Richard Gustave Stern was born in New York City on February 25, 1928. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1947, a master's degree from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. After a year teaching at Connecticut College in New London, he started teaching literature and creative writing at the University of Chicago in 1955, where he remained until his retirement in 2001. His first novel, Golk, was published in 1960. His other novels include Europe: Or Up and Down with Schreiber and Baggish, Stitch, Natural Shocks, Other Men's Daughters, and A Father's Words. An early story, The Sorrows of Captain Schreiber, won an O. Henry award as one of the best short stories of 1954. His short story collections include Packages, Noble Rot, and Almonds to Zhoof. He also wrote a collection of essays entitled The Books in Fred Hampton's Apartment and a memoir about his older sister entitled A Sistermony. In 1985, he received the Medal of Merit for the Novel, awarded every six years by the Academy of Arts and Letters. He died of cancer on January 24, 2013 at the 84.