Lawrence Millman wrote the foreward and saw through the publication of Edward Beauclerk Maurice's diary.
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Audio
If there’s one writer who’s identified with the Mississippi River, it’s Mark Twain. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri — on the river’s edge — and as a young man, he worked as a steamboat pilot. And then he wrote the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the novel that turned the Mississippi into myth. But it also created one of the most enduring controversies in American literary history: how to depict race relations in America's past. In this interview, Andrew Levy says that "Huckleberry Finn" is actually anti-racist — and when it was first published, the big controversy was about Twain’s depiction of wild children.
Robert Gordon tells Steve Paulson that he discovered the great Black Blues players while still a white boy in high school and that the racial complexities of Memphis have always been at the heart of its music.
Colum McCann's novel "Let the Great World Spin" takes place on the day of tight-rope artist Philipe Petit's trip across the World Trade Centers.
Michael Thelwell was a life-long friend of Stokely Carmichael and collaborated with him on his autobiography, “Ready for Revolution.”
Maurice Sendak's new book, “Brundibar” is a collaboration with playwright Tony Kushner. It’s a story about confronting evil, based on events from the Holocaust.
Jim Fleming talks with Mairin Ui Cheide, a sean-nos singer. Sean-nos is old-style traditional singing where songs usually tell a story.
Karen Joy Fowler won the PEN/Faulkner Award for best fiction for her novel "We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves." Based on a true story, it’s the remarkable tale of two girls raised as sisters, until one is removed from the family. The twist is that one sister is a chimpanzee.
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