Biography & Memoir

Merrill died Monday at age 68. The son of the founder of the Merrill Lynch brokerage house, Merrill traveled to Europe at age 24, a newly published poet "meaning to stay as long as possible". That was in 1950. His memoir "A Different Person" detailed his two and a half years there, and featured encounters with psychoanalysts, new and old lovers, and Alice Toklas. Merrill wrote eleven books of poems, and was the winner of two National Book Awards, the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, and the Pulitzer Prize. (Rebroadcast)

Golden in the author of the new memoir, "Saving Our Sons." She writes about bringing up her son in Washington D.C., where homicide is the leading cause of death for Black males between 18 and 24. In the preface, she says, "I stopped work on a novel in order to write this book. The unremitting press of young lives at risk, the numbing stubbornness of annual, real-life death tolls, rendered fiction suddenly unintriguing, vaguely obscene."

"The New York Times Magazine" called Galdikas the "third angel" of Louis Leakey, who also taught Jane Goodall and DIan Fossey. Galdikas has been studying orangutans in Indonesia since 1971, when virtually nothing was known about the animals in the wild. Since then, there have been articles about her, and her research in "National Geographic" and other magazines. She has just written a new book about her work, "Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo."

Journalist Dennis Covington has written a new book about the practice of snake handling in a Southern Appalachian church. Practitioners use snake handling as a kind of anointing -- a belief that the Holy Spirit comes down to protect them from fear and danger in handling the poisonous snakes. Covington's book, Salvation on Sand Mountain, is both a journalistic endeavor and an exploration of his own faith.

Redgrave appeared in over 50 films, including "Morgan!", "Blow Up", "Julia" and "Howards End". Her stage work has included Shakespeare, Chekhov, Noel Coward and Tennessee Williams. She comes from a celebrated theater family, and her daughters are both actresses. Redgrave is also well known for her political activism, including support for Nuclear Disarmament and Palestinian causes. Her memoirs have just been published by Random House.

Humorist and NPR commentator David Sedaris charms us with "Santaland Diaries." The piece comes from Sedaris' book "Barrel Fever," and first ran on NPR's Morning Edition a few days before Christmas 1992. Even though Sedaris has achieved national fame and movie contracts for his humor writing, he still cleans apartments during the day, because, he says, he can only write at night.

Payn's new memoir is about his life with the the legendary theater songwriter. Coward is the author of "Hay Fever," "Private Lives," and "Blithe Spirit." Payn met him as a child, when he acted in Coward's "Words and Music" in 1932. The two were friends for thirty years until Coward's death in 1973.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan has a holiday round-up of some of her favorite books of the year, including two newly published books, "Inspector Imanishi Investigates" by Seicho Matsumoto, and "The Folding Star" by Alan Hollinghurst.

The Grammy Award-winning jazz musician Wynton Marsalis. He's been playing the trumpet since he was six, and won his first Grammy at 20. Marsalis is also the cofounder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. He recently announced that he is breaking up the Septet so he can spend more time with the Lincoln Center. "Sweet Swing Blues on the Road" is his new book, written in collaboration with photographer Frank Stewart.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Remember Laughter," Neil Grauer's biography of James Thurber.

The former congresswoman became Louisiana's first woman member of Congress in 1972. She was elected after her husband, then House majority leader Hale Boggs, died in a plane crash. Boggs was an advocate for civil rights and women's issues before her retirement in 1990. She is the mother of NPR and ABC-TV's Cokie Roberts, Washington lobbyist Thomas Hale Boggs, and the late Barbara Sigmund, who was mayor of Princeton, New Jersey. Boggs has new autobiography is called "Washington Through a Purple Veil: Memoirs of a Southern Woman."

Gordy and his record label made stars out of musicians including Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and Michael Jackson. He has written his autobiography, "To Be Loved: The Music, the Magic, the Memories of Motown: An Autobiography."

Reynolds is the star of "Evening Shade," as well as the films as "Deliverance" and "Smokey and the Bandit." He's written his autobiography, titled "My Life." Terry spoke with Reynolds before he cut short his recent book tour.

Dagoberto Gilb with a commentary on fatherhood in light of his newfound literary fame.

Wolff has been nominated for the National Book Award for his memoir "In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War." The book is an account of Wolff's tour in Vietnam. Woff is also the author of two short story collections, a novella, and "This Boy's Life," a memoir about his childhood.

Frazier is the author of "Family," a book which traces his ancestors back to the 1600s. His inspiration for the book came from old letters he found after the death of his parents in 1987 and 1988. Their death gave him the desire to find "a meaning that would defeat death" in the letters. Frazier is also the author of "Dating Your Mom," "Nobody Better, Better Than Nobody," and "Great Plains." He is a regular contributor to the "New Yorker."

Colonel Margarethe Cammeryer was named Nurse of the Year by the Veterans Administration and was Chief Nurse of the Washington State National Guard. She was discharged from the service in 1992 because she revealed that she is a lesbian, becoming the highest-ranking officer to be discharged solely for homosexuality. She challenged the ruling, and was reinstated in July. "Serving in Silence" is her new book about her experiences.

Anne Maguire and her son Patrick were part of the Maguire Seven, the family who was wrongfully arrested in 1974 on suspicion of manufacturing bombs for the Irish Republican Army. The family was tortured, tried, convicted, and jailed, and was not reunited for eleven years. Anne spent eight years in prison; Patrick spent four after being convicted at the age of 13. Anne has written a book about their experience, called "Miscarriage of Justice."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "You Can't be Neutral on a Moving Train," the new autobiography by Howard Zinn.

Wideman is the author of "Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society," which explores his relationship with both his father and his son. Wideman's earlier book, "Brothers and Keepers," tells of his relationship with his brother, who, like his son, was convicted of murder. He is also the author of novels and short stories, and is a professor of English literature.