SOURCE: Congdon, Lee. “The Greatest of These Is Love.” World and I 17, no. 10 (October 2002): 228-32.

In the following review, Congdon elucidates Epstein's approach to the concept of snobbery as found in his Snobbery.

For a while in the late 1960s, I worked in Chicago as a (lowly) writer for Encyclopaedia Britannica. At the time, Joseph Epstein was one of the senior editors. Although I never had occasion to get to know him in his official capacity, I did sometimes run into him in the library or on the way out of the Michigan Avenue building where the company maintained its offices. I wonder if you are not—just a little bit—impressed? In two sentences, I let you know that I once rubbed elbows with a distinguished writer and wrote—never mind that my short entries never made it into print—for a prestigious reference work. Although I...