“Literary dementia seems dated now, but there was a time when a month in the funny farm was as de rigueur for budding writers as an M.F.A. is now. To be sent away was a badge of honor; to undergo electroshock, a glorious martyrdom.”

American novelist, literary critic, and essayist

Walter Kirn is an American novelist, literary critic, and essayist. He is known for his fiction and criticism, and for writing the novel Up in the Air, which was later adapted into a film starring George Clooney. Kirn has written eight books in all, and his work spans novels, literary criticism, and essays. He is best known for Up in the Air, the book that brought him the widest recognition and reached an even larger audience through its film version.