JACK MATTHEWS
author that time and the Internet forgot?
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NO, NOT REALLY
Neglected Ohio novelist Jack Matthews still raises his voice
Don Swaim's interview with Jack Matthews: listen
Don and Jack debate Ohio's Ambrose Bierce: listen
Definitive profile of Jack Matthews by Robert Nagle at TeleRead: here
photo of Jack Matthews by Dinty W. Moore
DICK FRANCIS
The former British jockey, 1920-1010, captivated mystery fans on both sides of the Atlantic with his well-crafted novels, all with a horse-racing motif. Dick Francis, who credited his wife, Mary Margaret, with the actual writing, braved no fewer than seven interviews with Don Swaim:
Twice Shy 4/28/82: listen
Banker 4/18/83: listen
The Danger 5/7/84: listen
Proof 5/10/85: listen
Break-in 5/30/86: listen
Bolt 6/12/87: listen
The Edge 4/7/89: listen
A Gordon Lish "discovery," Hannah's wildly stylish prose wasn't for everyone. In 1993 Don interviewed him on the occasion of his story collection Bat Out of Hell: listen.
J.D. SALINGER
No, Book Beat, never interviewed Salinger, who died on January 27, 2010, at the age of ninety one. But Don Swaim did interview two important figures in the reclusive author's life and career:
Joyce Maynard, Salinger's young live-in lover: listen
Ian Hamilton, who was sued by Salinger for using unauthorized quotations in a biography: listen
The premier New York City novelist chronicled the patrician world of WASPS. In 1986 Don spoke to Auchincloss about his life, career, and Yuppies: listen.
THE WORLD'S BEST-SELLING NOVELIST IS...
JAMES PATTERSON!Patterson's so successful he has a stable of writers to write his books for him, nine published in 2009 alone. Click here to read a cover-page article in The New York Times Sunday Magazine [January 24, 2010]. Don Swaim interviewed Patterson for Book Beat before he made it big: listen. Wouldn't it be great to be so successful that you can pay scribes to write your books for you?
ROBERT B. PARKER
1932-2010The prolific, Edgar Award-winning crime writer penned thirty-seven novels starring his Boston-based detective Spenser. Don Swaim interviewed Parker twice: 6/20/84 listen -- 7/21/86 listen
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THE CULT OF AYN RAND
October 2009 marked the publication of two definitive biographies of Ayn Rand [New York Times Reviews], author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and whose "Ojectivist" philosophy led to a cult-like following. Don Swaim interviewed the three most influential people in her career.
Nathaniel Brandon, Rand's leading advocate, intellectual heir, and lover: listen
Barbara Brandon, early Rand deciple and husband of Nathaniel. His sexual relationship with Rand led to a self-destructive denouement: listen
Leonard Piekoff, Rand's literary executor, on the philosophy of Ayn Rand: listen
Leonard Piekoff, Rand's literary executor, on the early writings of Ayn Rand: listen
Detective novelist and screenwriter, Kaminsky was a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America. Don's broadcast with Kaminsky on the occasion of his Edgar Award-winning novel A Cold Red Sunrise: listen.
Speechwriter, language expert, novelist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist, William Safire was a conservative even the Left could admire. Don's broadcast with Safire on the occasion of his Civil War novel Freedom: listen.
Poet and punk rocker, whose chaotic life blended sports, drugs, and verse, died of a heart attack at the age of sixty. Poignant article about the end of his sad, near poverty-stricken life by Alex Williams in The New York Times here. Don's broadcast with Jim Carroll: listen.
E.L. DOCTOROW
Book Beat Audio of an American Literary Icon
Doctorow, celebrated for Ragtime, publishes Homer and Langley (Random House, September 2009), his sixteenth book
Don Swaim's five-part interview with Doctorow: listen
Doctorow vies with the more conservative John Updike, International PEN Congress 3/10/86: listen
Doctorow receives 1986 American Book Award: listen
Doctorow publishes classic essay about a failed and ruined president, Easthampton Star, 9/9/04: here
Doctorow booed by George W. Bush supporters at Hoftra University, Newsday, 5/24/04: here
Doctorow at home in an article in The New York Times, 9/2/09: here
Don Swaim's unedited Wired for Books interview with Doctorow: audio
HENRY LOUIS GATES
Pluck & ScholarshipThe noted black studies scholar was caught in a firestorm when he was arrested for being impertinent to a white cop in Gates' Cambridge, Massachusetts, home. But far more important is that Gates unearthed what is believed to be the first novel written by a black woman in America. Hear Don's interview with Gates at Wired for Books -- and the actual broadcast listen.
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BUDD SCHULBERG
1914-2009Schulberg shook up Hollywood with his novel What Makes Sammy Run, and he won an Oscar for On the Waterfront. Hear Don's 1990 interview with Schulberg at Wired for Books -- and the actual broadcast listen.
INTERVIEW WITH ALIX OHLINMontreal-born Alix Ohlin is the author of the novel The Missing Person and the story collection Babylon (both Knopf). She earned a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. Ohlin teaches creative writing at Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. To hear Don Swaim's 2009 interview with Ohlin click LISTEN
SIDNEY ZION
1933-2009Coloful writer and lawyer, whose daughter's untimely death led to major improvements in working conditions at New York hospitals. Hear Don's 1991 interview with Zion at Wired for Books -- and the actual broadcast listen.
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Norman Mailer, interviewed by Don Swaim on December 2, 1991. listen.
Richard M. Nixon discusses books, authors, and his own writing
in an interview with Don Swaim on February 6, 1984. listen.
Updike
JOHN UPDIKE
1932-2009
Arguably, the acclaimed Pennsylvania-born novelist should have won the Nobel Prize. Don Swaim interviewed Updike in 1984. Listen to the unedited interview at Wired for Books. For the actual broadcast: listen.
ONE OF MURROW'S BOYSWILLIAM L. SHIRER, pioneering news broadcaster and author of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, talks about the first days of CBS News and Edward R. Murrow, godfather of broadcast journalism in a thirty-minute interview with Don Swaim on July 7, 1984. listen.
ANOTHER OF MURROW'S BOYSDAVID SCHOENBRUN, one of the original CBS News correspondents in World War Two, talks about the old radio days in an interview with Don Swaim on October 6, 1984. listen.
MURROW: HIS LIFE AND TIMESDefinitive biography of Edward R. Murrow and the history of CBS News by Ann Sperber. listen.
PurdyHard to categorize although with a cult following, the Ohio-born Purdy never enjoyed a wide audience, but he was truly an original. Despite his severe image, Purdy was friendly and courtly. Don Swaim interviewed him three times. The unedited interviews can be heard at Wired for Books. Purdy's obit here. Gore Vidal's profile of Purdy: The Novelist as Outlaw.
MICHAEL CRICHTON
Early Enthusiast of Personal Computers
Crichton (1942-2008) was the Harvard Medical School-trained writer who blended science and technology into thrillers and sci-fi, such as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. In 1983 -- before Macs, Windows, email, and the Internet -- he published a ground-breaking non-fiction book aimed at educating Americans about personal computing, Electronic Life: How To Think About Computers, and how, as he put it, "everybody's going to have to learn." He was prescient. In a two-part series, Don Swaim spoke to Crichton about computing: listen. For Don's four unedited Wired for Books interviews with Crichton go here. Unfortunately, in his last year, Crichton's fiction was used by the presidency of George W. Bush in a crude effort to prove that global warming is a hoax.
SECRET MUSINGS
click photos to enlarge
Stanley Elkin, Don Swaim"Stan, lemme try to explain something to you about the craft of fiction."
4/16/85listen John Irving, Don Swaim"John, now if I'd written 'Garp' I would have ended it this way..."
5/24/85listen
Jane Ann Phillips, Don Swaim"This gal needs a personal writing tutor, and I'm just the guy."
5/21/85listen"Paul, you may have gone to Timbuktu, but never to Asbury Park in January." listen
BOOK "MARKS" TV DEMOS
Two six-minute TV pilots with Don Swaim interviewing humorist Roy Blount, Jr., and novelist Hugh Nissenson for a show taped in 1987 for Walden Books. The project went nowhere, but the demos survive. Click on images below to start the Quicktime movies.
BOOK BEAT HISTORY Broadcasting was a different world in 1967 when CBS began an all-news radio operation on its 50,000-watt WCBS, New York, flagship of its seven owned-and-operated AM stations. Then, WCBS broadcast a daily book review with contributions from the staff voiced by Dick Reeves. Don Swaim, a former television news editor from Baltimore, contributed regularly to this feature, transcripts of which were distributed to the news media. An excerpt from Swaim's review of an oral biography of Harry S Truman appeared in the New York Post on March 2, 1974:
click to enlargeBy late 1982, Swaim, who had been reporting on books and authors for the station for several years (as well as a contributor to a CBS-FM broadcast, "Crosstalk"), proposed a daily feature, "Book Beat," to which staff members, one of whom was WCBS political reporter Steve Flanders, would contribute. Flanders' sudden death scotched that idea, and Swaim embarked on the five day a week feature alone. The executives in charge were Mike Ludlum and Lou Adler. Its first broadcast was January 3, 1983, with a profile of William Styron. The network's CBS Radio Stations News Service headed by Joe Durso made "Book Beat" available nationwide. Over the years, literally hundreds of America's greatest writers were interviewed. "Book Beat"'s final broadcast was September 9, 1993, with an interview with Ray Bradbury on the 40th anniversary of Farenheit 451.
POSTSCRIPT
There was uncertainty as to how to preserve this remarkable archive. Finally, the raw interviews, all on tape, were acquired by Ohio University in Athens, which digitized the material and posted it on its Wired for Books website. Wired for Books declined to post the two-minute radio features, as opposed to the raw interviews, so the features, as they actually appeared on the air, are broadcast here.
BOOK BEAT, a daily feature about books and writers, was broadcast on WCBS-AM in New York from 1982 through 1993 and distributed nationally by the CBS Radio Stations News Service (CBS RSNS). Not mere commentary, the broadcasts featured the actual voices of prominent writers interviewed by Don Swaim at CBS in New York. Organized chronologically, they're posted in the ARCHIVE section below as mp3 files. Use Search Site at the top of the page to locate a specific author. The unedited, never aired interviews, used as the basis for each Book Beat feature, are posted separately at Ohio University's WIRED FOR BOOKS.
Don Swaim
ARCHIVE
Some 3000 daily Book Beat broadcasts archived here in chronological order:
Book Beat 1982
Book Beat 1983
Book Beat 1984
Book Beat 1985
Book Beat 1986
Book Beat 1987
Book Beat 1988
Book Beat 1989
Book Beat 1990
Book Beat 1991
Book Beat 1992
Book Beat 1993
RECENT BOOKS click images for purchase info
OVER HERE! NEW YORK DURING WORLD WAR II
Lorraine B. Diehl
ASCENSION: ACCESSING THE FIFTH DIMENSION
Elizabeth Joyce
WEST OF PARADISE RUN
J.J.R. Ramey
Ramey Interview: listen
Don's Radio Dreams
A broadcast-journalist's early career
through and including Book Beat—mp3 [runs 17 minutes]
DON'S OTHER SITES
WCBS Appreciation Site Book Beat: The Podcast Wired for Books Radio Days Aspinwall HS Class of 55 Ambrose Bierce Site Bucks County Writers Workshop Errata Steinbeck in Bucks Co Pennsylvania Sunsets Growing Up in WW Two Fighting the Hun in WW One Official Stuart Cummings Ripley Site
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PC Magazine's BEST OF THE INTERNET cites Don Swaim's interviews on Wired for Books.
Nov. 20, 2007, issue
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11.21.05