Short answers, pulled from the story.
William Christopher Barrett (the 30th of December 1913 - the 8th of September 1992) was an American philosopher, professor of philosophy at New York University from 1950 to 1979, and later at Pace University. He was known for writing philosophical works accessible to general readers, including Irrational Man and The Illusion of Technique, both of which remain in print.
Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy, published in 1958 by Doubleday, introduced existentialist philosophy to a broad, non-specialist audience. Barrett drew on the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche, Soren Kierkegaard, and Martin Heidegger to examine the human condition in the modern world.
Barrett's Law is the principle that not everyone who might read the productions of scholarly writers is an expert in the fields discussed. Barrett articulated this on page 99 of one of his works, and the law is named in his honor.
Barrett was a close friend of the poet Delmore Schwartz and was acquainted with Edmund Wilson, Philip Rahv, and Albert Camus. He also edited D. T. Suzuki's 1956 classic Zen Buddhism and was deeply influenced by the philosophies of Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger.
Barrett began his undergraduate studies at the City College of New York at age fifteen, then earned his PhD at Columbia University. He went on to edit Partisan Review and serve as literary critic at The Atlantic Monthly before joining New York University as a professor.
William Barrett died on the 8th of September 1992, aged 78, from cancer of the esophagus. He was survived by his daughter Nell Barrett and her children Clinton and Georgia.