He has published books on subjects such as Ambition, Snobbery, Envy, Friendship, and Charm, as well as collections of his essays and stories, many of which previously appeared in various publications.
"[11] He met with further criticism for giving cultural conservatives as Gertrude Himmelfarb and Dinesh D’Souza a platform in the journal, and his failure to offer space for their adversaries.
"[12] In 2024, Epstein wrote, "The official version given out by Phi Beta Kappa for my cancellation — in those days still known as a firing — was that the magazine was losing subscribers and needed to seek younger readers.
The Phi Beta Kappa senate, which has oversight over the American Scholar, was in the late '90s filling up with 'academic feminists and black historians' who 'hated the idea' of Mr. Epstein in the editor's chair, he says.
The totalizing philosophy of progressivism, which has in the years since spread from faculty lounge to the sports page, famously has no time for old white males with minds like Mr. Epstein's, which toggles effortlessly between the essays of Michel de Montaigne and headline roster moves of baseball's spring training.
Not long after his firing from the American Scholar, Mr. Epstein elected to retire from several successful decades as a literature and writing teacher at Northwestern University.
'"[16] In September 1970, Harper's Magazine published an article by Epstein called "Homo/Hetero: The Struggle for Sexual Identity"[17] that used the word "nigger" to describe being gay and was criticized for its perceived homophobia.
"[23] In a December 2020 Wall Street Journal opinion piece, he suggested that Jill Biden stop using the academic title "Dr.," which she earned as a Doctor of Education, saying that it "feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.
"[25] Biden later responded during an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, indicating that she was surprised at the tone of the article and at Epstein's use of the word "kiddo" to address her, stating that she was proud of her doctorate, for which she had worked hard.
The University wrote, "Northwestern is firmly committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, and strongly disagrees with Mr. Epstein's misogynistic views," and noted that it was nearly 20 years since his employment there.