Is It Ever Too Late to Be What You Might Have Been?br The New Yorker - SVA Theatre 2br REBECCA MEAD: "MIDDLEMARCH" AND MEbr br Rebecca Mead has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1997. She is the author of One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. Her piece on George Eliot and "Middlemarch" appeared in the magazine’s Anniversary Issue and is the basis of her forthcoming book.