...Wikipedia was the point of convergence for the self-taught and the expensively educated. The cranks had to consort with the mainstreamers and hash it all out- and nobody knew who really knew what he or she was talking about, because everyone's identity was hidden behind a jokey username. All everyone knew was that the end product had to make legible sense and sound encyclopedic....

American novelist and essayist. Born in New York City, Baker grew up in Rochester, New York, and earned a B.A. in philosophy at Haverford College. Since then he has devoted himself to writing cerebral fictions as well as numerous articles and book-length essays espousing pacifism, the pleasures of reading, and the need to preserve libraries. His first novel, The Mezzanine (1988), set the template for much of his fiction: little action, but a close examination of moment-to-moment consciousness, intricately depicted in a text embellished with copious footnotes. His eight novels include Vox (1992) and, most recently, The Anthologist (2009), a rumination on poets and poetry. Baker presently lives in Maine and is a professor at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. See also egs.edu.