Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists 1854-67, by Rachel Cohen. It's a book about friendships between American writers and artists and photographers.
Barry's new book is The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History. In 1918, the influenza virus emerged, and in the next year killed millions of people. He writes "before that worldwide pandemic faded away in 1920, it would kill more people than any other outbreak of disease in human history." Scientists are still trying to figure out why the virus spread so rapidly and killed so efficiently. The story has relevance today as scientists believe we are due for another flu pandemic.
Sullivan is the author of the critically acclaimed books, The Meadowlands and A Whale Hunt. His new book is Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants. One reviewer writes, "in prose worthy of Joseph Mitchell, a... skittering, scurrying, terrific natural history." Sullivan is a contributing editor to Vogue and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker.
John Dominic Crossan is professor emeritus of biblical studies at DePaul University in Chicago. A native of Ireland, and ordained as a priest in the United States, he left the priesthood in 1969. Crossan is a founding member of the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars who meet to determine the authenticity of Jesus' sayings in the Gospels. Crossan wrote the books Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Historical Jesus and Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of The Death of Jesus.
He's the principal scientific investigator for the twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, on Mars. The two landed on the surface of Mars in January, and are helping astronomers to determine whether or not there was life on the planet. Squyres will talk about the many gadgets they created to work on Mars, and what it's like working on "Mars time." Squyres is also a professor of astronomy at Cornell University.
He is the creator, executive producer and head writer of the new HBO series Deadwood, a western drama set in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Milch left a teaching job at Yale University to go to Hollywood and work on the show Hill Street Blues. He also worked on NYPD Blue, for which he won two Emmys. Milch is a former heroin addict and alcoholic.
He calls his latest project a "musical novel." It's a new CD, Greendale, a 10-song cycle with his band Crazy Horse, set in a fictional California seaside town. He also shot a feature film version on Super8, which made the film festival circuit and will be in wider distribution in April.
Clarke is the former national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counterterrorism. He held the position in President Clinton's administration and continued for President Bush. He resigned in March 2003. His new book is Against All Enemies: Inside Americaâs War on Terror. In the book he criticizes the Bush administration for failing to heed warnings about al Qaeda before Sept. 11, and for invading Iraq without evidence of a connection to al Qaeda. Clarke also worked for the Reagan Administration and the first Bush administration.
On March 7, the actor and monologist Spalding Gray was found dead in the East River in New York. Gray, 62, had been missing for two months. His family believes he committed suicide. Gray was best known for his autobiographical monologues, including Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box and It's a Slippery Slope. Over the last 19 years he was a frequent guest on Fresh Air. We listen back to excerpts of his performances and interviews: Swimming to Cambodia (rebroadcast from Aug. 20, 1985), Monster in a Box (rebroadcast from Sept.
Actor Spalding Gray, famous for his autobiographical monologues, was found dead on March 7 in New York's East River. He'd been missing for two months. In the first of a two-part series, Terry Gross speaks with people who knew Gray well, including his wife, Kathie Russo, and his friend, Robby Stein. The second program features excerpts of GrayÂs Fresh Air interviews.
McCambridge died March 2 at the age of 87. McCambridge chilled audiences in the 1970s as the voice of the Devil in The Exorcist. She won an Academy Award for her first film role — in 1949 for All the King's Men. She also starred with Joan Crawford in Nicholas Ray's western, Johnny Guitar.
TV critic David Bianculli reviews Deadwood the new TV series - a Western — on HBO by writer David Milch who brought us NYPD Blue and Hill Street Blues.
She is the principal conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Britain. She was the first woman ever to be named principal conductor of a major British orchestra. Since 1993, Alsop has also been music director of the Colorado Symphony, where her programming won several national awards. She has had guest appearances with many orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony and the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Atlanta, Houston, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. She was a protigi of Leonard Bernstein.
