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1983 (official launch)

Book Beat officially started on a five-day a week basis on January 3, 1983, with a three-part profile of William Styron, followed by, incongruously, a two-parter on The Better Way to Drink. They were two-minute or less radio features about books and writers heard three times daily on New York's WCBS-AM and syndicated by the CBS Radio Stations News Service. The authors are heard in the vast majority of the reports, which are simple mp3 files. Click to listen or "save as" to load onto your device.

1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993


  • 01 William Styron, profile 1-3-83
  • 02 "The Better Way to Drink" (by Vogler and Bartz) 1-12-83
  • 03 Maureen Howard - "Grace Abounding"1-10-83
  • 04 Ian Hamilton - biographer of poet Robert Lowell 1-17-83
  • 05 Paterson NJ library system closes (with Mayor Frank Graves) 1-6-83
  • 06 Jewish Daily Forward goes weekly (with editor Simon Weber) 1-7-83
  • 07 National Book Critics Circle Awards for 1983 1-14-83.
  • 08 John Dean, convicted in Nixon Watergate scandal - "Lost Honor" 1-19-83
  • 09 Carl Hiaasen - "Trap Line" 1-21-83
  • 10 Raymond Blacklaw on Robert Burns' birthday 1-25-83
  • 11 Ayn Rand (with heir and executor Leonard Piekoff) 1-26-83
  • 12 Scott Rice on Bulwer Lytton Contest 1-13-83
  • 13 Edmund White - "A Boy's Own Story" 2-1-83.
  • 14 Arthur Herzog - "The Craving," disaster novel 2-4-83
  • 15 Lewis Rose - "How to Investigate Your Friends and Enemies" 2-7-83
  • 16 Anthony Cave Brown - "Wild Bill Donovan" 2-8-83
  • 17 "Avenue Magazine" (with Judith Price, editor) 2-11-83
  • 18 Harlequin Books (with editor Katherine Orr) 2-14-83
  • 19 The first American Bible (with curator Lawrence Parke Murphy) 2-15-83
  • 20 John Weitz, designer - "Friends in High Places" 2-15-83
  • 21 Garrison Keillor - "Happy to be Here" 2-18-83
  • 22 John Hartford, musician-composer - on books 2-21-83
  • 23 Peter Straub - "Floating Dragon" 2-22-83
  • 24 Walter Tevis - "The Queen's Gambit" 3-2-83
  • 25 Pen-Faulkner Awards (with judge Mary Lee Settle) 3-7-83
  • 26 Katha Pollitt, poet - "Antarctic Traveler" 3-8-83
  • 27 Grolier Club exhibit of objects owned by famous authors 3-9-83
  • 28 Mimi Sheraton, New York Times restaurant critic - "New York Times Guide to New York Restaurants" 3-10-83
  • 29 Roosevelt Island Library moves books to a new facility by a clever means 3-14-83
  • 30 Kurt Vonnegut on censorship 3-21-83
  • 31 William Least-Heat Moon - "Blue Highways" 2-17-83
  • 32 James Dickey, poet - profile 3-18-83
  • 33 Mark Edward Lender - "Drinking in America" 3-22-82
  • 34 Roger Newman - "Banned Films" 3-15-83
  • 35 Sybil Taylor - "Ireland's Pubs" 3-17-83
  • 36 Books on Tape 3-28-83
  • 37 Dennis Smith - "Firehouse Magazine" 3-31-83
  • 38 Washington Irving's 200th birthday 4-4-83
  • 39 Hillary Mills, biographer - Norman Mailer 4-5-83
  • 40 Robert Hamburger - "All the Lonely People" 4-7-83
  • 41 Dauber & Pine, venerable 4th Avenue bookstore closes 4-11-83
  • 42 Donald Spoto, biographer - Alfred Hitchcock 4-12-83
  • 43 Calvin Trillin - "Third Helpings" 4-14-83
  • 44 Flexibooks, new publishing technique 4-20-83
  • 45 Louise Shivers - "Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail" 4-21-83
  • 46 Big Little Books - ABA Book Fair 4-25-83
  • 47 Stern & Rostenberg, famed rare book dealers - ABA Book Fair 4-26-83
  • 48 Justin Schiller, seller of rare children's books - ABA Book Fair 4-28-83
  • 49 Dick Francis - "Banker" 4-18-83
  • 50 American Book Awards (with director Barbara Prete) 4-28-83
  • 51 Mrs. Falk Feeley - "WASPS," satire 4-29-83
  • 52 Waldenbooks survey on book prices (with Michael Meyer) 5-2-83
  • 53 Bernard Connors - "Dancehall" 5-83
  • 54 John Gardner - "On Becoming a Novelist" 5-5-83
  • 55 James Jones, restrospective 5-9-83
  • 56 "Columbus Avenue Magazine" (with editor Mary Frances Shaughnessy) 5-6-83
  • 57 Barry Unsworth - "Rage of the Vulture" 5-10-83
  • 58 Cal Thomas, Moral Majority, accuses publishers of discriminating against conservatives 5-12-83
  • 59 Mary Breasted - "I Shouldn't Be Telling You This" 5-16-82
  • 60 Nicholas Gage - "Eleni" 5-18-83
  • 61 Margaret Mitchell (with biographer Anne Edwards, "The Road to Tara") 5-24-83
  • 62 Dan Greenburg - "What Do Women Want?" 5-23-83
  • 63 Glen Baxter, cartoonist - "Atlas" 5-27-83
  • 64 William Winslade - "The Insanity Plea" 5-30-83
  • 65 Kathryn Jensen - "Redneckin," satire of rednecks 6-10-83
  • 66 Michelle Morris - "If I Should Die Before I Wake" 6-3-83
  • 67 Jonathan Cott - "Pipers at the Gates of Dawn," the wisdom of children's literature 5-31-83
  • 68 Steve Aronson - "Hype" 6-6-83
  • 69 Henry Louis Gates - "Our Nig," first African-American novel in U.S. 6-7-83
  • 70 Joan Kahn - famed editor on mystery books 6-13-83
  • 71 Murder Ink Bookstore (with owner Carol Brener) 6-14-83
  • 72 Maltese Falcon Society (with leader Judy Freeman) 6-15-83
  • 73 Peter Stern, rare book dealer - on collectible mystery books 6-16-83
  • 74 Baker Street Irregulars, Sherlock Holmes fans (with president Julian Wolf) 6-17-83
  • 75 Jeffrey Archer - "The Prodigal Daughter" 6-20-83
  • 76 Seymour Hersh - "Price of Power" 6-22-83
  • 77 Peter Maas - "Marie" 6-27-83
  • 78 Neal Pierce - "Book of America" 6-29-83
  • 79 Morris West - "The World is Made of Glass" 7-2-83
  • 80 James Ennes - Assault on the USS Liberty" 7-7-83
  • 81 NY Public Library updates its card catalog 7-13-83
  • 82 John Henry Faulk - "Fear on Trial" 7-18-83
  • 83 Gordon Lish - "Dear Mr. Capote" 7-21-83
  • 84 Les Whitten - "A Killing Place" 7-25-83
  • 85 Tom Kelly - "The Imperial Post," history of the Washington Post) 8-1-83
  • 86 Robin Cook - "Godplayer" 7-26-83
  • 87 Judith Rossner - "August" 8-8-83
  • 88 Lewis McClure, McClure Press (Gutenberg press replica) 8-10-83
  • 89 Andrew Harvey - "Journey to Ladakh" 7-15-83
  • 90 Robert Farrell - "Dear Bess," President Truman's letters to his wife 7-22-83
  • 91 David McClintick - "Indecent Exposure" 8-29-83
  • 92 John Houseman - "Final Dress" 9-12-83
  • 93 Leon Hale, Houston Post columnist (on why he rarely finishes reading a book) 9-14-83
  • 94 Barbara Matuso - "The Evening Stars," analysis of the TV anchors 9-15-83
  • 95 Ronald Radosh - "The Rosenberg File" 9-19-83
  • 96 Ken Follett - "On Wings of Angels" 9-21-83
  • 97 Gloria Steinem - "Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions" 9-26-83)
  • 98 Lovejoy's College Guide (with editor Charles Straugh) 10-3-83
  • 99 William Moffett, expert on book thefts 10-31-83
  • 100 Joe McGinniss - "Fatal Vision" 9-29-83
  • 101 S. I. Newhouse, publisher (with biographer Richard Meeker) 10-6-83
  • 102 Greg Constantine, artist - "Vincent Van Gogh Visits New York" 10-28-83
  • 103 Michael Crighton - "Electronic Life," pioneer computer book 10-11-83
  • 104 Bill Henderson, founder, The Pushcart Press 10-13-83
  • 105 Old Farmer's Almanac (with Jud Hale, publisher) 10-17-83
  • 106 H. Paul Jeffers - "Murder Most Irregular" 10-18-83
  • 107 Roger Straus, publisher (on death of Willam Golding) 10-19-83
  • 108 Stanley Karnow - "Viet Nam" 10-20-83
  • 109 Janet Dailey - "Calder Born, Calder Bred" 10-24-83)
  • 110 Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers series 10-26-83
  • 111 Art Buchwald - "While Reagan Slept" 10-27-83)
  • 112 Henny Youngman - "Take My Jokes Please" 11-1-83
  • 113 Nicholas Proffitt - "Gardens of Stone" 11-2-83
  • 114 Patricia Hampl - "Resort" and "A Romantic Education: 11-3-83
  • 115 Thornton Wilder (with biographer Gilbert Harrison) 11-7-83
  • 116 Ben Lucian Burman - the Cat Fish Bend stories for children 11-9-83
  • 117 Raymond Carver - "Cathedral" 11-14-83
  • 118 Stephen Wright - "Meditations in Green" 11-17-83
  • 119 Paul Theroux - "Kingdom by the Sea" 11-21-83
  • 120 Bob Greene - "American Beat" 11-24-83
  • 121 Lewis Burke Frumkes - "Raising Your IQ by Eating Gifted Children" 11-25-83
  • 122 Vassily Aksyonov - "Island of Crimea" 11-28-83
  • 123 Thomas Keneally - "Schindler's List" 11-30-83
  • 124 Galen Rowell, photographer - "Mountains of the Middle Kingdom" 12-2-83
  • 125 Amoz Oz - "In the Land of Israel"12-5-83
  • 126 Translations of foreign books (with Amos Oz, Vassily Aksyonov) 1-11-84
  • 127 Diane Johnson - "Dashiell Hammet" 12-7-83
  • 128 Mark Helprin - "Winters Tale" 12-19-83
  • 129 Michelin Travel Guides 12-15-83
  • 130 Mordechai Richler - "Best of Modern Humor" 12-12-83
  • 131 First printing of the Declaration of Independence 12-14-84
  • 132 Eve Arnold, photographer - "In America" 12-23-83
  • 133 Dan Greenburg, Susanne O'Malley - "How to Avoid Love and Marriage" 12-22-83
  • 134 Ted Fox - "Showtime at the Apollo" 12-27-83
  • 135 Father Richard Shaw - "The Christmas Mary Had Twins" 12-26-83

    1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993
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