Biography & Memoir

Author Michael Dorris. His work is wide-ranging in topic and emotional impact. In his earlier book "The Broken Cord" he wrote of his struggle to understand the severe health and behavior problems of an adopted son, Abel, who had Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Abel, a Native American, died in an accident after a difficult life. Dorris himself is part Modoc Indian. He founded the Native American Studies Program at Dartmouth College where he now teaches Anthropology.

Author Robb Forman Dew. In her novels--"Dale Loves Sophie to Death" (Harper Perennial) and "Fortunate Lives" (Harper Perennial)--Dew explored the ambiguities and intricacies of families. So she thought she understood the complexities of family love. But then her son informed her he was gay. Dew has written a new memoir about her son's coming out and the family evolution that followed. It's her non-fiction debut and it's called "The Family Heart" (Addison-Wesley).

Peru's eminent novelist and former presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa. Llosa is the author of many books including "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," (which was made into a movie, based on his own relationship with his 32-year old aunt, who he married at the age of 19), "The Storyteller," and "In Praise of the Stepmother." A London Times writer says of Llosa's novels that they are "among the finest coming out of Latin America." Llosa lived for many years in Europe.

Former Mouseketeer, Annette Funicello. At the age of 12, she was discovered by Walt Disney at a dance recital; he was looking for kids for his new show, "The Mickey Mouse Club." Funicello became the "most popular" Mouseketeer, and went on to star in a number of Disney films: "The Shaggy Dog," "Babes in Toyland," and "The Monkey's Uncle." Before she went to star in the beach party movies for which she is also known, Disney requested that she wear a one-piece bathing suit instead of a bikini. Funicello agreed.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "Bengal Nights," and "It Does Not Die," two autobiographical novels about the same romantic affair. They've just been republished. "Bengal Nights" is by Mircea Eliade, "It Does Not Die," is by Maitreyi Devi. (Both University of Chicago Press).

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes" by Janet Malcolm (Knopf). The book is a reflection on the various attempts by biographers to chronicle the life of the late poet Sylvia Plath.

Film director Milos Forman. Originally from Czechoslovakia, Forman is the director of such American films as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Amadeus," "Hair," and "Ragtime." Forman began his film career in his native country, apprenticing with some of the country's best film makers for the Communist state-controlled film industry.

Colombian journalist Maria Jimena Duzan helped expose the connection between Colombia's drug traffickers and the nation's military in 1988. Duzan and her paper, El Espectador, were the targets of death threats and attacks. By 1990 all of the members of the paper's former investigative unit were either dead or in exile. Duzan went into exile, but her sister, a documentary film maker, was murdered. Duzan returned to Columbia in 1992. She has a new book, "Death Beat: A Colombian Journalist's Life Inside the Cocaine Wars." (HarperCollins)

Commentator Maureen Corrigan has a review of a new biography of a turn of the century journalist: "Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist." (Times Books).

Parish Priest John McNamee. For twenty five years he's lived and worked the poorer neighborhoods of Philadelphia. His book, "Diary of a City Priest" (Sheed & Ward) documents his struggle to keep faith, when surrounded by poverty and despair.

Teresa "Terry" Phelps. Author, law professor and wife of Digger Phelps, former head basketball coach at Notre Dame. Terry Phelps has written a memoir called "The Coach's Wife" (Norton). In 1991, Digger Phelps left Notre Dame and not one Notre Dame official attended his farewell address. Terry Phelps says her husband was the victim of the clashing demands placed on college coaches--be an educator, but be a money maker and entertainer too. She writes about her role as the "lovely wife," as coach's wives are often called in the world of college sports.

Lionel Dahmer is the father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who committed some of the most ghastly crimes imaginable. Lionel has written a new memoir about his life with his son, "A Father's Story." (William Morrow), in which he tries to understand what happened to his son, and how he could turn into such a monster.

Author and former field engineer, editor, actor, migrant farm worker, farmer, trapper, truck driver and sailor Gary Paulsen. Paulsen has authored books for adults, young adults and children. His latest book for adult readers is "Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod" (Harcourt Brace and Company). The Iditarod has been called "the last great race on earth." It is the grueling 1,180 mile dogsled race over the Arctic terrain from Anchorage to Nome. Paulsen ran it twice. During training for the race, Paulsen almost lost his dogs and his own life.

Zlata Filipovic is a thirteen year-old Sarajevan, whose diaries of the war in Bosnia have been published this month as "Zlata's Diary" (Viking). The book begins in August of 1991, with a new school year --fifth grade-- and the trappings of girlhood: piano lessons and tennis. By that spring, Sarajevo was under siege and Zlata's schoolmates were being killed, her family hiding in the basement and abandoned purebred dogs wandered the streets.

Author and museum director James Cameron. Sixty four years ago, an organized mob of more than 10,000 white men and women dragged Cameron and two other black teenage men from a jail cell in Marion, Indiana. The mob mercilessly beat the three young men. They lynched two. Cameron was spared. In 1984, he recounted this experience in his memoir "A Time of Terror" (Available now from Black Classic Press). Then in 1988, Cameron founded the Black Holocaust Museum in Milwaukee.

Journalist Nguyen Qui Duc. He works for KALW-FM in San Francisco, supplies commentaries to NPR and received the Overseas Press Club's 1989 Award of Excellence for his public radio series about returning to Viet Nam. Nguyen has written a new memoir about his family's struggle during and after the war. NGUYEN's father was an official in the South Vietnamese government who was captured by the Viet Cong and imprisoned for 12 years. In 1975, Nguyen gained passage to the U.S. on a cargo ship, and moved about from relative to relative until he settled in California.

Comedienne and superstar Roseanne Arnold. Her show "Roseanne" debuted in 1988 and has consistently been a top TV series. She has often made news--she forced out the show's executive producer in a dramatic confrontation, she went public with accusations of incest, she performed a controversial rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at a baseball game. In 1989, she published her first book, "Roseanne: My Life as a Woman" which became a best seller. Now she has written "My Lives" (Ballantine Books).

Donna Williams. Her first book "Nobody Nowhere" offered a journey through the mysterious condition of autism; it was an international bestseller. Once her case was properly diagnosed, Williams began therapy which took her out of the "world under glass" and into the real world of speech and emotion. This treatment is the subject of her new book "Somebody, Somewhere: Breaking Free from the World of Autism" (Times Books).

Doctor of Psychology and editorial writer for the New York Times, Brent Staples. His new memoir is "Parallel Time: Growing Up in Black & White" (Pantheon). In 1984, Staples' younger brother, a cocaine dealer, was murdered. Staples began a process of reconsideration of the major questions in his life: his distance from his family by graduate study at the University of Chicago; the demise and racial divisions of his industrial hometown in Pennsylvania. On missing his brother's memorial, Staples writes "Choose carefully the funerals you miss."

Reporter for The Washington Post Nathan McCall. He's written a new autobiography, "Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America." (Random House). When McCall was twenty years old he was sent to prison for armed robbery.