Jonathan Yardley is a book critic, journalist, and biographer, and the recipient of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. From 1981 to 2014, he was chief book critic for the Washington Post, where he combined scathingly frank reviews with an appreciation for new talent. He championed the early careers of Michael Chabon, Edward P. Jones, and Anne Tyler, among others. In addition to biographies of Ring Lardner and Frederick Exley, Yardley published Our Kind of People: The Story of an American Family , a wry memoir about his WASP parents. Second Reading , his most recent book, collects the series of Post columns in which he reconsidered notable or neglected books from the past.