Sebastiano Timpanaro was born in Parma in 1923 and died in 2000. He studied classical philology at the University of Florence. His works include "On Materialism" and "Freudian Slip," as well as major studies of Leopardi and Edmondo De Amicis. Perry Anderson is the author of, among other books, "Spectrum, Lineages of the Absolutist State, Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism, Considerations on Western Marxism, English Questions, The Origins of Postmodernity," and "The New Old World." He teaches history at UCLA and is on the editorial board of "New Left Review."