Sidney Joseph Perelman (1904-1979) was a longtime contributor to The New Yorker, in which he first published many of his humorous essays and sketches, and travel pieces. He also wrote film scripts for the Marx Brothers and shared an Oscar in 1956 with James Poe and James Farrow for the screenplay of Around the World in Eighty Days.

Adam Gopnik is a staff writer at The New Yorker; he has written for the magazine since 1986. He has three National Magazine awards, for essays and for criticism, and also a George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting. In 2013, Gopnik was awarded the medal of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. The author of numerous best-selling books, including Paris to the Moon, he lives in New York City.