“Epstein is the poet Dylan deserves.”

“A portrait that explodes the semihostile cliche of much unauthorized biography....An account distinguished by a fine sensitivity to all aspects of Dylan's art, from the personal to the music's history...well-written, perceptive, and concise...”

“A galvanizing interpretation of Dylan's many masks and achievements....Illuminates the complex symbiosis between Dylan's theatricalized personas and ever-evolving art.”

The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage was named one of the top ten books of 2008 by the Wall Street Journal and the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Readers will be grateful for his modesty and for much else. He has written what may be the best Lincoln book in a generation.”

“The only modern history of Hay and Nicolay and Stoddard who embraced Lincoln as teacher, employer, and friend, but who also led occasionally tempestuous private lives.”

“Aimee Semple McPherson was an evangelist, a faith-healer, and a star–a peculiarly American combination . . . [Epstein] tells her story with insight, empathy and lyrical power, without ever losing a sense of what a strange tale it is . . . a remarkable book.”

“Powerhouse biography of perhaps the most charismatic and controversial woman in modern religious history. Although now less than a household name, Aimee Semple McPherson dominated the American spiritual landscape of six or seven decades ago.”

“Beautifully written . . . Epstein's portraits of the president and the poet, his sketches of a fascinating supporting cast, his depiction of Civil War Washington's mix of squalor and majesty . . . all are exquisitely exact. Lincoln and Whitman is an elegant book.”

“Epstein, an accomplished poet as well as biographer, imbues his tale of two lives with a natural sense of detail and period that revivifies the familiar figures he writes about.”

“[Epstein] writes with acuity and grace about the young Millay's determination, yearnings, and intellectual spirituality. . . . Epstein's keen readings of Millay's poetry and temperament is smart, stirring, and invaluable.”

“Well researched and briskly narrated.”

“Epstein creates a rendering worthy of the poet's energetic life.”

“Daniel Mark Epstein's biography Nat King Cole gives us the most complete accounting yet of all the Coles who added up to a musical king. . . . He is out to make sense (personal, social, and musical) of a man the American imagination turned into more than just a popular artist and entertainer. . . . He keeps the story bouncing along with plenty of vigor, and he makes room for the voices of people who knew Cole and were of his time.”