Phillip Lopate is the author of numerous books, including Getting Personal: Selected Writings , the essay collections Bachelorhood , Against Joie de Vivre , Writing New York , and Portrait of My Body , and the novels The Rug Merchant and Confessions of Summer . Most recently, Lopate authored Seaport: New York’s Vanished Waterfront , a book of photographs of maritime Manhattan. He is also the editor of The Art of the Personal Essay , and his work has appeared in The Paris Review , Esquire , Vogue , and many other publications. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter, and teaches at Hofstra University....