Dan Hofstadter

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Visting Faculty

Critically acclaimed author of five books, Dan Hofstadter writes on topics ranging from the antiquities trade to Galileo and is a regular contributor to national publications including The New York Times and The New Yorker.


Biography

Hofstadter has published five books of nonfiction: Temperaments: Artists Facing Their Work; Goldberg’s Angel: An Adventure in the Antiquities Trade; The Love Affair as a Work of Art, which was nominated for a Book Critics Circle Award; Falling Palace: A Romance of Naples, which was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and a finalist for the PEN Awards in nonfiction in 2006; and, in June 2009, The Earth Moves: Galileo and the Roman Inquisition, on the subject of Galileo’s 1633 heresy trial on charges of supporting Copernicanism after his observations with the telescope. He's currently working on a book about Italian cheese-makers and cheese-making.

Hofstadter has written for many national publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, to which he contributed regularly for eight years, CondeNast Traveler, Gourmet, Art and Antiques, Departures, Smithsonian, and The Wall Street Journal. His essays have appeared in literary journals and he has translated several classics (by Benjamin Constant and George Sand) from French. His own work has been translated into numerous European languages as well. He taught for two years as a visiting critic in the graduate painting department of the University of Pennsylvania. BA, Columbia University. Hofstadter was a member of the literature faculty at Bennington from 1997 to 2005. From 2006 to 2016, he returned each term as a visiting faculty member in art history or literature.