John Maxwell O’Brien was an emeritus professor of history (Queens College, CUNY)) who had written numerous articles on ancient history, medieval history, and the history of alcoholism. His best-selling biography, Alexander the Great: The Invisible Enemy (Routledge), has been translated into Greek and Italian, and he authored the article on alcoholism in the Oxford Classical Dictionary. Professor O’Brien’s second life had been devoted to his first love, creative writing, and he had published a variety of poems and short stories in literary journals. Aloysius the Great was his debut novel and was inspired by James Joyce’s Ulysses. He died in 2022.