WWII

Book Critic John Leonard reviews "Perfect Gallows," a mystery by Peter Dickinson.

John Boorman, British film director. His new film is titled "Hope and Glory" set in London during the Blitz in World War II. The film looks at war from the vantage point of a child, who saw in the chaos a non-stop party.

Film Critic Stephen Schiff will review "Hope and Glory," starring Sarah Miles and Ian Bannen, and directed by John Boorman, ("Deliverance"). Told from the point of view of a 9-year-old, it is the story of a family trying to survive during the terror that gripped London during World War II.

The Australian miniseries, about prisoners in World War II, is presented in full in a new home video release. Critic Ken Tucker says it powerfully illustrates the cultural divide between Great Britain and Australia.

The Nobel Prize-winning writer's formative experiences were informed by war in Eastern Europe, an itinerant childhood, and American novels and films. He has lived in the United States since 1960.

Shearing was born blind and began learning piano at age 4. Both practical limitations and prejudice kept him from playing certain kinds of gigs. But during World War II, while many fellow musicians served in the military, Shearing was given more opportunities to work. He later moved to the United States to further his career.

Shearing was born blind and began learning piano at age 4. Both practical limitations and prejudice kept him from playing certain kinds of gigs. But during World War II, while many fellow musicians served in the military, Shearing was given more opportunities to work. He later moved to the United States to further his career.

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut discusses his writing, and his work defending the intellectual freedom of writers in America and abroad.

Actor Alec Guinness begin acting in classic English theater in the 1930s and 1940s. After World War II, he began to appear in films, and won an Academy Award in 1957 for his work in the film "The Bridge Over the River Kwai." He is known to a new generation of viewers as Obi Wan Kenobi from the Star Wars films. Guinness has recently published a memoir "Blessings in Disguise." (PARTIAL INTERVIEW)

Kurt Vonnegut is one of the most prominent of contemporary novelists. His work often contains paradoxes and explores ideas from his science background. Vonnegut was also a P. O. W. in Dresden during the U.S firebombing of the city, an experience that was a subject in his novel "Slaughterhouse-Five." Vonnegut's works have often been banned, and he is active in a movement of writers to defend free speech rights in the U. S. and abroad. He recently traveled abroad as a representative of the organization PEN to report on intellectual freedom in Eastern Europe.

Photographer John Phillips has documented events such as the Nazi invasion of Austria, European high society, and the Jews and Arabs in Palestine before and after the establishment of Israel as an overseas correspondent for Life magazine. Phillips was born in Algeria, grew up in France, and moved to London as a young man. Phillips has collected over 500 of his photographs and written text to create his own "photo-biography," "It Happened in Our Lifetime." (INTERVIEW BY DANNY MILLER)

Artie Shaw is a legendary big bandleader and clarinetist. His band was one of the most popular of the 1940s. Since then Shaw has written books, worked as a film producer, and retired from playing. in 1980 he organized a new band to play his works and arrangements.

Studs Terkel studied law and acted in theater before becoming a radio broadcaster. His syndicated program and books feature oral histories of everyday people in the United States. He joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to discuss how he conducts interviews in a way that is both insightful and respectful.

Historian Allan Bérubé has been researching gays and lesbians during World War II, particularly gay men in the military. Bérubé began the research for the San Francisco Lesbian and Gay History Project, an oral history which collected stories from older gays and lesbians about life "pre-Stonewall." Bérubé's work was the covered in the Mother Jones article "Coming Out Under Fire."

Film critic Bill Van Wert reviews the film "Sophie's Choice," starring Meryl Streep. (PARTIAL REVIEW)

Paul Fussell is an academic who has written several works of cultural history and literary criticism. His is particularly interested in the writing, photography, and art produced during World War II. His latest collection of essays is "The Boy Scout Handbook and Other Observations."

The author's newest book draws on his experiences as an Army chaplain during the Korean War. He discusses the impact war has on faith, as well as the allure the mystical tradition of Cabala has for some Jews.

As a young person, Philadelphia-based judge William Marutani and his family were moved to a Japanese internment camp. He discusses the history of race-based discrimination during World War II, as well a his own experiences with anti-Asian racism. He advocates for reparations from the U.S. government for those who were forcibly relocated.

Writer Josef Skvorecky joins the show to describe his fiction, jazz, and growing up in Czechoslovakia.

Novelist Anthony Cave Brown discusses his latest novel and the role of the intelligence community in World War II.