• Book Beat/Wired for Books


    Don Swaim's online audio conversations with the best-known writers of three decades

    (A)

  • Edward Abbey, The Monkey Wrench Gang, The Fool's Progress, 1988
  • Peter Ackroyd, [Booker Prize] author of Dickens, 1991
  • Alice Adams, [O. Henry Lifetime Achievement Award] Superior Women, 1984
  • Alice Adams, Return Trips, 1985
  • Alice Adams, Caroline's Daughter, 1991
  • Douglas Adams, [Hugo Award] Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,1983
  • Douglas Adams, Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, 1989
  • Richard Adams, celebrated British fantasy writer, Watership Down, 1985
  • Vassily Aksyonov, [Russian-born dissident] The Island of Crimea, 1983
  • Vassily Aksyonov, The Burn, 1984
  • Alfred Alcorn, [English-born author of the Murder in the Museum of Man series]Vestments 1988
  • Brian Aldiss, [science-fiction legend] Helliconia Summer, 1984
  • Brian Aldiss, Seasons in Flight, 1986
  • The American Mercury, [Facsimile edition of the most influential magazine of the 1920s] with editor Richard Russell, 1984
  • Martin Amis, [son of Sir Kingsley Amis] Money, 1985
  • Martin Amis, London Fields, 1990
  • Maya Angelou, [Pulitzer Prize] I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Now Sheba Sings the Song, 1987
  • Piers Anthony, [famous for his novel series set in the fictional realm of Xanth] Robot Adept, Out of Phaze, 1988 [long form version unavailable]
  • Alfred Appel Jr. [reading photographs] Signs of Life, 1987
  • Jeffrey Archer, [British Parliamentarian imprisoned in a sex/political scandal] The Prodigal Daughter, 1983
  • Jeffrey Archer, As the Crow Flies, 1991
  • Eve Arnold, [celebrated photographer] Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Isaac Asimov, Hugo Award, [celebrated for his the Foundation novels] Fantastic Voyage II, 1987
  • James Atlas, Bellow: A Biography, The Great Pretender,1986
  • Margaret Atwood, [Booker Prize] The Handmaid's Tale, [celebrated as one of the greatest dystopian novels ever written] 1986
  • Louis Auchincloss, [National Medal of Arts] The Rector of Justin, Diary of a Yuppie, 1986
  • Jean Auel, [celebrated for her Earth's Children series set in prehistoric Europe], The Mammoth Hunters, 1985
  • Paul Auster, [his books translated into more than 40 languages] The New York Trilogy, In the Country of Last Things, 1987
  • Nancy Axelrod, [editor] the classic Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew books, 1987

    (B)

  • John Baker, editor-in-chief, Publishers Weekly, [bible of the publishing industry] 1991
  • Russell Baker, [Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist] Growing Up, Norton Book of Light Verse, 1986
  • Baker Street Street Irregulars, Sherlock Holmes literary society, with Julian Wolf, president
  • Ian Ballantine, [paperback book pioneer] founder of Bantam, Ballantine Books, 1984
  • Bill Ballantine, [famed Ringling Bros circus clown] Clown Alley 1982
  • Russell Banks, Affliction, 1989
  • Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter, 1991
  • John Banville, [Booker Prize]The Book of Evidence, 1990
  • Nick Bantok, [writer, illustrator] Griffin and Sabine books, 1992
  • Amiri Baraka, [Leroy Jones], controversial poet, activist, 1984
  • Clive Barker, The Inhuman Condition, 1986
  • Clive Barker, The Damnation Game, 1987
  • Mary Barnard, [poet] Time and the White Tigress, 1986
  • Robert Barnard, [mystery writer] School for Murder, 1984
  • Julian Barnes, [Booker Prize] Talking it Over, 1991
  • Wilton Barnhardt, Gospel, 1993
  • John Barth, [National Book Award, PEN/Malamud Award] Sabbatical, 1982, [CBS-FM Crosstalk]
  • John Barth, Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, 1991
  • Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, [new edition edited by Justin Kaplan] 1993
  • Graeme Base, [children's author, illustrator] Animalia, 1987
  • Rick Bass, [PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction] Winter, 1991
  • Richard Bausch, [PEN/Malamud Award] Violence, 1992
  • Glen Baxter, [quirky English cartoonist] The Impending Gleam, Atlas, 1983
  • The Beats, with William Burroughs, Junky, Queer, 1985
  • The Beats, with Ann Charters, editor of The Portable Beat Reader, 1992
  • The Beats with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, [poet, founder of City Lights Books, San Francisco] Cony Island of the Mind, Love in the Days of Rage, 1988
  • The Beats, with Allen Ginsberg, leading figure of the Beat Generation, Collected Poems 1947-80, 1985
  • The Beats, with Gary Snyder, environmental activist associated with the Beat poets, [Pulitzer, American Book Award] The Practice of the Wild, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, 1991
  • The Beats with novelist Robert Stone who describes his days with Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and their relationship with the Beat writers, 1992
  • Ann Beattie, [PEN/Malamud Award] Love Always, 1985
  • Ann Beattie, What was Mine, 1991
  • Ludwig Bemelmans, [Madeleine picture books for children] with widow Madeleine Bemelmans
  • Carl Bernstein, [journalist of Watergate fame] Loyalties, 1989
  • Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, with editor Linda Henry, 1989
  • Neil Bissondath, Trinidadian-Canadian author, A Casual Brutality, 1989
  • Ambrose Bierce, with Bierce scholar Jack Matthews of Ohio Uiversity debating Don Swaim on the myth and mind of Bierce, author of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," The Devil's Dictionary, 2010
  • Harry Blackstone Jr., Blackstone Book of Magic & Illusion, [introduction by Ray Bradbury] 1985
  • Ed Bliss, [distinguished CBS newswriter] author of   Now the News, 10-14-91
  • Lawrence Block, [Edgar Award] A Stab in the Dark. Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, [Block takes the interviewer through the process of his famous Write For Your Life seminars] 1984
  • Roy Blount, Jr., [humorist] What Men Don't Tell Women, 1984
  • Roy Blount, Jr. Not Exactly What I Had in Mind, 1985
  • Roy Blount, Jr. Now, Where Were We?, 1989
  • Roy Blount, Jr. First Hubby, 1990
  • Judy Blume, [A Library of Congress Living Legend, National Book Foundation medal for distinguished contribution to American letters] Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Smart Women, 1984
  • Judy Blume, Letters to Judy, 1986
  • Barrington Boardman, From Harding To Hiroshima, 5-23-88
  • Magda Bogin, [translator] illustrated edition of Don Quixote, 1991
  • Book of Kells, with Urs Duggelin, publisher of a facsimile edition of the medieval Irish masterpiece, 1990
  • Books -- Banning, with William Noble, author of Bookbanning in America: Who Bans Books? And Why? 1990
  • Books -- Collecting, with Jack Matthews, author of Collecting Rare Books for Pleasure and Profit, 1984
  • Books -- Cookbooks. with New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne, Southern Cooking, 1987
  • Books -- Cookbooks, with Linda Harvey, editor, Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, 1989
  • Books -- First Editions Library, [reprinting facsimile editions of classic books] with Henry Reath, publisher
  • Books -- The Modern Library, with Christopher Cerf, editor of new editions of The Modern Library, 1992
  • Books -- Mystery Fiction, with Jane Chelius, editor, Pocket Books, 1992
  • Books -- Paperbacks, with Ian Ballantine [paperback book pioneer] founder of Bantam, Ballantine Books, 1984
  • Books -- Paperbacks, with Kenneth Davis, Two-Bit Culture [history of paperback books] 1984
  • Books -- Paperbacks, with Ray Walters, New York Times columnist, Paperback Talk, 1986
  • Books -- Travel Guides, with Fodor Travel Guides editorial director Michael Spring, 1989
  • Books -- Readers Digest Condensed Books, with editor John Zinsser, 1986
  • Books -- The World Alamac, with editor Mark Hoffman, 1987
  • Book of the Month Club, wih Gloria Norris, chief editor, BMOC, and author of Looking for Bobby, 1985
  • Malcolm Bosse, The Warlord, Fire in Heaven, 1986
  • Malcolm Bosse, Mister Touch, 1991
  • Vance Bourjaily, [distinguished novelist, educator] The Great Fake Book, 1987
  • Margaret Bourke-White, [famed photo-journalist] with biographer Vickie Goldberg, 1986
  • Brian Boyd, biographer of Vladimir Nabokov, author of Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, 1991
  • William Boyd, A Good Man in Africa, 1985
  • T. Coraghessan Boyle, [O. Henry Award, PEN/Faulkner Award] Greasy Lake, 1985
  • T. Coraghessan Boyle, World's End, 1987
  • T. Coraghessan Boyle, East is East, 1990
  • Ray Bradbury, [National Medal of Arts, Nebula Award, Emmy (Halloween Tree) National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, special citation by Pulitzer Prize jury, Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association Grandmaster] Green Shadows, White Whale, 1992
  • Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 anniversary, 1993
  • Nathaniel Branden, [Ayn Rand acolyte] Judgment Day: My Years With Ayn Rand, 1989
  • Barbara Branden, [Ayn Rand acolyte, husband of Nathaniel] The Passion of Ayn Rand,1986
  • Jimmy Breslin, [New York Daily News and Newsday columnist] biographer of Damon Runyon, Damon Runyon, A Life, 1991
  • Simon Brett, [British crime writer] Dead Giveaway, 1986
  • Simon Brett, Mrs. Pargeter's Package, 1991
  • Andre Brink, [South African author] Writing in a State of Seige, 1985
  • Harold Brodkey, Stories in an Almost Classical Mode, 1988
  • Harold Brodkey, Runaway Soul [this novel became a work of legend, as it took 32 years to complete, creaselessly revised and delayed], 1992
  • Larry Brown, [Oxford, Mississippi, fireman turned author, winner of the Southern Book Award for Fiction] Dirty Work, 1989
  • Rita Mae Brown, Rubyfruit Jungle [early lesbian novel, rubyfruit a term used for female genitals], Bingo, 1988
  • Rosellen Brown, [O. Henry Prize] Civil Wars, Before and After, 1992
  • Susan Brownmiller, [feminist journalist, author, activist] Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape, Waverly Place [This novel is based on a sensational Greenwich Village murder case involving a fatally beaten child, Lisa Steinberg, and Hedda Nussbaum, the battered woman who eventually testified against the killer, lawyer Joel Steinberg], 1989
  • Edna Buchanan, Pulitzer Prize, Miami Herald crime reporter, Nobody Lives Forever, 1990
  • Art Buchwald, Pulitzer Prize, Washington Post columnist] While Reagan Slept, 1983
  • Christopher Buckley, [novelist, humorist, son of William F. Buckley] White House Mess, 1986
  • William F. Buckley, [National Review founder, the Blackford Oakes spy novels] Right Reason, 1985
  • Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange, Kingdom of the Wicked, 1985 [long form version unavailable]
  • Martyn Burke, [Canadian thriller writer] The Commissar's Report, 1984
  • Ben Lucian Burman, [author of the Catfish bend stories for children] Steamboat Round the Bend, 1983
  • William Burroughs, [major figure of the Beat Generation] Place of Dead Roads, 1984
  • William Burroughs, [interviewed in an abandoned YMCA building on The Bowery called "The Bunker"] Junky, Queer, 1985
  • Frederick Busch, PEN/Malamud Award, Closing Arguments, 1991
  • John Buskina, Alfred Gingold, [humorists] co-authors of Snooze, a New Yorker parody, 1986
  • Robert Olen Butler, [Pulitzer Prize] On Distant Ground, 1985
  • Christopher Byron, The Fanciest Dive, 1986

    (C)

  • Ethan Canin, Emperor of the Air, 1988
  • Mary Cantwell, [journalist, memorist] American Girl, 1992
  • Robert Caro, [Pulitzer Prize] The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, 1974 [audio currently unavailable]
  • Truman Capote, with Gerald Clarke, Capote biographer, 1988
  • Truman Capote, with Lawrence Grobel, author of Conversations with Capote, 1985
  • Truman Capote, Capote Memorial Service, Shubert Theater, New York, Sep. 25, 1984
  • Truman Capote, with Gordon Lish, author of Dear Mr. Capote, a tour de force in which a psychopath who claims to have murdered 22 woman asks Truman Capote to write his story, 1983
  • Philip Caputo, A Rumor of War, Indian Country, 1987
  • James Carroll, [priest turned novelist] Prince of Peace, 1986
  • Jim Carroll, [poet, rock musician] The Book of Nods, 1986
  • Lewis Carroll, with Edward Guiliano, editor of essays on Lewis Carroll, A Celebration
  • Raymond Carver, Cathedral, 1983
  • Raymond Carver, Ultramarine, 1986
  • Raymond Carver, with widow Tess Gallagher, Carver Country [words by Raymond Carver], 1990
  • John Casey, [National Book Award] Spartina, 1990
  • William Caunitz, [New York City cop turned crime writer] Exceptional Clearance, 1991
  • Censorship, with Edward de Grazia, [renowned First Amendment attorney] author of Girls Lean Back Everywhere, 1992
  • Censorship, with Barney Rossett, Grove Press. Courageously fought censorship in America by publishing D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and William Burrough's Naked Lunch -- and beat the censors.
  • Christopher Cerf, Pentagon Catalog, [written with Henry Beard] 1986
  • Christopher Cerf, Free to Be A Family, 1988
  • Christopher Cerf, The Modern Library, 1992
  • Miguel Cervantesl, Don Quixote, illustrated edition translated by Magda Bogin, 1991
  • Charlotte Chandler, [biographer of Groucho Marx and many others] The Ultimate Seduction, 1984
  • Ann Charters, Portable Beat Reader, 1992
  • Samuel Charters, [music historian] Jelly Roll Morton's Last Night at the Jungle Inn, 1984
  • Charles Dickens, with Peter Ackroyd, author of Dickens, 1991
  • Thomas Chastain, [crime writer] Who Killed the Robins Family? 1986
  • Benjamin Cheever, [son of John Cheever]The Plagiarist, 1992
  • John Cheever, Don Swaim with two on-air obituary reports on Cheever's death, 1982
  • John Cheever, with daughter Susan on John Cheever & writing, 1985
  • Susan Cheever, Home Before Dark, 1984
  • Susan Cheever, Treetops, 1991
  • Jane Chelius, [Mystery Books] editor Pocket Books, 1992
  • Children's Book of the Month Club with publisher David Allender, 1991
  • Mark Childress, World Made of Fire, 1984
  • Mark Childress, V for Victor, 1990
  • Carolyn Chute, Beans of Egypt, Maine 1986
  • Carolyn Chute, Letourneau's Used Auto Parts 1988
  • Agatha Christie, with biographer Janet Morgan, 1985
  • Sandra Cisneros, [National Medal of Arts, American Book Award] The House on Mango Street, Woman Hollering Creek, 1991
  • Tom Clancy, Hunt for Red October, 1984
  • Tom Clancy, Red Storm Rising, 1986
  • Mary Higgins Clark, [Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America] Stillwatch, 1984
  • Mary Higgins Clark, Weep No More My Lady, 1987
  • Mary Higgins Clark, While My Pretty One Sleeps, 1989
  • Gerald Clarke, biographer of Truman Capote, 1988
  • James Clavell, [Australian-born screenwriter, novelist] Tai-Pan, Shogun, Whirlwind, [screenplay for the original film version of The Fly] 1986
  • Cliff Notes - Parody, from Spy magazine, author Paul Simms satirizes so called "Brat Pack" novels by Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz, Jill Eisenstadt, etc., 1989
  • Annie Cohen-Solal, biographer of Jean Paul Sartre, A Life, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Classics Illustrated with Rick Obadiah, publisher, Classics Illustrated, [idle chitchat about radio vs TV] comic books, 1990
  • Lester Cole, [screenwriter, one of the blacklisted Hollywood Ten], Hollywood Red, 1982
  • Larry Collins, Fall From Grace, 1985
  • Richard Condon, The Manchurian Candidate, Prizzi's Honor, 1982
  • Richard Condon, Trembling Upon Rome, 1986
  • Richard Condon, Emperor of America, 1990
  • Bernard Connors, [Paris Review publisher] Dancehall, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Greg Constantine, [artist] Vincent Van Gogh Visits New York, 1983
  • Pat Conroy, The Great Santini, Prince of Tides, 1986
  • Robin Cook, [medical thriller writer] Godplayer, 1983
  • Robin Cook, Outbreak, 1987
  • Robert Coover, Gerald's Party, 1986
  • Aaron Copland with Copland biographer Vivian Perliss, Copland 1900 Through 1932 & Copland Since 1943, 1990
  • Avery Corman, Kramer vs. Kramer, Fifty, 1987
  • Gay Courter, Code Ezra, 1986
  • Robert Creeley, [associated with the Black Mountain Poets, Bollingen Prize, New York State Poet laureate] The Collected Prose, 1984
  • Harry Crews, [cult figure associated with darkly comic novels, known for his quote: "If you want to write about all sweetness and light and that stuff, go get a job at Hallmark."] The Knockout Artist, Body, 1990
  • Michael Crichton, Electronic Life [early book on the practicality of personal computers] 1983
  • Michael Crichton, Sphere, 1987
  • Michael Crichton, Travels, 1988
  • Michael Crichton, Rising Sun, 1992
  • Michael Cunningham, [Pulitzer Prize, PEN/Faulkner Award] Home at the End of the World, The Hours, 1991
  • The Curious George stories, [created for children by H.A. and Margaret Rey] with producer-director Alan Shalleck, 1984
  • Ellen Currie, Available Light, [praised first novel] 1986
  • Richard Curtis, [literary agent who tells all] Beyond the Best Seller, 1989
  • Clive Cussler, [Dirk Pitt thrillers] Cyclops, 1986

    (D)

  • Janet Dailey, [prolific romance novelist] Calder Born, Calder Bred, 1985
  • Tom Dardas, The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer, 1991
  • Robertson Davies, [First Canadian author named as Honorary Member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters] What's Bred in the Bone, Lyre of Orpheus, 1989
  • Richard Harding Davis, [pioneering journalist] with biographer Athur Lubow, author of The Reporter Who Would Be King, 1992
  • John Dean, [Nixon Watergate figure] author of Lost Honor, 1982
  • Edward de Grazia, [renowned First Amendment attorney] author of Girls Lean Back Everywhere, 1992
  • Nelson Demille, [president of the Mystery Writers of America] Word of Honor, 1985
  • Robert DeMott, [John Steinbeck scholar] editor of Working Days: The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath, 1989
  • Tomie DePaola, [writer, illustrator of children's books, Children's Literature Legacy Award] Tomie dePaola's Mother Goose, 1987
  • James Dickey, Eighteenth U.S. Poet Laureate, National Book Award, [CBS-FM Crosstalk broadcast], 1981
  • James Dickey, nature of poetry, 1983
  • James Dickey, 1986 [rare phone interview] on Dickey's desire to fly in space]
  • James Dickey, Deliverance, Alnilam, 1987
  • Charles Dickens, with biographer Peter Ackroyd, author of Dickens, 1991
  • Joan Didion, [National Book Award, National Medal of Arts] The White Album, Play It as It Lays, Miami, 1987
  • Walt Disney. with Leonard Mosley, biographer, Disney's World, 1985
  • E. L. Doctorow, [immediately following his winning the American Book Award for World's Fair], 1986
  • Ivan Doig, This House of Sky, Dancing at the Rascal Fair, 1987
  • J. P. Donleavy, The Ginger Man, Are You Listening Rabbi Löw? 1988
  • Ariel Dorfman, [Chilean-American novelist, playwright] Last Waltz in Santiago, 1988
  • Lou Dorfsman, [celebrated graphic designer] author of Dorfsman & CBS, 1987
  • Michael Dorris, [married to Louise Erdrich] The Broken Chord, 1989
  • Michael Dorris, Morning Girl, 1992
  • Margaret Drabble, A Natural Curiosity, 1989
  • Bruce Duffy, [debut author] The World as I Found It, 1987
  • Urs Duggelin, [publisher] facsimile edition of the Irish medieval masterpiece The Book of Kells, 1990
  • David Douglas Duncan, [famed photojournalist] collaborates with amateur photographer George Forss on New York/New York, 1984
  • Katherine Dunn, [literary cult figure] Geek Love, 1989 [long form version unavailable]
  • John Gregory Dunne, [screenwriter, novelist, married to Joan Didion] The Red White and Blue, True Confessions, 1988 [long form version unavailable]

    (E)

  • Richard Eberhart, [Pulitzer Prize-winning poet] New and Selected Poems, 1980
  • Stanley Elkin, The Magic Kingdom, 1985
  • Stanley Elkin, [after being received as a New York Public Library Literary lion], The Rabbi of Lud, 1987
  • Stanley Elkin, The MacGuffin1991
  • Aaron Elkins, [Edgar Award] Icy Clutches, 1990 [long form version unavailable]
  • Bret Easton Ellis, [so-called literary Brat Pack member] Less Than Zero, American Psycho, 1986
  • James Ellroy, [Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America] The Big Nowhere, L.A. Confidential, The Black Dahlia, 1987
  • James Ellroy, White Heat, 1992
  • Amos Elon, [Israeli journalist] author of The Israelis, 1985
  • Jason Epstein, [publisher, editorial director of Random House] The Reader's Catalog, 1989
  • Paul Erdman, [financial thriller writer] The Panic of 89, 1987
  • Harold Evans, [journalist, editor, publisher, The Sunday Times (UK)] Good Times, Bad Times, 1985

    (F)

  • Howard Fast, [Defiant ex-Communist Party member imprisoned for refusing to name names to the House Un-American Activities Committee & blacklisted] The Outsider, Spartacus, 1984
  • Howard Fast, The Immigrant's Daughter, 1985
  • Howard Fast, Being Red, 1990
  • Jonathan Fast, [son of Howard Fast] Golden Fire, 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Jonathan Fast, The Jade Stalk, 1988 [long form version unavailable]
  • John Henry Faulk, [CBS radio personality, victim of McCarthy-era blacklist] Fear on Trial, [performer on the cornball TV comedy show "Hee Haw"] 1983
  • Irvin Faust, Year of the Hot Jock, 1985
  • Charles Fecher, [editor] The Diary of H. L. Mencken, 1989
  • Mike Feder, New York Son, 1989 [long form version unavailable]
  • Peter Feibleman, author of Lilly: Reminiscences of Lillian Hellman, [Feibleman was the playwright's companion in the latter years of her life] 1984
  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti, [poet, founder of City Lights Books, San Francisco] Cony Island of the Mind, Love in the Days of Rage, 1988
  • Elliot Figman, [editor] Poets & Writers magazine, 1990
  • First Editions Library [reprinting facsimile editions of classic books] with Henry Reath, publisher
  • Frances Fitzgerald, [Pulitzer Prize] Cities on a Hill, 1986
  • Fannie Flagg, [actress, comedian, author] Fried Green Tomatoes, 1987
  • Thomas Fleming, [historian, novelist] Spoils of War, 1987
  • James Thomas Flexner, author of definitive, multi-volume biography of George Washington, 1982
  • Stuart Flexner, [editor] Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 1987
  • Maria Flook, Family Night, 1993
  • Arthur Flowers, De Mojo Blues, [in studio Flowers plays the blues harp -- harmonica -- he uses to accompany the story. 1986
  • Ken Follet, [British author of thrillers, Grand Master Mystery Writers of America] Eye of the Needle, On Wings of Eagles, 1983
  • Frederick Forsyth, [British Crime Writers Association winner of the Cartier Diamond Dagger award] Day of the Jackal. The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, 1984
  • Fodor Travel Guides, with editorial director Michael Spring, 1989
  • Forgeries, Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders, by Linda Sillitoe, staff writer for the Deseret News, [notorious murdery-forgery case involving Mark Hoffman, forger of documents related to Mormon history, who killed two people in bomb blasts to cover up his deeds] 1988
  • John Fowles, [British novelist of international repute] The Collector, The French Lieutenant's Woman, A Maggot, 1985
  • Claire Francis, Night Sky, 1983
  • Dick Francis, Twice Shy, 1983
  • Dick Francis, The Danger, 1984
  • Dick Francis, Break In, 1986
  • Dick Francis, The Edge, 1989
  • Antonia Fraser, [Lady Antonia Margaret Caroline Fraser, widow of Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter] The Weaker Vessel, 1984 [long form version unavailable]
  • Ian Frazier, [New Yorker staff writer] Great Plains, 1989
  • Cynthia Freeman, Illusions of Love, 1985 [long form version unavailable]
  • Stan Freberg, [radio humorist] It Only Hurts When I Laugh, 1989
  • Bruce Jay Friedman, Tokyo Woes, 1985
  • Fred Friendly [interviewed with Gil Gross], CBS News President, Minnesota Rag,1981
  • Lewis Burke Frumkes, How to Raise Your I.Q. by Eating Gifted Children, 1983
  • Carlos Fuentes, [Mexican National Prize for Arts and Sciences, National Order of Merit of France] The Old Gringo, The Buried Mirror, 1992
  • Paul Fussell, [literary historian, winner of the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award] The Great War and Modern Memory, Class, 1983

    (G)

  • Mary Gaitskill, Two Girls Fat and Thin, 1991
  • Tess Gallagher, [poet, married to Raymond Carver] The Lover of Horses, 1986
  • Tess Gallagher, Carver Country (by Raymond Carver), 1990
  • Norman Garbo, Gaynor's Passion, 1985
  • John Gardner (US), [interviewed with Gil Gross] Grendel, On Moral Fiction 1981
  • John Gardner (UK), Role of Honor (James Bond novel) 1984
  • John Gardner (UK), The Secret Generations, 1985
  • Art Garfunkel, [of msical duo Simon & Garfunkel] Still Water (poems), 1989
  • William Gass, Habitations of the Word, 1985
  • Jean Louis Gassee, [Apple Computer development chief] The Third Apple, [Personal Computers & the Cultural Revolution] 1984
  • David Gates, [novelist, senior writer, editor Newsweek] Jernigan, 1991
  • Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Our Nig by Harriet E. Wilson [First published novel by a black in U.S. 1857] 1983 [NOTE: WCBS Reporter Jane Tillman Irving sat in on this interview]
  • T. Gertler, Elbowing the Seducer [Trudy Gertler, author of devastating roman a clef about New York's publishing world, 1984
  • Paul Gervais, [visual artist, writer] Extraordinary People, 1992
  • Brendan Gill, [New Yorker writer] biographer of Frank Lloyd Wright, Many Masks, 1987
  • Allen Ginsberg,[leading figure of the Beat Generation] Collected Poems 1947-80, 1985
  • Robert Giroux, [publisher, Farrar Straus Giroux] on death of Bernard Malamud, 1986
  • Gail Godwin, [Southern-born writer of fiction, autobiography] The Finishing School, 1985
  • Gail Godwin, A Southern Family, 1987
  • Gail Godwin, Father Melancholy's Daughter, 1991
  • Herbert Gold, [Sherwood Anderson Prize for Fiction] Fathers, 1984
  • Herbert Gold, A Girl of Forty, 1986
  • Vicki Goldberg, The Power of Photography: How Photographs Changed Our Lives, 1992
  • Gunter Grass, [Nobel Prize] The Call of the Toad, 1992
  • Father Andrew Greeley, [priest-sociologist, known for his steamy, popular novels] The Cardinal Sins, Lord of the Dance, 1984
  • Lester Goran, [Florida-based novelist, educator] Mrs. Beautiful, 1986
  • Lois Gordon, American Chronicle 1920-1989, 1990
  • Ralph Graves, [Managing Editor of Life, Editorial Director of Time] Share of Honor, 1989
  • Gerald Green, The Last Angry Man, To Brooklyn with Love, Not in Vain, 1984
  • Dan Greenburg, Suzanne O'Malley, How to Avoid Love and Marriage, 1983
  • Dan Greenburg, Confessions of a Pregnant Father, 1986
  • Dan Greenburg, The Nanny, 1987
  • Bob Greene, [Chicago Tribune columnist] Cheeseburgers, 1985
  • Graham Greene, with biographer Norman Sherry, Life of Graham Greene Vol. I 1904-1939, 1989
  • Lewis Grizzard, [humor columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution] My Daddy Was a Pistol and I'm a Son of a Gun, 1986
  • Lewis Grizzard, When My Love Returns from the Ladies Room, Will I Be Too Old to Care, 1987
  • Martin Gross [conservative journalist, opponent of big government] The Red President, 1987
  • Edward Guiliano, [editor] essays on Lewis Carroll, A Celebration, 1982
  • Sir Alec Guinness, [famed actor] Blessings in Diguise, a memoir, 1986
  • Allan Gurganus, [O. Henry Award, Lambda Literary Award] Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, 1989

    (H)

  • Arthur Hailey, [British-Canadian author of bestsellers] Airport, Hotel, The Evening News, 1990
  • Donald Hall, [14th U.S. Poet Laureate] Here at Eagle Pond 1991 [long form version unavailable]
  • Pete Hamill, [George Polk Award-winning journalist, editor New York Daily News, Post] Tokyo Sketches, 1993
  • Ian Hamilton, [British poet, biographer, critic] Robert Lowell: A Biography, 1982
  • Ian Hamilton, In Search of J. D. Salinger, 1988
  • Dean Hammond, [publisher, mapmaker] Hammond maps, 1992
  • Barry Hannah, Bats Out of Hell, 1993
  • Ron Hansen, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 1983
  • Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew books, with editor Nancy Axelrod, 1987
  • John Hartford, [composer, performer] Steamboat in a Cornfield [performs his own songs including "Gentle on My Mind," live in studio], 1986
  • Andrew Harvey, [British-born writer of mysticism] A Journey in Ladakh, 1983
  • Andrew Harvey, One Last Mirror, 1985
  • Andrew Harvey, The Web, 1987
  • William Least Heat-Moon, [said to be of Osage ancestry] Blue Highways, 1983
  • William Least Heat-Moon, aftermath of Blue Highways, 1984
  • William Least Heat-Moon, PrairyErth, 1991
  • Ernest Hebert, [New Hampshire Darby novel series] Whisper My Name, 1985
  • Joseph Heller, Catch 22, God Knows,1984
  • Joseph Heller, [with Speed Vogel] No Laughing Matter, 1986
  • Hellman Lillian, with Peter Feibleman, author of Lilly: Reminiscences of Lillian Hellman [Feibleman was the playwright's companion in the latter years of her life] 1984
  • Lillian Hellman , with biographer William Wright, author of Lillian Hellman, the Image, the Woman, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Mark Helprin, Winter's Tale, 1983
  • Mark Helprin, [responds to a New York Times article casting doubt on Helprin's veracity], Soldier of the Great War, 1991
  • Ernest Hemingway, with biographer A. E. Hotchner, who describes his 14-year relationship with Hemingway], Choice People, 1984
  • Ernest Hemingway, with with Tom Jencks of Scribner's, editor of Hemingway's final major book, The Garden of Eden, 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Ernest Hemingway, with publisher Charles Scribner Jr. on the issuance of new Hemingway postage stamp, 1989
  • Jack Hemingway, [son of Ernest Hemingway], Misadventures of a Fly Fisherman, 1986
  • Linda Henry, [editor] Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook, 1989
  • Nat Hentoff, [Village Voice columnist, jazz critic] Boston Boy, 1986
  • Michael Herr, [war correspondent, Esquire] Dispatches, Walter Winchell, [co-wrote screenplay for Full Metal Jacket] 1990
  • Seymour Hersh, [Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, George Polk Award] Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • William Heyen, [poet, educator] The Swastika Poems, Long Island Light, Erika, 1984
  • Carl Hiaasen, [columnist, Miami Herald] Trap Line, 1982 [long form version unavailable]
  • Jack Higgins, British-born bestselling writer of thrillers [references to Elizabeth Taylor's new perfume line], The Eagle Has Landed, Night of the Fox, 1987
  • Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Found in the Street, 1987
  • Oscar Hijuelos, [first Hispanic to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction] Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, 1990
  • Carol Hill, Eleven Million Mile High Dancer, 1985
  • Tony Hillerman, Edgar Award, famed for his Navajo Tribal Police crime novels, A Thief of Time, 1988
  • S. E. Hinson, noted for her popular young adult novels, The Outsiders, 1987
  • Alfred Hitchcock, with Donald Spoto, author of Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Russell Hoban, [John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Science Fiction] Riddley Walker, The Medusa Frequency, 1987
  • Alice Hoffman, At Risk, 1988, [long form version unavailable]
  • Mary Hood, And Venus is Blue, 1987
  • Christopher Hope, [South African novelist and poet] A Separate Development, 1982
  • A. E. Hotchner, [biographer and friend of Ernest Hemingway], Choice People, 1984
  • John Houseman, [actor, director, memorist, associated with Orson Welles, Prof. Kingsfield in the film The Paper Chase] Final Dress, 1983
  • Robert Houston, [director of MFA Program at the University of Arizona] The Nation Thief, 1984
  • Maureen Howard, [National Book Critics Circle Award] Grace Abounding, 1982
  • Maureen Howard, Expensive Habits, 1986
  • Langston Hughes, with biographer Arnold Rampersad, Life of Langston Hughes, Volume I, 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Langston Hughes, with biographer Arnold Rampersad, Life of Langston Hughes, Volume II, 1989
  • The Howard Hughes Hoax, with Clifford Irving Angel of Zen, [Irving served 17 months in prison for accepting $750,000 from McGraw-Hill for what turned out to be a phony co-written autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes.] 1984
  • Robert Hughes, [Australian-born art critic, writer, and documentary producer, a New York Public Library Literary Lion]The Fatal Shore, 1987
  • Josephine Humphreys, [Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award], Rich in Love, The Fireman's Fair, 1991 [long form version unavailable]
  • Evan Hunter [Ed McBain], [Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America] The Blackboard Jungle, Lizzie, 1984
  • Evan Hunter [Ed McBain], [creator, the 87th Precinct crime series] Mary, Mary, [wrote screenplay for Hitchcock film The Birds] 1993

    (I)

  • John Irving, World According to Garp, [Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay]. Cider House Rules, 1985
  • John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany, 1989
  • Clifford Irving, [the Howard Hughes hoax] Angel of Zen, [Irving served 17 months in prison for accepting $750,000 from McGraw-Hill for what turned out to be a phony co-written autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes.] 1984
  • Clifford Irving, Daddy's Girl, 1988
  • Clifford Irving, Trial, 1990
  • Susan Isaacs, Shining Through, Magic Hour, 1991
  • Kazuo Ishiguro, [Nobel Prize, Booker Prize] The Remains of the Day, 1990

    (J)

  • Shirley Jackson, with biographer Judy Oppenheimer, Private Demons, 1988
  • P. D. James, [Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award] A Taste for Death, 1986
  • P. D. James, Devices and Desires, 1990
  • P. D. James, Children of Men [cites Stephen Vincent Benet poem "Nighmare for Future Reference"], 1993
  • Tama Janowitz, [so-called literary Brat Pack member] Cannibal in Manhattan, 1987
  • Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, [Booker Prize winning novelist, screenwriter associated with the Merchant/Ivory films, In Search of Love and Beauty, 1993
  • Leroy Jones, [Amiri Baraka], poet, activist, 1984
  • James Jones, [National Book Award] From Here to Eternity, WW II, 1975
  • Kaylee Jones, As Soon As It Rains, [daughter of James Jones] 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Erica Jong, Fear of Flying, Parachutes & Kisses, 1985
  • Erica Jong, Any Woman's Blues, 1990
  • Erica Jong, Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller, 1993
  • Ward Just, [master of the political novel] Jack Gance, 1989
  • Ward Just, The Translator, 1991

    (K)

  • Stuart Kaminsky, [Edgar Award] A Cold Red Sunrise.1989
  • Franz Kafka, with biographer Frederick Karl, Franz Kafka: Representative Man, 1991
  • Justin Kaplan [two National Book Awards, Pulitzer Prize], biographer of Mark Twain, Lincoln Steffens, and Walt Whitman, editor of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 1993
  • Elia Kazan, [Academy Award winning director of On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire, East of Eden], author of America America, The Arrangement, 1985
  • Frances Kazan, [wife of Elia Kazan] Good Night, Little Sister, 1986
  • Alfred Kazin, [Truman Capote Lifetime Achievement Award in Literary Criticism] On Native Grounds, A Walker in the City, An American Procession, 1984
  • Terry Kay, Appalachian Heritage Writers Award, Dark Thirty, [rare telephone interview] 1984
  • Garrison Keillor, [creator of the PRI broadcast A Prairie Home Companion]. Happy to be Here, 1983
  • Garrison Keillor, Lake Wobegon Days, 1985
  • Jonathan Kellerman, When the Bough Breaks, 1985
  • Thomas Keneally, [Booker Prize] To Asmara, 1989
  • Thomas Keneally, Flying Hero Class, 1991
  • Thomas Keneally, Woman of the Inner Sea, 1993
  • William Kennedy, [Pulitzer Prize]Ironweed, The Ink Truck, 1984
  • William Kennedy, [with son Brendan] Charlie Malarkey and the Belly-Button Machine, 1986
  • William Kennedy, Quinn's Book, 1988
  • Ken Kesey, with novelist Robert Stone who describes his days as one of Kesey's Merry Pranksters, 1992
  • Tracy Kidder, [Pulitzer Prize] Soul of a New Machine, House, 1985
  • Penn Kimball, distinguished Columbia University journalism professor who found he'd been named a national security risk for 30 years and never knew it, The File, 1984 [long form version unavailable]
  • Jamaica Kincaid, [Antigua-born, novelist, essayist, New Yorker staff writer], Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, 1991
  • Stephen King, with Peter Straub, who describes how he and King worked together to co-author The Talisman , 1984
  • Thomas King, [American-Canadian writer focusing on North America's indigenous peoples] Green Grass, Running Water, 1993
  • Barbara Kingsolver, PEN/Faulkner Award, Animal Dreams, 1990
  • Maxine Hong Kingston, Tripmaster Monkey, 1989
  • Herb Klein, [Nixon White House Communications Director] Making It Perfectly Clear, 1980 [CBS-FM Crosstalk broadcast]
  • K. G. X. Konkel, [Toronto police sergeant] Glorious East Wind, 1989
  • Michael Korda, [Simon & Schuster editor-in-chief] Queenie, 1985
  • Jerzy Kosinski, [National Book Award] The Hermit of 69th Street, 1988
  • William Kotzwinkle, [World Fantasy Award, screenwriter, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial], The Book of Love, [interview references the Persian Gulf War]1991
  • Jonathan Kozol, [National Book Award] Illiterate America, 1985
  • Krazy Kat, The Comic Art of George Herriman [with editor Patrick McDonald] 1986
  • Jill Krementz, [photojournalist, wife of Kurt Vonnegut], How It Feels to Fight for Your Life, 1989
  • Charles Kuralt, [CBS News Correspondent] On the Road with Charles Kuralt, 1985
  • Harvey Kurtzman, [creator of Mad magazine] My Life as a Cartoonist, 1990

    (L)

  • John Lahr, [New Yorker critic, son of legendary comedian Bert Lahr] Automatic Vaudville, 1984
  • Ring Lardner, Jr., [blacklisted screenwriter, one of the Hollywood Ten, Lardner was imprisoned for defying the House Un-American Activites Committee] All for Love, 1985
  • James Laughlin, [publisher of New Directions books, poet] Selected Poems, 1986
  • David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, Equal Affections, 1989
  • Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, No Marble Angels, 1986
  • Jim Lehrer [PBS news anchor] Kick the Can, 1988
  • Franklin Allen Leib, Fire Arrow, 1988
  • Brad Leithauser, [poet, novelist] Equal Distance, 1985
  • Elmore Leonard, [Edgar, National Book awards] Glitz, Dutch Treat, 1985
  • Elmore Leonard, Touch, 1987
  • Doris Lessing, [Nobel Prize]The Fifth Chilld, 1988
  • Doris Lessing, African Laughter, The Real Thing, 1992
  • Gordon Lish, [celebrated Esquire, Knopf editor whose bare-bones editing of the early Raymond Carver ignited a contretemps] Dear Mr. Capote, 1983
  • Gordon Lish, Peru, 1986
  • Gordon Lish, Mourner at the Door, 1988
  • Literacy, Jonathan Kozol, [National Book Award] Illiterate America, 1985
  • Literacy, Eli Zal, executive director, Literary Volunteers, New York City, New Writers Voices, 1989
  • Penelope Lively, [Booker Prize] Moon Tiger, 1988
  • Barry Lopez, [American Book Award] Arctic Dreams, Field Notes, 1989
  • Robert Lowell, with biographer Ian Hamilton, author of Robert Lowell: A Biography, 1982
  • Robert Lowell, with Jonathan Raban, editor of an important UK edition of Robert Lowell's poetry. [Also lengthy chitchat about publishing & Raban's books Old Glory, Foreign Land] 1985
  • Arthur Lubow, biographer of pioneering journalist Richard Harding Davis, The Reporter Who Would Be King, 1992
  • Robert Ludlum, [creator of the Jason Bourne stories) The Aquitaine Progression, 1984
  • Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Supremacy, 1986
  • Alison Lurie, [Pulitzer Prize] [catty gossip about Erica Jong] Foreign Affairs, 1984
  • Alison Lurie, Don't Tell the Grown-ups: Subversive Children's Literature, 1990

    (M)

  • Peter Maas, [Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime book], Serpico, The Valachi Papers, Father and Son, 1989 [long form version unavailable]
  • Robert MacNeil, [PBS news anchor] Wordstruck, 1989
  • Robert MacNeil, [PBS news anchor] Burden of Desire, 1992
  • Mad magazine, with creator Harvey Kurtzman, My Life as a Cartoonist, 1990
  • Jeb Stuart Magruder, [Nixon Watergate figure] An American Life: One Man's Road to Watergate, 1975 [CBS-FM Crosstalk]
  • Gigi Mahon, The Last Days of the New Yorker, [Behind the scenes account of a magazine in flux] 1989
  • Valerie Martin, Mary Reilly, [Mary Reilly, filmed with John Malkovich, retells Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from a servant's point of view.] 1990
  • Norman Mailer, [Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award] The Naked and the Dead, Harlot's Ghost, 1991
  • Norman Mailer, with biographer Hillary Mills, 1983
  • Bernard Malamud, with Robert Giroux, publisher, Farrar Straus Giroux, on Malamud's death, 1986
  • Thomas Mallon, [literary plagiarism] Stolen Words, 1989
  • William Manchester, Death of a President, Goodbye Darkness, 1980
  • Richard Marek, [publisher, editor-in-chief of Dutton] Works of Genius, 1988
  • Georgi Markov, dissident Bulgarian writer assassinated in London by a poisoned pellet. English translation of The Truth That Killed, [with widow Annabel Markov] 1984
  • Fabienne Marsh, Long Distances, 1988
  • Paule Marshall, Daughters, 1991
  • Bobby Ann Mason, [PEN/Hemingway Award] In Country, 1985
  • Bobbie Ann Mason, Love Life, 1989
  • Jack Matthews, Hanger Stout Awake, Collecting Rare Books for Pleasure and Profit, 1984
  • Jack Matthews, Ohio Uiversity scholar, debating Don Swaim on the myth and mind of Ambrose Bierce, author of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," The Devil's Dictionary, 2010
  • Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City, Significant Others, 1987
  • Joyce Maynard, To Die For, [touches on her relationship with J.D. Salinger] 1992
  • Ed McBain [Evan Hunter], [Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America] The Blackboard Jungle, Lizzie, 1984
  • Ed McBain [Evan Hunter], [creator of the 87th Precinct crime series] Mary, Mary, [wrote screenplay for Hitchcock film The Birds] 1993
  • Anne McCaffrey, [popular science-fiction writer, creator of the Pern books] The Lady, 1988
  • Donald McCaig, Nop's Trials, 1984
  • Jill McCorkle, Ferris Beach, 1990
  • Robert McCrumm, editorial director of British publisher Faber and Faber, The Story of English, book companion to the PBS broadcast of the same name, [development of the English mother tongue] 1990 [long form version unavailable]
  • Alice McDermott, A Bigamist's Daughter, That Night, 1988
  • Gregory McDonald, [Fletch mystery series] Flynn's In, 1984
  • Gregory McDonald, A World Too Wide, 1987
  • Edmund McDowell, New York Times publishing reporter, The Lost World, 1989 [long form version unavailable]
  • Rider McDowell, The Mercy Man, 1987
  • Ian McEwan, [Booker Prize] The Innocent, 1990
  • Ian McEwan, Black Dogs, 1992
  • Patrick McDonnell,, editor of Krazy Kat: The Comic Art of George Herriman, 1986
  • Cyra McFadden, Rain or Shine, 1986
  • Dennis McFarland, The Music Room, 1991
  • Thomas McGuane, To Skin a Cat, 1986
  • Patrick McGrath, [horror writer] Spider, 1991
  • Jay McInerney, [so-called literary Brat Pack member] Story of My Life, 1988 [long form version unavailable]
  • Rod McKuen, [poet and musician] Intervals, 1986
  • Thomas McMahon, Loving Little Egypt, 1987
  • Ved Mehta, [Blind New Yorker writer] Sound-Shadows of the New World, 1986
  • Terry Melton, [Director, Western States Arts Federation] Western States Book Awards, 1988
  • H. L. Mencken, with Charles Fecher, editor of The Diary of H. L. Mencken, 1989
  • H. L. Mencken, The American Mercury, facsimile edition of the most influential magazine of the 1920s], with editor Richard Russell, 1984
  • H. L. Mencken,with Karl Shapiro, Pulitizer Prize-winning poet, talks, in part, about his connection with Mencken, The Younger Son, 1988
  • James A. Michener, [Pulitzer Prize] Tales of the South Pacific, Six Days in Havana, Caribbean, 1989
  • Diane Wood Middlebrook, author of a biography of Ann Sexton, Ann Sexton, 1991
  • Henry Miller, with Erica Jong, author of Devil at Large: Erica Jong on Henry Miller, 1993
  • JP Miller, [reference to Clifford Irving of the Howard Hughes literary hoax] Days of Wine and Roses, The Skook,, 1985
  • Sue Miller, Family Pictures, 1990
  • Susan Minot, Folly, 1992
  • Greg Mitchell, The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's E.P.I.C. Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics, 1992
  • Herbert Mitgang, [distinguished New York Times journalist] Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors, 1988
  • Paul Monette, Afterlife, 1990
  • Paul Monette, Halfway Home, 1991
  • Ted Mooney, Easy Travel to Other Planets, Traffic and Laughter, 1990
  • Brian Moore, [Belfast born novelist, screenwriter] Black Robe, Lies of Silence, 1990
  • Inge Morath, [photographer, wife of playwright Arthur Miller] Portraits, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Janet Morgan, biographer of Agatha Christie. 1985 [long form version unavailable]
  • Mary Morris, The Bus of Dreams, 1985
  • Mary Morris, Nothing to Declare, 1988
  • Toni Morrison, [Nobel Prize] Beloved, 1987
  • Bradford Morrow, editor of Conjunctions, The Amanac Branch, 1991
  • John Mortimer, [creator of the Rumpole of the Bailey TV series] Dunster, 1987
  • Brian Morton, Americans in Paris, the American expatriate experience in France, 1984
  • Brian Morton, Americans in London, the American expatriate experience in England,1986
  • Barry Moser, [illustrator, founder of the Pennyroyal Press ] 100th anniversary edition of Huckleberry Flynn, 1985
  • Barry Moser, [illustrator, founder of the Pennyroyal Press ] new edition of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1990
  • Robert Moses, [powerful New York official known as "The Master Builder"] Public Works: A Dangerous Pofession, 1973 [NOTE: this sometimes profane interview with the touchy Moses touches upon long-ago New York politics that may be unfamiliar today]
  • Robert Moses, with Pulitzer Prize Robert Caro, author of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, 1974 [audio currently unavailable]
  • Leonard Mosley, biographer of Walt Disney, Disney's World, 1985
  • Robert Moss, [reference to former co-writer Arnaud de Borchgrave] Moscow Rules, 1985
  • Robert Moss, Carnival of Spies, 1987
  • William Murray, [New Yorker staff writer, known for a series of mystery novels set in the horse racing world] Tip on a Dead Crab, 1984
  • William Murray, Hard Knocker's Luck, 1985
  • Edward R. Murrow, [pioneering CBS newsman] with biographer A.M. Sperber, Edward R. Murrow, His Life and Times, 1986
  • Mystery Books, with Jane Chelius, editor, Pocket Books, 1992

    (N)

  • Vladimir Nabokov, with Brian Boyd, Nabokov biographer, Vladimir Nabokov: The Russian Years, Vladimir Nabokov: The American Years, 1991
  • Dimitri Nabokov, Vladimir's son, translator of The Enchanter, a novella written by Vladimir in 1939, 1986
  • Nancy Drew Books, with Nancy Axelrod, editor, the classic Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys books, 1987
  • National Writers Union with Jonathan Tasini, president, [trade union for freelance and contract writers, including journalists, book and short story authors, business and technical writers, and poets] 1992
  • David Nevin, historical novelist, Dream West, [epic tale of John Charles Fremont's role in the opening of the American West, made into a seven-hour CBS miniseries based on book] 1984 [long form version unavailable]
  • The New Yorker -- parody, Snooze by co-authors John Buskina, Alfred Gingold, 1986
  • The New Yorker, with Gigi Mahon, author The Last Days of the New Yorker, [Behind the scenes account of a magazine in flux] 1989
  • The New Yorker, with Calvin Trillin, humorist and New Yorker writer on life at the magazine, 1983 and 1987
  • The New Yorker, with Alec Wilkinson New Yorker staff writer on life as a writer at the magazine, 1984
  • Fae Myenne Ng, [American Book Award] Bone, 1993
  • Victor Navasky, [publisher, The Nation] The Experts Speak [misinformation by people who were supposed to know — co-written with Christopher Cerf], 1984
  • John Nichols, The Milagro Beanfield War, American Blood, 1987
  • John Nichols, An Elegy for September, 1992
  • Hugh Nissenson, The Tree of Life, 1985
  • Hugh Nissenson, The Elephant and My Jewish Problem [stories], 1988
  • Penelope Niven, Carl Sandburg: A Biography, 1991
  • Cornelia Nixon, Now You See It, 1991
  • Richard M. Nixon, 37th president of the U.S. [about his writing, library, and literary influences] Memoirs, Real Peace, 1984
  • William Noble, Bookbanning in America: Who Bans Books? And Why? 1990
  • Gloria Norris, [chief editor, Book of the Month Club] Looking for Bobby, 1985
  • Craig Nova, [O. Henry Award] The Geek, Trombone, 1992

    (O)

  • Joyce Carol Oates, [O. Henry Award, National Book Award, PEN/Malamud Award] Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart, 1990
  • Rick Obadiah, publisher, Classics Illustrated, [idle chitchat about radio vs TV] comic books, 1990
  • Edna O'Brien,[PEN/Nabokov Award] Country Girls Trilogy, Time and Tide, 1992
  • Tim O'Brien, [National Book Award] Going After Cacciato, The Things They Carried, 1990
  • Alix Ohlin, Babylon and Other Stories, The Missing Person, 2009
  • Suzanne O'Malley, & Dan Greenburg, How to Avoid Love and Marriage, 1983
  • Judy Oppenheimer, author of Private Demons, biography of Shirley Jackson, 1988
  • Amos Oz, [Israeli novelist] In the Land of Israel, 1983
  • Amos Oz, [Israeli novelist] A Perfect Peace, 1985

    (P)

  • William Packard, poet, editor, New York Quartely, author of Saturday Night at San Marcos, 1985
  • Gail Parent, novelist, Emmy Award-winning television and screenwriter, Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York, A Little Bit Married, 1984 [long form version unavailable]
  • Gail Parent, Emmy Award-winning TV writer for Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Signs of the Eighties, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Jay Parini, The Last Station, [a novel of Leo Tolstoy] 1990
  • The Paris Review, with co-founder and editor George Plimpton on the occasion of the Review's 100th issue, 1986
  • Robert B. Parker, Edgar Award, the Spenser series character, Valediction, 1984
  • Robert B. Parker, Taming a Sea-Horse, 1986
  • T. Jefferson Parker, Little Saigon, 1988
  • Sara Paretsky, creator of the V.I. Warshawski detective series, Guardian Angel, 1992
  • James Patterson, Edgar Award, Black Market, 1986
  • David Payne, Confessions of a Taoist on Wall Street, 1984
  • Ridley Pearson, [novelist, musician] Blood of the Albatross, [sings live in studio two songs of his own composition.] Pearson joined an all-author band, Rockbottom Remainders, composed of Dave Barry, Amy Tan, Mitch Album, Scott Turow, Greg Iles, and Stephen King] 1986
  • Leonard Pekoff, literary heir to Ayn Rand, author of The Ominous Parallels, introduction to Ayn Rand's Philosophy, Who Needs It?, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Leonard Pekoff, literary heir to Ayn Rand, editor of The Early Ayn Rand, 1985 [long form version unavailable]
  • Vivian Perlis, biographer of Aaron Copland, Copland 1900 Through 1932 & Copland Since 1943, 1990
  • Jane Ann Phillips, [the Danner referred to in the interview is a character in her book] Machine Dreams, 1985
  • Photography, Alfred Appel Jr. [reading photographs] Signs of Life, 1987
  • Photography, Eve Arnold [celebrated photographer] Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Photography, Margaret Bourke-White, [famed photo-journalist] with biographer Vickie Goldberg, 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Photography, David Douglas Duncan [celebrated photojournalist] collaborates with amateur photographer George Forss on New York/New York, 1984
  • Photography, Vicki Goldberg, The Power of Photography: How Photographs Changed Our Lives, 1992
  • Photography, Jill Krementz, photojournalist, wife of Kurt Vonnegut, How It Feels to Fight for Your Life, 1989
  • Photography, Inge Morath, photographer, wife of playwright Arthur Miller, Portraits, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • Photography, Mark Riboud, famed French photographer, Photographs At Home And Abroad, 1988
  • Photography, Rick Smolan, A Day in the Life of America, 1986
  • Photography, Lou Stoumen, [photographer] Times Square 1985
  • Marge Piercy, [poet, novelist] Braided Lives, Flyaway Home, 1984
  • Plagiarism, [literary] with Thomas Mallon, Stolen Words, 1989
  • George Plimpton, founder/editor, The Paris Review, [on the occasion of the Review's 100th issue] 1986
  • Edgar Allan Poe, with Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Kenneth Silverman, Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Neverending Remembrance, 1991 [long form version unavailable]
  • Edgar Allan Poe, montage of Poe poetry read by Dave Atherton of CBS, who performed this reading specifically for the Kenneth Silverman report on Poe [above], 1991
  • Beatrix Potter, creator of the Peter Rabbit Tales for children, with Judy Taylor author of That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit, 1987
  • Poets & Writers magazine, with editor Elliot Figman
  • Viido Polikarpus, Down Town, co-writer & illustrator with Tappan King of this urban fantasy, [note: born in a refugee camp in Europe and educated in America, Polikarpus rerturned to his native Estonia in 1995] 1985
  • Katha Pollitt, [poet, literary editor The Nation, National Book Critics Circle, American Book awards] Antarctic Traveler, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Chaim Potok, The Chosen, Davita's Harp, 1985
  • Jody Powell, White House Press Secretary, Carter Administration, The Other Side of the Story, 1984
  • Ron Powers, White Town Drowsing: Journeys to Hannibal, 1986
  • Emily Prager, Eve's Tattoo, 1991
  • Reynolds Price, Good Hearts, 1988
  • Reynolds Price, The Tongues of Angels, 1990
  • Reynolds Price, [on his paralysis due to a spine tumor] Blue Calhoun, 1992
  • Nicholas Proffitt, [Newsweek war correspondent in Viet Nam] Gardens of Stone, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Publishers, Jason Epstein, [publisher, editorial director of Random House] The Reader's Catalog, 1989
  • Publishers, Michael Korda, [Simon & Schuster editor-in-chief] Queenie, 1985
  • Publishers, James Laughlin, poet [publisher of New Directions] Selected Poems, 1986
  • Publishers, Robert Giroux, publisher of Farrar Straus Giroux, [on death of Bernard Malamud] 1986
  • Publishers, Richard Marek, [publisher, editor-in-chief of Dutton] Works of Genius, 1988
  • Publishers, Barney Rossett, Grove Press. Courageously fought censorship in America by publishing D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and William Burrough's Naked Lunch -- and beat the censors.
  • Publishers, Andre Schiffrin, editor-in-chief of Pantheon Books, founder of The New Press, 1992
  • Publishers, Charles Scribner Jr., [publisher of Ernest Hemingway ppm occasion of new Hemingway stamp,1989
  • Publishers, Charles Scribner Jr., In the Company of Writers: A Life in Publishing, a memoir, 1991
  • Publishers, Sol Stein, publisher and writer, Stein & Day, The Touch of Treason, 1985
  • Publishers, Sol Stein, publisher and writer, Stein & Day,A Feast for Lawyers, [on the collapse of his publishing house] , 1989
  • Publishers, Sol Stein, publisher and writer, Stein & Day, The Best Revenge, 1991
  • Publishers Weekly, [bible of the publishing industry] with John Baker, editor-in-chief, 1991
  • James Purdy, On Glory's Course, 1984
  • James Purdy, The Candles of Your Eyes, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • James Purdy, The Garments the Living Wear, 1989

    (R)

  • Jonathan Raban, National Book Critics Circle Award, editor of UK edition of Robert Lowell, Old Glory, Foreign Land, [lengthy chitchat about publishing] 1985
  • Dotson Rader, Tennessee: Cry of the Heart — Intimate Memoir of Tennessee Williams, 1985
  • Ronald Radosh, The Rosenberg File, co-written with Joyce Milton. [highly controversial book in which new information shows that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, executed as Soviet atomic spies, were indeed guilty of espionage, although much of the evidence used against them was false] 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • J.J.R. Ramey, [broadcast journalist] West of Paradise Run, 1990
  • Arnold Rampersad, biographer of Langston Hughes, Life of Langston Hughes, Volume I, 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Arnold Rampersad, biographer of Langston Hughes, Life of Langston Hughes, Volume II, 1988
  • Ayn Rand, with Nathaniel Branden, Ayn Rand acolyte],Judgment Day: My Years With Ayn Rand, 1989
  • Ayn Rand, with Barbara Branden, Ayn Rand acolyte, husband of Nathaniel, The Passion of Ayn Rand, 1986
  • Ayn Rand with Leonard Pekoff [literary heir to Rand] author of The Ominous Parallels, introduction to Ayn Rand's Philosophy, Who Needs It?, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Ayn Rand with Leonard Pekoff [literary heir to Rand] editor of The Early Ayn Rand, 1985 [long form version unavailable]
  • Barbara Raskin, Hot Flashes, 1987
  • Henry Reath, publisher, First Editions Library, facsimile editions of classic books, 1991
  • Ishmael Reed, [discussion of the 1986 Pen Interntional Congress] Reckless Eyeballing, [wrote lyrics to music for three jazz albums, Conjure] 1986
  • Ishmael Reed, Writin' is Fightin' [essays] 1988
  • Bob Reiss, The Casco Deception, 1984
  • Bob Reiss, Divine Assassin, 1985
  • Ruth Rendell, stellar British mystery writer [the Inspector Wexford mysteries] Going Wrong 1990
  • Mark Riboud, famed French photographer, Photographs At Home And Abroad, 1988
  • Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Laestat, 1985
  • Anne Rice, The Queen of the Damned, 1988
  • Adrienne Rich, National Book Award-winning poet [candid talk about lesbianism] Blood, Bread, and Poetry,1987
  • Mordecai Richler, [great Canadian novelist] The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, The Best of Modern Humor, 1983
  • Mordecai Richler, Solomon Gursky was Here, 1990
  • Alberto Alvarado Rios, [Arizona Poet Laureate, Walt Whitman Award, Western States Book Award for Fiction] The Iguana Killer, 1990 [long form version unavailable]
  • Mister Rogers, [Fred Rogers, celebrated children's TV host], Making Friends, 1987
  • Barney Rosset, Grove Press. Courageously fought censorship in America by publishing D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer and William Burrough's Naked Lunch -- and beat the censors.
  • Judith Rossner, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, August, 1983
  • Norman Rosten, Brooklyn Poet Laureate [reference to Howard Golden, Brooklyn Borough President] Neighborhood Tales, 1986
  • Bernice Rubens, [Booker Prize] Brothers, 1985
  • Theodore Isaac Rubin, [prominent psychiatrist] Lisa and David, Lisa and David Today, 1986
  • Damon Runyon, with Jimmy Breslin, biographer, Damon Runyon, A Life, 1991
  • Salman Rushdie, with his wife, American novelist Marianne Wiggins, who describes how their marriage collapsed when they were forced to go into hiding in Britain after Iranian religious leaderAyatollah Khomeini ordered Rushdie killed for blasphemy for writing The Satanic Verses, 1990

    (S)

  • Oliver Sacks, famed neurologist, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for Hat, Seeing Voices, 1989
  • William Safire, New York Times "On Language" columnist [Pulitzer Prize] author of Civil War novel Freedom, 1987
  • H.F. Saint, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, 1987
  • Harrison Salisbury, [Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times correspondent] Tianamen Diary: Thirteen Days in June, 1989
  • J. D. Salinger, with Ian Hamilton, In Search of J.D. Salinger, 1988
  • J. D. Salinger, with Joyce Maynard, To Die For, [touches only passingly on her youthful (age 18) live-in relationship with J.D. Salinger] 1992
  • Thomas Sanchez, Rabbit Boss, Mile Zero, 1989
  • Carl Sandburg, with Penelope Niven, author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography, 1991
  • Jean Paul Sartre, with Annie Cohen-Solal, Sartre biographer, A Life, 1987 [long form version unavailable]
  • John Sayles, novelist, filmmaker, [reference to annual meeting American Booksellers Assocition in New York City] Los Gusanos, 1991
  • Andre Schiffrin, editor-in-chief of Pantheon Books, founder of The New Press, 1992
  • Richard Schickel, film historian, Time film critic, Schickel on Film, 1989
  • David Schoenbrun, [veteran CBS News broadcaster - one of "Murrow's Boys"] America Inside Out, 1987
  • Budd Schulberg, 50th anniversary of What Makes Sammy Run? [explosive 1941 Hollywood novel], Waterfront, The Disenchanted, The Harder They Fall, [friendly witness before House Un-American Activities Committee] 1990 [Budd Schulberg suffered from a speech impediment, which required some editing of this intervew]
  • Jane Schwartz, debut novel, Caught, [early book published by the Available Press] 1985
  • Charles Scribner, Scribner's [publisher of Ernest Hemingway] on occasion of new Hemingway stamp, 1989
  • Charles Scribner, Scribner's, In the Company of Writers: A Life in Publishing, a memoir, 1991
  • John Sculley, President, Apple Computer, Odyssey, [Sculley led the coup that fired visionary Steve Jobs from Apple] 1987
  • Mary Lee Settle, [National Book Award] Blood Tie, The Scapegoat, 1981
  • Ann Sexton poet, with biographer Diane Wood Middlebrook,1991
  • Ann Sexton with Linda Grey Sexton, [daughter of poet Ann Sexton] Points of Light, 1988
  • Linda Grey Sexton, [daughter of poet Ann Sexton] Points of Light, 1988
  • Bob Shacochis, The Next New World, 1989
  • Steve Shagan, Oscar-nominated screenwriter, A Cast of Thousands, 1993
  • Karl Shapiro, Pulitizer Prize, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, The Younger Son, 1988
  • Wilfrid Sheed, essayist and novelist, Essays in Disguise, The Boys of Winter, 1990
  • Sidney Sheldon, Oscar-winning screenwriter, prolific best-selling author dubbed "Mr. Blockbuster" [reference to Mary Sheldon, Sheldon's daughter, who had just pubished a novel. Objects when questioned about an issue of plausibility during interview] Windmill of the Gods, 1987
  • Mimi Sheraton, New York Times food critic [dining out is not aways glamorous] The New York Times Restaurant Guide 1983
  • Norman Sherry, author of a definitive, three-volume biography of Graham Greene, Life of Graham Greene Vol. I 1904-1939, 1989
  • William L. Shirer, famed wartime CBS journalist [one of "Murrow's Boys"], National Book Award, Berlin Diary, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, The Nighmare Years, 1984
  • Louise Shivers, [published her acclaimed debut novel when she was 53] Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail, 1983
  • Seymour Shubin, Edgar Award-winning mystery writer, Voices 1985
  • Jennifer Shute, South African-born novelist, Life-Size, 1992
  • Linda Sillitoe, staff writer for the Deseret News, author of Salamander: The Story of the Mormon Forgery Murders, [notorious murdery-forgery case involving Mark Hoffman, forger of documents related to Mormon history, who killed two people in bomb blasts to cover up his deeds] 1988
  • Kenneth Silverman, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, Edgar A. Poe: Mournful and Neverending Remembrance, 1991 [long form version unavailable]
  • Upton Sinclair, with Greg Mitchell, author of The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's E.P.I.C. Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics, 1992
  • Roger Simon, [screenwriter, creator of the Moses Wine detective novels] The Big Fix, The Straight Man, 1986
  • Paul Simms, Cliff Notes - Parody from Spy magazine, Simms satirizes so called "Brat Pack" novels by Jay McInerney, Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz, Jill Eisenstadt, etc., 1989
  • Mona Simpson, Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father, [Simpson was unaware until she was an adult that she was the younger sister of Apple's Steve Jobs, who had been given up for adoption by their parents] 1992
  • Josef Skvorecky, Czech-Canadian writer and publisher, The Engineer of Human Souls, 1984
  • Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prize, The Greenlanders, Ordinary Love & Good Will, 1989
  • Dennis Smith, Bronx firefighter turned author, founder of Firehouse magazine, Report from Engine Company 82, Steeley Blue, 1984 [long form version unavailable]
  • Lee Smith, Southern author, O. Henry Award, Family Linen, 1985
  • Lee Smith, Me and My Baby View the Eclipse, 1990
  • Martin Cruz Smith, [creator of the novels of Russian homicide cop Arkady Renko] Gorky Park, Stallion Gate, 1986
  • Martin Cruz Smith, Polar Star, 1989
  • Martin Cruz Smith, Red Square, 1992
  • Rick Smolan, [photographer] A Day in the Life of America,1986
  • Gary Snyder, environmental activist associated with the Beat poets, [Pulitzer, American Book Award] The Practice of the Wild, Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems, 1991
  • Susan Sontag, [National Book Award, National Book Critics Award] The Volcano Lover, 1992
  • Irini Spanidou, Greek-born author, God's Snake [praised first novel] 1986
  • Scott Spencer, Endless Love, Waking the Dead, 1986
  • A,M. Sperber, author of Edward R. Murrow, His Life and Times, 1986 [long form version unavailable]
  • Art Spiegelman [Pulitzer prize-winning graphic artist, co-founder of the magazine Raw], Maus, acclaimed biographical graphic novel depicting Germans as cats, Jews as mice, and Poles as pigs, 1991
  • Donald Spoto, author of Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Michael Spring, [Travel Guides] Fodor Travel Guides editorial director, 1989
  • Francesca Stanfill, Shadows and Light, [Stanfill reveals that Doubleday halted distribution of Shadows and Light, fearing a lawsuit from Stanfill's ex-husband, prompting Stanfill to buy her rights back and taking the book to Simon & Schuster, a major publishing controvery at the time] 1984.
  • Sharon Sheehe Stark, [O. Henry Award] The Dealer's Yard, A Wrestling Season, 1987
  • Sol Stein, publisher and writer, Stein & Day, The Touch of Treason, 1985
  • Sol Stein, publisher and writer [on the collapse of his publishing house, Stein & Day] A Feast for Lawyers, 1989
  • Sol Stein, publisher and writer, Stein & Day, The Best Revenge, 1991
  • John Steinbeck, with widow Elaine Steinbeck on the 50th anniversaty of The Grapes of Wrath, 1989
  • John Steinbeck, with Robert DeMott, editor of Working Days: The Journals of the Grapes of Wrath, 1989
  • Gloria Steinem, feminist icon, [refers to her 1963 undercover role as a Playboy Bunny and the sensation that followed her article in Show Magazine] Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, 1983
  • Irving Stone, Lust for Life [Vincent van Gogh], The Agony and the Ecstasy (Michelangelo) Depths of Glory [Camille Pissarro], 1985
  • Robert Stone, [National Book Award] Hall of Mirrors, Dog Soldiers, Children of Light, [much publishing shoptalk in this conversation] 1986
  • Robert Stone, [describes his days as one of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters] Outerbridge Reach, 1992
  • Lou Stoumen, [photographer] Times Square 1985
  • Peter Straub, Ghost Story, Floating Dragon, [discusses writing on an early word processor] 1983
  • Peter Straub, The Talisman [written with Stephen King], Wild Animals, 1984
  • Peter Straub, Houses Without Doors, Mystery, 1990
  • Whitley Strieber, The Wolfen, War Day [written with James W. Kunetka] 1984
  • Whitley Strieber, Wolf of Shadows, 1985
  • Whitley Strieber, [describes his asserted kidnaping by little green outer-space aliens and taken to their spaceship] Communion, 1987
  • William Styron, National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Confessions of Nat Turner, Sophie's Choice, 1981
  • William Styron, [Styron reacts to film version of Sophie's Choice and reads from the book] This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, 1982
  • Han Suyin, A Many-Splendored Thing, The Enchantress, [Song "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" won the 1955 Oscar for Best Original Song from the novel's film version] 1985
  • Graham Swift, [Booker Prize] Waterland, Learning to Swim, 1985

    (T)

  • Gay Talese, [literary journalist] Unto the Sons, a memoir, 1992
  • Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club [acclaimed first novel], 1989
  • Jonathan Tasini, president of the National Writers Union [trade union for freelance and contract writers, including journalists, book and short story authors, business and technical writers, and poets] 1992
  • Judy Taylor, author of That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit, 1987
  • Walter Tevis, The Queen's Gambit [young girl scores as a chess prodigy], 1983
  • Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell to Earth, The Hustler, The Steps of the Sun,, [describes how his release from alcoholism led to a writing career] 1984
  • Paul Theroux, [travel writer and novelist] The Kingdom by the Sea, [devastating appraisal of the seedy English coastline] 1983
  • Paul Theroux, Half Moon Street, 1984
  • Paul Theroux, Sunrise with Seamonsters [personal essays], 1985
  • Paul Theroux, Riding the Iron Rooster, 1988
  • Paul Theroux, My Secret History [autobiographical novel on how a writer is shaped], 1989
  • Paul Theroux, Chicago Loop, 1991
  • Phyllis Theroux, [essayist, columnist, playwright] Bedtime Stories for Parents in the Dark, 1987
  • D. M. Thomas, The White Hotel [novel of Babi Yar], Memories and Hallucinations [memoir], 1988 [long form version unavailable]
  • John Toland, [Pulitzer Prize winning author and historian] Gods of War, 1985
  • Sam Toperoff, Queen of Desire [a novel of Marilyn Monroe] 1992
  • Leo Tolstoy, with Jay Parini, author of The Last Station, [a novel of Tolstoy] 1990
  • Calvin Trillin, [humorist and New Yorker writer] Floater, Third Helpings, 1983
  • Calvin Trillin, Killings [true crime stories written for The New Yorker], 1984
  • Calvin Trillin, With All Disrepect, [columns first appearing in The Nation] 1985
  • Calvin Trillin, If You Can't Say Something Nice, 1987
  • Calvin Trillin, Travels with Alice, 1989
  • Studs Terkel, [Pulitzer Prize] The Great Divide, 1988
  • Scott Turow, [master of legal thrillers] Presumed Innocent, The Burden of Proof, 1990
  • Thomas Tryon, [film star turned best-selling novelist] All That Glitters, The Other, 1986
  • Thomas Tryon, The Wings of the Morning, 1990

    (U)

  • John Updike, [National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle, Pulitzer Prize, PEN/Malamud Award, PEN/Faulkner Award] The Widows of Eastwich, 1984
  • Barry Unsworth, [Booker Prize] The Rage of the Vulture, [novel set in Turkey in the last years of the Ottoman Empire] 1983

    (V)

  • Guy Vanderhaeghe, [Canadian author] Man Descending, My Present Age, [the Canadian tradition in writing] 1985
  • Andrew Vachss, [crime writer, known for his Burke and Cross series of novels] Blue Belle, 1988
  • Gore Vidal, Live From Golgotha, Screening History, [Vidal weighs in on movies, religion, and Truman Capote] 1992
  • Peter Viertel, author, screenwriter [The African Queen], husband of actress Deborah Carr], White Hunter Black Heart, Dangerous Friends: At Large with Huston and Hemingway in the Fifties, 1992
  • Judith Viorst, [known for her light verse and books for children] Forever Fifty, 1989
  • Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five, Palm Sunday, [Vonegut on censorship, religion, booze, and the word "fuck"] 1981

    (W)

  • Dan Wakefield, [novelist, journalist, screenwriter] New York in the Fifties, 1992
  • Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field, The Choirboys, The Glitter Dome,1981
  • Joseph Wambaugh, The Blooding, [true crime story of how early DNA analysis led to a serial killer in a small English village] 1989
  • Robert Ward, [Hill Street Blues scriptwriter] Red Baker, The King of Cards [novels of Baltimore] 1993
  • Paul Watkins, Night Over Day Over Night, Stand Before Your God: An American Schoolboy in England, The Promise of Light, 1993
  • Western States Book Awards, [with Terry Melton, Director, Western States Arts Federation], 1988
  • John Weitz, [prominent menswear designer, race car driver] Friends in High Places, 1983
  • Fay Weldon, fiesty British novelist, essayist, playwright, The Hearts and Lives of Men, [Weldon, a Booker Prize judge, was caught up in controversy when she voted for Salman Rushie only at the last moment to change her vote to J.M. Coetzee.]1988
  • H. G. Wells, with Anthony West, son of H.G. Wells, "father of science fiction," H.G. Wells: Aspects of a Life, 1984 [long form version unavilable]
  • Morris West, Australian novelist and playwright, The Devil's Advocate, The Shoes of the Fisherman, The World is Made of Glass, 1983
  • Morris West, Lazarus, [written after his recovery from open heart surgery] 1990
  • Paul West, British-born novelist married to the poet Diane Ackerman, The Women of Whitechapel and Jack the Ripper, 1991
  • Edmund White, [PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction] A Boy's Own Story, 1983 [NOTE: my blunt comments and questions of Edmund White regarding gays reflected the era when this interview occurred.]
  • Edmund White, Caracole, 1985
  • Edmund White, [writer for Vogue, Vanity Fair], This Beautiful Room is Empty, sequel to A Boy's Own Story, [describes first-hand the Stonewall riots], 1988
  • Edmund White, [reveals why he came out as HIV positive] editor, The Faber Book of Gay Short Fiction, [Lambda Literary Award finalist] 1991
  • Les Whitten, A Killing Place, [Whitten was a controversial investigative reporter working for Jack Anderson's "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column when he quit to write fiction fulltime] 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Tom Wicker, New York Times reporter and columnist [Wicker's nonfiction avvount of the 1971 Attica prison riot, A Time to Die, won an Edgar for Best Fact Crime book] Unto This Hour, Civil War novel, 1984
  • John Edgar Wideman, [PEN/Faulkner, American Book awards] Philadelphia Fire, Fever, 1990 [long form version unavailable]
  • Elie Wiesel, [Nobel Peace Prize] Night, The Six Days of Destruction, [as an Auschwitz and Buchenwald survivor, bearing witness to the Holocaust] 1988
  • Marianne Wiggins, [American novelist married to Salmon Rushdie] John Dollar, 1990
  • Thornton Wilder, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, novelist, with biographer Gilbert Harrison, author of The Enthusiast, 1983 [long form version unavailable]
  • Richard Wiley, [PEN-Faulkner award for best first novel] Soldiers in Hiding, 1987
  • Alec Wilkinson, [New Yorker writer] Midnight: A Year with the Wellfleet Police, Moonshine: A Life in Pursuit of White Liquor, 1984
  • Nancy Willard, [poet, novelist, illustrator of children's books, Newbery Medal] Things Invisible to See, 1985
  • Kit Williams, English author and illustrator, Masquerade [a book containing the clues to the whereabouts of a buried golden hare], Book Without a Name. [NOTE: Scandalously, the location of the buried golden hare in Masquerade was determined by two Manchester, England, physics teachers, but it had already been found by someone who had been given the location by Williams's former girlfriend.], 1984 [Long form unavailable]
  • Tennessee Williams, with Dodson Rader, author of Tennessee: Cry of the Heart — Intimate Memoir of Tennessee Williams, 1985
  • Harriet E. Wilson, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Our Nig [First published novel by a black in U.S. 1857] 1983 [NOTE: WCBS Reporter Jane Tillman Irving sat in on this interview]
  • Sloan Wilson, Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, A Summer Place, A Sense of Values, 1984. [The title song from the film version of A Summer Place was Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for nine consecutive weeks, a record for the time.]
  • Larry Woiwode, [William Faulkner Foundation Award, North Dakota Poet Laureate] Born Brothers, What I'm Going to Do I Think, 1988
  • Tobias Wolff, [PEN/Faulkner Award, National Medal of Arts] Back in the World, 1985
  • Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life, [A young Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed the Tobias Wolff character in the film version.] 1989 [NOTE: Wolff's brother, Geoffrey Wolff, himself a writer, won an Award in Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.]
  • Stuart Woods Under the Lake, 8/14/87
  • Stephen Wright, Meditations in Green, 1983

    (Y)

  • Jonathan Yardley, [Pulitzer Prize, Washington Post book critic], Our Kind of People: The Story of An American Family, 1989
  • Henny Youngman, comedian, Take My Jokes, Please, [celebrated for his "Take my wife...please!" jokes] 1983

    (Z)

  • Eli Zal, executive director, Literary Volunteers, New York City, New Writers Voices, 1989
  • Sidney Zion, journalist, lawyer, author, Markers, The Autobiography of Roy Cohn, [The death of Zion's daughter Libby, 18, at New York Hospital led to a trial resulting in improvements in working conditions for hospital residents.] 1990



    chronological list of each CBS Radio Book Beat feature broadcast by date
  • Book Beat 1982
  • Book Beat 1983
    		•
  • Book Beat 1984
  • Book Beat 1985
    		•
  • Book Beat1986
  • Book Beat1987
    		•
  • Book Beat1988
  • Book Beat1989
    		•
  • Book Beat 1990
  • Book Beat 1991
    		•
  • Book Beat 1992
  • Book Beat 1993

    • Visit us on Facebook:

    Disclaimer
    These unedited, behind-the-scenes conversations, recorded at CBS Radio, New York, were never meant for air in this form, but were later edited into feature segments. The interviews may contain irrelevancies, candid personal observations, or superficial extraneous matter. The archive is maintained by the Ohio University Libraries, Arts and Archives, Athens, Ohio.

    Acknowledgment
    To David Kurz for his invaluable help in preserving these long-form interviews

    Copyright Advice
    Permission to use the long-form conversations may be obtained from Stacey Lavender, Arts and Archives, Ohio University Libraries. 740-593-2696 or email.