Biography & Memoir

Kirk Douglas says that growing up in abject poverty was an advantage: he had nowhere to go but up. Often known for his tough guy roles, he also enjoys playing men who are weak, lost and vulnerable. He started his own production company to make movies he believed had depth and substance. His new autobiography looks back on his career so far.

Samuel Delany's new memoir is called The Motion of Light in Water. Delany sees himself as part of newer, left-of-center generation of science fiction writers. He joins Fresh Air to talk about his position in the margins as a genre writer and a black gay man, his dyslexia, and his perspective on the AIDS epidemic.

Mulcahy wrote for the New York Post's Page Six, and now works for New York Newsday. While the column she now helms features salacious stories, she considers certain topics off-limits, like AIDS and the outing of gay and lesbian public figures. Mulcahy's new memoir is called My Lips Are Sealed.

Washington Post staffer Paul Hendrickson has been writing about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara for years, but hasn't yet found a way use his extensive research to write a book-length profile. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about McNamara's reluctance to share his feelings on the Vietnam War.

The groundbreaking psychoanalyst didn't trust future biographers, even going so far as to destroy some of his personal papers. Nonetheless, historian Peter Gay has found enough material to write his second book on Freud. He joins Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about Freud's personal life, theories, and views on female sexuality,

Despite his association with the 1960s anti-war movements, SDS co-founder and current California State Legislator Tom Hayden says he was as unlikely to become a beatnik in the 50s as he was a hippie in the 60s. His new memoir, which reflects on his political activity over the decades, is called Reunion.

Book critic Stephen Schiff calls John Cheever, the subject of a new biography by Scott Donaldson, "the saddest man I ever met." The story of the author's life is brutal, told skillfully, but with prose that could't hope to match Cheever's.

Writer Paul Monette. His new book, Borrowed Time, is a memoir about watching his lover die from AIDS.

Lawrence Weschler, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine. He writes about politics and art, and his profiles are gathered in a new book, Shapinsky's Karma, Bogg's Bill and Other True Tales.

Michael Harrington, a political scientist, author and co-chairman of the Democratic Socialists of America. His 1962 book, The Other America, caught the attention of President John Kennedy and became the handbook for Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty. Harrington's central theme is that poverty is growing, not shrinking, and that the free market has proven inadequate to the task of reducing it. His more recent works include The New American Poverty and The Next Left. His latest work, The Long-Distance Runner, is his autobiography.

Detective Josiah Thompson. Thompson was a tenured professor of philosophy at Haverford College when he applied for a job at a San Francisco detective agency. He has since left academia and works full-time as a private eye. He's written an account of his work titled Gumshoe: Reflections in a Private Eye. Thompson's cases run the gamut from recovering money from an attic in a drug case to saving an innocent man from the gas chamber.

Frank Robinson, manager of the Baltimore Orioles. In 1975, he became the first black manager in baseball, and today he is the only one. As a player, Robinson was legendary. He is the only player ever to win the Most Valuable Player award in both leagues; and his 586 home runs place him behind Hand Aaron, Babe Ruth and Willie Mays on the all-time list.

Writer Gerald Clarke. Clarke's biography of writer Truman Capote has just been published. Capote was the author of the seminal work In Cold Blood, but his writing was overshadowed by the excesses of his lifestyle and his reputation as the clownish fixture of the talk show circuit. Clarke's biography was 14 years in the making and was undertaken with Capote's full cooperation. Clarke has written extensively for Time magazine.

Natan, formerly Anatoly, Sharansky. He was jailed on trumped up treason and spying charges by the KGB and endured nine years of solitary confinement and a starvation diet before an international campaign forced his release two years ago. His account of his ordeal and the subsequent pressures of celebrity are recounted in his book Fear No Evil.

Actress Patty Duke. At the time of her 1962 film "The Miracle Worker," Duke was the youngest actress to win an Oscar, for her role as Helen Keller. At 16, she was the youngest actress in television to have a prime-time series built around her. The success, however, masked personal misery which included depressions that led to suicide attempts and a string of failed marriages. Duke has written an autobiography titled Call Me Anna.

Novelist and essayist Harry Crews. His nine novels include All We Need is Hell and The Gospel Singer. Oftentimes, the main characters of Crews' works are outsiders; The central character of Crews' most recent work, titled The Knockout Artist, is a boxer who specializes in knocking himself out. Crews' three works of nonfiction include the autobiography A Childhood, Blood and Grits, and Florida Frenzy.

Baseball great Willie Mays, one of the most potent all-round players in the history of baseball. In his 22 seasons in the major leagues, Mays played in 21 All-Star Games, batted over .300 and hit 660 home runs. His autobiography, Say Hey, has just been published. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)

Book critic John Leonard reviews the novel Children of the Arbat, by the Russian writer Anatoly Rybakov.

Novelist and theater and film director Elia Kazan. He directed Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront," and James Dean in "East of Eden." He was a member of the Group Theater and co-founded the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg.

John Rothchild. His new book, A Fool and His Money is a personal account of his adventures as an average investor trying to figure out the complexities of the stock and commodities markets.