David Raymond Sedaris (1956-) is an American humorist and author best known for his collections of wry personal essays, memoirs, and contributions to The New Yorker magazine. His writings are often concerned with his Greek ethnicity, his sexual identity as a gay man, his family life, and travel. Sedaris is the second eldest of six children and the older brother of comedian Amy Sedaris. Although he was born in Johnson, New York, Sedaris grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Coming of age in the suburban Southeastern United States had a significant impact on Sedaris’s life and writings. At the time of writing, he resides in West Sussex, England, with Hugh Hamrick, who has been his partner since the early 1990s. Sedaris holds a bachelor’s degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an honorary Ph.D. from Binghamton University.

Sedaris came of age in the 1950s-1970s. In the United States, the mid-20th century was a time of economic stability for the middle class and a time of great social change. When Sedaris was a child, racial segregation was still in effect, women were expected to be homemakers, “homosexuality” was classified as a psychiatric disorder, and state psychiatric hospitals were overcrowded and underfunded.