Literary Figures

Amitav Ghosh reads: Farewell (1997) by Agha Shahid Ali.

Simon Schama reads from:
"Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills" (1914-1916)" by Winson Churchill.

WOODY ALLEN reads from
"Nobody Asked Me But. . ." (1943) by Jimmy Cannon.
"New York City Folklore" (1956) by Damon Runyon
"Damon Runyon's Ashes" (1946/1953) by Damon Runyon, Jr.

Walter Mosley reads from:
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (1928) by Erich Maria Remarque

Book critic Maureen Corrigan has an appreciation of writer Eudora Welty who died earlier this week, and a review of Zigzagging Down a Wild Trail by Bobbie Ann Mason

Eight years ago, at the age of 35, Philip Simmons was diagnosed with ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig disease. The disease is degenerative, with no cure. Simmons has lived longer with the disease than most. He written a new collection of essays, Learning to Fall: The Blessings of an Imperfect Life (Homefarm Books). Simmons is a professor of English at Lake Forest College in Illinois.

Writer and editor Roger Angell has been a fiction editor at The New Yorker for over 40 years. And has written about baseball for the magazine for decades. His pieces about baseball have been collected in four books including Late Innings and The Summer Game. Angell new book is A Pitcher Story: Innings with David Cone (Warner Books). Cone is a celebrated pitcher, a Cy Young Award winner, and one of sixteen men in history to pitch a perfect game. Last year, pitching for the Yankees, Cone experienced his first major slump. Angell chronicles Cone struggle in his book.

Writer David Hajdu is the author of the new book, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina. (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux). The book focuses on the early 1960s when the four of them changed the nature of popular music. Hajdu is also the author of the award-winning biography, Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn. Hajdu also writes for The New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair.

Singer-songwriter Steve Earle has released ten critically acclaimed albums; his latest CD is called Transcendental Blues. He's just published his first book, a collection of short stories called Doghouse Roses. Earle is also politically active. He currently serves as a board member of the Journey of Hope and is affiliated with both the Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and the Abolitionist Action Committee.

Writer Joyce Johnson talks about her relationship to Beat icon Jack Kerouac, and her book, Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters which is now out in paperback. In 1957, Johnson started a relationship with the then little-known writer Kerouac. Nine months later, Kerouacs Beat classic On the Road was published. Johnson will talk about her two-year, tumultuous love affair with Kerouac, and how the publication of On the Road changed Kerouac. Door Wide Open contains many letters sent to Johnson by Kerouac.