“Lots of people momentarily embrace the idea of leaving the rat race, like the characters in The Graduate.’ Mr. Webb and Ms. Rudd did it, with all the consequences it entailed. If they regretted the choice, they did not say so.” A particularly interesting NYT obituary for Charles Webb, the elusive author of ‘The Graduate,’ who died at 81. “Charles Richard Webb was born on June 9, 1939, in San Francisco, and grew up in Pasadena, Calif. His father, Dr. Richard Webb, was a heart specialist, part of a wealthy social circle like the one Charles would skewer in ‘The Graduate.’ (Charles described his relationship with his father as ‘reasonably bad.’)”