Peter Richardson is editorial director
at PoliPointPress and lectures on California culture at San Francisco State
University. His most recent book, American Prophet: The Life and Work
of Carey McWilliams, is the first book-length study of California's
shrewdest observer. Richardson began work on American Prophet in 2001. Drawing on a variety of sources, including primary materials in the Carey McWilliams Collection at the Charles E. young Research Library Department of Special Collections, he completed his research in 2004. American Prophet appeared in October 2005 and has been praised by veteran journalist Lou Cannon, author Mike Davis, Victor Navasky of The Nation, professor and former U.S. ambassador Derek Shearer, historian Kevin Starr, and other McWilliams aficionados.
Richardson has served as editor at the Public Policy Institute of California, associate professor of English at the University of North Texas, and acquisitions editor at Harper and Row Publishers. A Fulbright Senior Scholar in 1994 and a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar Fellow at Harvard University in 1993, he holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His other publications include numerous books, monographs, and articles on language, literature, and California public policy. His Web log, peterrichardson.blogspot.com, hosts an informal discussion of McWilliams and his work.