EASTON, Laird M. 1956-

PERSONAL:

Born June 14, 1956, in Mineola, NY; son of Alexander L. (a high school biology teacher) and Annabelle (a high school guidance counselor) Easton; married Maria Ines Navarro, May 2, 1986; children: Natasha. Education: Cornell University, B.A., 1978; Stanford University, M.A., 1982, Ph.D., 1991. Religion: "Atheist." Hobbies and other interests: Chess, tennis.

ADDRESSES:

Home—1430 Arcadian Ave., Chico, CA 95926. Office—Department of History, California State University, Chicago, CA 95929; fax: 532-898-6925. E-mail—leaston@csuchico.edu.

CAREER:

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, instructor, 1990-91; California State University, Chico, professor of history, 1991—, and director of Humanities Center.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Historical Society, German Studies Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Grants from National Endowment for the Humanities and German Academic Exchange Service.

WRITINGS:

The Red Count: The Life and Times of Harry Kessler, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2002.

Contributor to periodicals, including Central European History.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

The Great Ennui: Boredom and Culture, completion expected in 2008.

SIDELIGHTS:

Laird M. Easton told CA: "When asked what motivates me to write, I can only reply by referring to the line in T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land—'these fragments I shore against my ruin.' As a historian my greatest inspiration has been the work of scholars with a broad, generous, and stimulating view of the humanities, deeply erudite, but who wear their learning lightly: scholars such as Johann Huizinga, Edmund Wilson, William H. McNeill, and Egon Friedell, to name a few."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Canadian Journal of History, April, 2004, Dieter K. Buse, review of The Red Count: The Life and Times of Harry Kessler, p. 151.

Economist (U.S.), August 24, 2002, review of The Red Count.

Harper's, August, 2002, Guy Davenport, review of The Red Count, p. 65.

Journal of Modern History, September, 2004, Michael Ermarth, review of The Red Count, p. 714.

Lambda Book Report, April-July, 2003, David McConnell, review of The Red Count, p. 26.

New York Review of Books, October 24, 2002, Amos Elon, review of The Red Count.

Times Literary Supplement, December 27, 2002, Frank Whitford, review of The Red Count.

Washington Post Book World, July 29, 2002, William McGrath, review of The Red Count.