Terry Gross

Rudy Behlmer (BELL-mur) is the editor of “Memo from David O. Selznick,” (Modern Library) a new collection of the producer’s private letters, telegrams and memos. The making of “Gone With the Wind” and other film classics are documented in this revealing look at the movie business in its early years. This book is part of a series of film books being reprinted by Martin Scorsese. Also in the “Modern Library: The Movies” series are “The Making of 2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Agee on Film” by James Agee, and “The Art of the Moving Picture,” by Vachel Lindsay.

Writer Keith Fleming talks about his first book, a memoir, The Boy with the Thorn in His Side (William Morrow.) When Fleming was a teenager, he was living in Chicago, depressed, and was committed to a string of mental institutions. Then his mother sent him to New York to live with his young, gay uncle, the critically acclaimed novelist and biographer Edmund White. The move and his uncle’s influence transformed his life. Keith Fleming is a freelance editor and writer living in Providence, RI (THIS INTERVIEW CONTINUES INTO THE SECOND HALF OF THE SHOW).

We talk more about HIV and AIDS in South Africa with journalist Phillip Van Niekerk (fawn-KNEE-kirk). Recently, the president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki (TAH-boh mm-BEK-eh) has become very involved in the AIDs policy in his country. Mr. Mbeki is focusing on a medical theory that states that the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, does not cause AIDS. Many leading scientists have criticized MR. Mbeki for wasting his time on what they see as a discredited theory about AIDS. The International AIDS conference is scheduled to be held in South Africa this summer.