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Allan Gurganus on Memory and Race.

Writer Allan Gurganus. His novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, which is scheduled for publication later this fall, is the story of a blind 99-year-old widow, now confined to a nursing home, whose stories about her life and her husband's take in almost 150 years of American history. Mostly her stories focus on her husband and how his experiences in the Civil War, when he was only 13, haunted him, and her, until he died. Gurganus, a professor of writing at New York's Sarah Lawrence University, has written for The New Yorker, Harpers and The Atlantic Monthly. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

11:16

Other segments from the episode on July 17, 1989

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 17, 1989: Interview with Jack Olsen; Review of Duke Ellington's album "Private Collection, Vol. 10"; Interview with Allan Gurganus; Review of the television program …

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