Literary Figures

Nora Ephron, the essayist, novelist, screenwriter and film director, died Tuesday night in Manhattan. She was 71, and suffered from leukemia. Fresh Air remembers the creator of Silkwood and When Harry Met Sally with excerpts from a 2006 interview from WHYY's Radio Times.

"I'm never going to go to Mars but I've helped inspire ... the people who built the rockets and sent our photographic equipment off to Mars," Bradbury told Terry Gross in 1988. The science-fiction writer died Tuesday at the age of 91.

This interview was originally broadcast in 1988.

Author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, whose book Where the Wild Things Are became a favorite for generations of kids, died at age 83. Fresh Air remembers Sendak with excerpts from several interviews.

Reynolds Price, the acclaimed writer known for his evocative novels and stories about rural North Carolina, died in Durham on Thursday. He was 77. Fresh Air remembers the writer with excerpts taken from several interviews he gave over the past 20 years.

Wilfrid Sheed, the satirical British essayist known for bringing his trademark wit to a wide range of novels, reviews and nonfiction books, died this week. He was 80. Fresh Air remembers the writer with excerpts from a 1988 interview.

Fresh Air remembers the comic book writer with highlights from 2003 and 2005 interviews. Pekar, who died Monday, was the author of the series American Splendor, which captured the angst of a man struggling with the daily ups and downs of life.

Jose Torres-- the former light-heavyweight boxing champion-- died from a heart attack on Jan. 19 at the age of 72. Fresh Air remembers him with an interview from 1989.

Leonard was considered one of the best literary critics in America; he was an early champion of future Nobel Prize winners Toni Morrison and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Leonard died Wednesday from complications with lung cancer.

The novelist and essayist was found dead in his home Sept. 12, reportedly a suicide. Fresh Air remembers him with an interview first aired in 1997, the year he won the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" grant.

Theodore Solotaroff, founder of The New American Review, died Aug. 8 of complications from pneumonia. He was 79. An influential man in the publishing world, Solotaroff helped writers like Philip Roth achieve recognition.