Western values are rooted in the Greek and Christian tradition." Having never before considered the question of faith, Cohen weighed the possibility of converting to Christianity, but...