Alison Lurie is the Frederic J. Whiton Professor of American LIterature at Cornell University where she also teaches folklore and children's literature. She is the author of eight novels, including The War Between the Tates, Foreign Affairs, and The Truth About Lorin Jones. She has published a collection of essays on children's literature, Don't Tell the Grown-Ups, a book on the semiotics of dress, The Language of Culture, and three collections of traditional folktales