Said was born in Jerusalem to a prosperous Palestinian family in 1935, but his father moved the family to Egypt in 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War. In 1951 Said was sent to boarding school in the US, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1978, "Orientalism," Said's most well-known book, redefined the way that literary critics and academics viewed the Arab world, and became a central work in the new wave of post-colonial studies in the 1970's. As a vocal advocate for a Palestinian state, Said publicly denounced the way that totalitarian Arab leaders lead their countries, as well as the way that the US handled peace talks with Yasser Arafat. Said was a renaissance man, making contributions not only to literary criticism, but also political, musical, and cultural criticism.
