DescriptionMost kids write stories, but only a few of them grow up to be Margaret Atwood, Stephen King, or Norman Mailer. This gathering of childhood creations by almost 30 of today's most celebrated writers is funny and surprisingly informative. Today these authors dominate the best seller lists and occupy the most celebrated spots on the bookshelves of our stores, libraries, and homes, but years ago, they were kids having fun by writing stories. The writers include Allan Gurganus, Margaret Atwood, Amiri Baraka, Gloria Naylor, Pat Conroy, Joyce Carol Oates, Gore Vidal, Susan Minot, Ursula K. LeGuin, John Hersey, Rita Dove, Stephen King, Amy Tan, Norman Mailer, Paul Bowles, Maxine Hong Kingston, Roy Blount, Jr., Charles Johnson, William Styron, Stanley Elkin, Madeline L'Engle, Louis Auchincloss, Fred Chappell, Tobias Wolff, W.P. Kinsella, Gail Godwin, Stephen Dixon, Vance Bourjaily, and John Updike.
DescriptionThe explosion in storytelling festivals and one-person shows demonstrate that Americans are growing disenchanted with the mass media and returning to the simple pleasures of a well-told story. Here is a survey of great contemporary monologues, including excerpts from: Spalding Gray's Monster in a Box ; Lynda Barry's "I Remember Mike" from The Lynda Barry Experience ; Tom Bodett's "Crying" from Exploded ; Marion Winik's "Women Who Love Men Who Don't Pay Their Parking Tickets"; Peter Matthiessen's "In Nepal"; and many more.
DescriptionThe moving testimony of surviving crew and passengers of the Titanic is recreated in this dramatic, multicast recording. Merely one day after the Titanic survivors arrived in New York City, a United States Senate committee began investigation into the wreck of the great "unsinkable" ship. The official transcripts of the investigation include the testimony of J. Bruce Ismay, British Managing Director of the White Star Line, on-duty lookout Frederick Fleet's admission that the disaster may have been avoided, and passenger Daisy Minahan, who recalls the refusal of an officer in her lifeboat to aid those adrift in the frigid waters. Director/producer James Cameron used this historical record in the making of his film, Titanic .
DescriptionAlistair Cooke is the microphone's great observer, the doyen of foreign correspondents and the world's most famous letter writer. Since 1946 he has been explaining the Americans through his weekly Letter From America, the longest-running one-man series in broadcasting history. It has been, and still is, a virtuoso performance: informed, informal, shrewd, funny, and erudite. In this personally chosen selection from 1946-1968, Cooke reports on everything from an Indian village in New Mexico to the Watts riots in Los Angeles. He recalls the kidnapping of a baby and the trials of a summer bachelor. He gives us vivid word pictures of events such as John Glenn's journey into space and the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Every event evokes a particular time and place, but Cooke's unique style of expression and analysis provides each with a resonance that echoes through the years.
DescriptionHarold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores mult…
