Laurie Colwin (1944–1992) was born in Manhattan and raised in Lake Ronkonkoma, Long Island; Chicago; and Philadelphia. She attended Bard College and Columbia University and worked as a translator and book editor before selling her first story, at the age of twenty-five, to the New Yorker. She went on to publish eight critically acclaimed works of fiction and two beloved collections of essays and recipes—Home Cooking and More Home Cooking—in addition to writing a food column for Gourmet magazine and contributing regularly to Mademoiselle and Redbook. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “if anyone wrote eloquently and magnificently about affairs of the heart, it was Laurie Colwin.”