Peter De Vries has been called by Kingsley Amis "the funniest serious writer to be found on either side of the Atlantic" and by W. J. Smith "the greatest punster the world has ever known." The author of a large number of popular and widely read novels, he retains a charming lack of seriousness about himself and his work, preferring to be thought of as a devoted craftsman rather than a tortured artist. He deals with sexual themes, often explicitly, but four-letter words are rare in his work, and he is never pornographic.

He was born in Chicago of immigrant parents, Joost and Henrietta Eldersveld De Vries, and was raised among other members of the strict and Calvinistic Dutch Reformed Church. He was graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1931. Instead of entering the ministry as his family expected, he embarked during 1931 to 1938 on a series...