Biography & Memoir

New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Mayor Rudolph Giuliani appointed him the 40th police commissioner of the City of New York in August of 2000. Prior to that, he was the commissioner of the Department of Correction. Kerik began as a prison warden in New Jersey. He joined the NYPD as a beat cop on Times Square. He just written a book, called The Lost Son: A Life in Pursuit of Justice.

Musician, producer, arranger, composer Quincy Jones has a new autobiography, Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones, (Doubleday) and a 4-CD boxset collecting his work, Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones (Rhino). In his fifty year career hes worked with just about anyone who is anybody in the music business. As a teenager he played backup for Billie Holiday, along with his 16 year old friend, Ray Charles. At 18 he began playing the trumpet in Lionel Hamptons band beside Clifford Brown.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews My Wars Are Laid Away In Books (Random House), the new biography of Emily Dickinson by Alfred Habegger.

Writer Simon Winchester wrote the best seller The Professor and the Madman. His new book is The Map That Changed the World (HarperCollins) about William Smith, an obscure British 19th century engineer obsessed with creating the first geological map. His map, hand-painted in 1815, paved the way for modern geology, but Smith was swindled out of the recognition and profits due him until a nobleman intervened.

In 1999, Stephen King, the prolific and popular horror writer experienced something that could have come out of one of his books: he was struck by a car while walking along a rural road in Maine and nearly killed. Six operations and a long recovery followed. Five weeks after the accident King started writing again, and published the novella, The Plant over the internet. His latest book is Dreamcatchers.

He commanded the NATO troops during the Kosovo conflict, the first and only NATO war. His new memoir is Waging Modern War

Historian David Mccullough is the Pulitzer-Prize winning author of Truman. His new book is the biography of founding father and second President of the United States. The book is John Adams.

Paul Robeson Jr. has just written a new memoir called The Undiscovered Paul Robeson, the first of a two part series on his father, the famed actor, singer and athlete. He talks about his fathers rise in show business and what it was like growing up as the son of an icon. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Probably best known for his mystery writing, Sallis is the author of the new highly anticipated biography of African American mystery writer and realist Chester Himes. Himes wrote several books in the late 50s like The Real Cool Killers, and Cotton Comes to Harlem. Sallis has also published several science fiction stories as well as the Lew Griffin mystery series. His book about the lives of noir writers Difficult Lives, came out last year.

Former Chicago policewoman Gina Gallo. While she was part of the force, she also wrote about her work in columns for NYCop online magazine and Blue Murders online magazine. They were collected in the book Crime Scenes (Blue Murder Press). She has a new memoir, Armed & Dangerous: Memoirs of a Chicago Policewoman

Bundles is former Washington deputy bureau chief for ABC News, and an award winning producer. Her new book is a biographer of her great-great-grandmother Madam C.J. Walker, On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C.J. Walker, . Walker was the daughter of slaves, and a widow at the age of 20. She built a business empire creating hair products for African-American women, and then turned her wealth into philanthropy. Her friends included W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.

Peter Hessler is the author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (HarperCollins). Its about his two years in Fuling, China as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching English and American literature at a local college. The book was serialized in The New Yorker.

Kraft was NASAs first flight director, from the first forays into space in the 1960s to after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969. Kraft also created Mission Control. He has written a new book, –Flight: My Life In Mission Control.

FBI special agent Christopher Whitcomb. He was part of the agency hostage rescue team. The team is the equivalent to the Navy SEALs and the Army Delta Force. As such he particpated in the missions at Waco, Ruby Ridge and Kosovo. He is currently director of strategic information management for the Critical Incident Response Group. He written the new book: Cold Zero: Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team

Comedian Richard Lewis. His new book is called “The Other Great Depression,” (Public Affairs, 2000) and chronicles his recovery from alcoholism. He’s an award winning stand up comic and has appeared in over twenty movies and TV shows. Currently, he co-stars in Larry David’s HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews “Journal 1935-1944: The Fascist Years” (pub., Ivan Dee) a journal of Romanian writer Mihail Sebastian (“Me-hi-eel Sebas-ti-an”) about the Nazification of Europe.

Kenneth Kamler, MD is a surgeon who also climbs mountains. He was team doctor on three expeditions to the top of Mount Everest, including the disastrous 1996 trip during which 6 people died. Kamler is both storyteller and advisor in his book, “Doctor on Everest: Emergency Medicine at the Top of the World – A Personal Account including the 1996 Disaster.” (The Lyons Press) Blackened limbs due to severe frostbite were the least of his troubles. I-V fluids are frozen solid, and abrasions cannot heal at such high altitudes.

Serbian writer Jasmina Tesanovic. She’s just published a book called “The Diary of a Political Idiot,” (Midnight Editions 2000). The book, comprised of excerpts from her personal journal, narrates daily life in Belgrade during the political upheaval and bombings in Serbia. She is one of the founders of 94, the first feminist publishing house in Serbia. She lives and works in Belgrade.

Singer Jerry Butler, aka The Iceman. His 1969 hit, “Only the Strong Survive,” is a rhythm and blues classic, and also the title of his new autobiography: “Only the Strong Survive: Memoirs of a Soul Survivor” (Indiana University Press) Butler founded the vocal group The Impressions as well as having a successful solo career. His awareness of civil rights led him to politics, and he is serving his fourth term on the Cook County Board of Commissioners in Chicago. The book was written with Earl Smith, Butler’s brother-in-law and a journalist.

We remember Lea Rabin, the widow of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. She died on Sunday at the age of 72. She had cancer. (REBRAODCAST from 4/9/97)