American Authors

Meg Wolitzer's novel The Position, which is now out in paperback, is about a 1970s era couple who write a Joy of Sex-style book, complete with illustrations of them making love — then their teenage children get a hold of it. Our book critic describes it as a "smart, wry novel... that turns out to be a poignant elegy to the fleeting health and pleasures of the body, as well as to the fleeting emotional and physical togetherness of the family." This interview originally aired on May 10, 2005.

Capote, the new film about Truman Capote, details the writer's life at the time around his breakthrough book, In Cold Blood. The film, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, tells the story of how Capote came to tell of the murder of a Holcomb, Kan., family.

Meg Wolitzer's new novel, The Position, is about a 1970s couple who write a Joy of Sex-style book, complete with illustrations of them making love. Their lives — and those of their children, who get their hands on the book — are never quite the same afterward.

Daniel Pinkwater's book The Artsy Smartsy Club is the third installment of his Hoboken Chicken stories. In addition to his duties as an NPR commentator, he's written more than 60 books for children, including Irving and Muktuk: Bad Bears in the Big City, and The Picture of Morty and Ray. This story was originally broadcast on July 13, 2004.

Author Saul Bellow died April 5 at the age of 89. His short stories and novels garnered him three National Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a Presidential Award and a Nobel Prize. His books include The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog and Humbolt's Gift. (Originally aired Oct. 4, 1989.)

Writer Frank Conroy died April 6, at 69. He had colon cancer. He was the longtime director of the prestigious Iowa Writers Workshop. His 1967 memoir, Stop-Time, became a classic. In 1993, he published his first and only novel, Body & Soul. His other books were a collection of short stories, Midair, and his last book, the nonfiction Time and Tide: A Walk Through Nantucket. Conroy also worked as a jazz pianist in Greenwich Village and Nantucket for many years. (Originally aired Sept. 29, 1993)

Writer James Atlas' new book is a collection of essays called My Life in the Middle Ages: A Survivor's Tale. James Atlas is the founding editor of the Lipper/Viking Penguin Lives Series. He writes for The New Yorker. He was also an editor at The New York Times Magazine. His work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, and Vanity Fair. He is the author of Delmore Schwartz: The Life of an American Poet, which was nominated for the National Book Award.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews Downtown: My Manhattan, by Pete Hamill.

His latest novel, The Pleasure of My Company, is now out in paperback and follows his best selling novella Shopgirl. This show was originally broadcast on Oct. 6, 2003.

His new book is Looking for Bobowicz. In addition to his duties as an NPR commentator, he's written more than 60 books for children and the young at heart, including Irving and Muktuk: Bad Bears in the Big City and The Picture of Morty and Ray. Pinkwater lives in upstate New York with his wife Jill, who illustrated Looking for Bobowicz.