Mary Eberstadt

Mary Eberstadt is an American author of several influential works of non-fiction, including How the West Really Lost God: A New Theory of Secularization; Adam and Eve after the Pill: Paradoxes of the Sexual Revolution; and It's Dangerous to Believe: Religious Freedom and Its Enemies.

Her 2010 novel The Loser Letters: A Comic Tale of Life, Death, and Atheism was adapted for stage and premiered at the Catholic University of America's Hartke Theater in fall 2016. She is also editor of the anthology Why I Turned Right: Leading Baby Boom Conservatives Chronicle Their Political Journeys.

A frequent contributor to magazines and journals including TIME, the Wall Street Journal, National Review, and First Things, Mrs. Eberstadt (nee Tedeschi) has also served as an editor at The Public Interest, The National Interest, and Policy Review. She has been associated with various think tanks, and in 2016 became a senior research fellow at the Faith and Reason Institute. In 2011, she founded a literary organization called the Kirkpatrick Society that has mentored hundreds of writers. In 2014, she delivered the Commencement address at Seton Hall University, which awarded her an honorary doctorate in humane letters.

During the Reagan administration, Mrs. Eberstadt spent two years as a speechwriter to Secretary of State George Shultz. She graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University with a double major in philosophy and government. In summer 1981, she became the first female voting member of the student body at formerly all-male Deep Springs College.