SOURCE: Kaufman, Joanne. “Doctor, Author, Hunk All Rolled into One.” The Wall Street Journal (22 March 1994): A12.

In the following essay, Kaufman provides a brief overview of Canin's life and career.

A young woman recently called Random House pleading for a set of the galleys of Ethan Canin's The Palace Thief. If no galleys were available of this second collection of stories by the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Emperor of the Air (1988), then how about an advance bound copy of the book or a press release? “Or maybe,” she added hopefully, “a toenail clipping or a hair follicle?”

Mr. Canin is 33 years old and a hunk, in the estimation of many bookish young women who don't know that he's getting married in July and who packed the house for a recent reading here. Critics who may or may not feel the same primal urge call Mr. Canin a...