Henry Roth (1906-1995) was born in the Austro-Hungarian province of Galitzia. He probably landed on Elis Island in 1909, and began his life in New York on the Lower East Side, in the slums where Call It Sleep is set. He is the author as well of Shifting Landscapes, a collection of essays, and the Mercy of a Rude Stream tetralogy.

Alfred Kazin (1915-98), was an American critic. His first book, On Native Grounds (1942), is a critical study of American prose literature from Howells to Faulkner. Later essay collections include The Inmost Leaf (1955), Contemporaries (1962), Bright Book of Life (1973), An American Procession (1984), Writing Was Everything (1995), and God & the American Writer (1997).