Biography & Memoir

Novelist Edmund White has just completed his semi-autobiographical trilogy. The new novel The Farewell Symphony (Knopf) focuses on gay life from the 1960’s to the present. His other books include A Boy’s Own Story,The Beautiful Room is Empty,Genet: A Biography, Forgetting Elena, Nocturnes for the King of Naples, States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, The Joy of Gay Sex, and Caracole.

National Correspondent for the New York Times Rick Bragg. He's written a new memoir about growing up poor in Alabama, "All Over But the Shoutin'" (Pantheon Books).

The former president of NBC Entertainment Brandon Tartikoff died yesterday at the age of 48 from complications from treatment for Hodgkin's disease. We remember him with a 1992 interview excerpt. While at NBC, he was responsible for such hit series as "The Cosby Show," "Cheer," "Miami Vice," and "Hill Street Blues." He went on to become chairman at Paramount Pictures. He wrote a book about his NBC years, "The Last Great Ride." (Turtle Bay Books). (REBROADCAST from 10/20/92)

Monty Roberts has been studying horses for his entire life. His extraordinary ability to communicate with them has earned him the title "horse whisperer." He has written a new book about his life from studying wild mustangs in the Nevada desert to demonstrating his horse training methods to the Queen of England. The book is called "The Man Who Listens to Horses: The Story of a Real-Life Horse Whisperer" (Random House). Roberts was featured on "Dateline NBC."

Tara VanDerveer coached the Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. Women’s basketball team. The team’s performance drew large crowds and secured the formation of two professional U.S. women’s leagues: the WNBA and the ABL. VanDerveer has written a book about her own experience as a woman in sports. Its called “Shooting from the Outside: How a Coach and her Olympic Team Transformed Women’s Basketball.” (Avon Books) VanDerveer now coaches the Stanford University Women’s basketball team. (Interview by Barbara Bogaev)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Napoleon of Crime" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Aug. 15) a biography of Adam Worth, the most famous criminal of the Victorian Age by London Times reporter Ben Macintyre.

Maj. Gen. Charles W. Sweeney was the last officer to lead an atomic mission and was involved in both the Hiroshima and the Nagasaki bombing runs. He has written a memoir entitled "War's End" (Avon Books) which provides a first hand account of the planning and the execution of one of the history's most destructive combat missions.

NPR correspondent Margot Adler's commitment to political causes began in her childhood: she grew up in a household of communist sympathizers during the McCarthy era. As a student at Berkeley, she continued her activism. During this time, she exchanged letters with an American soldier in Vietnam. Her life in the sixties is the subject of her memoir, "Heretic's Heart: A Journey Through Spirit and Revolution." (Beacon Press) Adler is now an expert on witchcraft and paganism.

Guitarist and record producer Scotty Moore, was Elvis Presley's first guitarist and manager and one of the early influences of the rock guitar sound. He has co-written an account of his work with the King of Rock'n'Roll, entitled "That's Alright, Elvis." (Schirmer Books) He also has a new CD out of collaborations he and drummer DJ Fontana did with various musicians including Keith Richards, Tracy Nelson and Cheap Trick, among others. The CD is entitled "All the King's Men." (RCA)

Former Massachusetts State Senator Joseph Timilty. In 1993 he was indicted for conspiracy to commit fraud in a condominium development project. He refused to plea bargain, was arrested and spent four months in prison. His new memoir is of those four months: "Prison Journal." (Northeast University Press)

Poet and undertaker Thomas Lynch has combined his two occupations to produce his new book, "The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade." (W. W. Norton) The work is a collection of essays whose topics range from the scheme to use cemeteries as golf courses to poignant stories from his twenty year career as an undertaker. Lynch says he thinks that the meaning of life is connected to death, and his book primarily discusses the impact of the dead on the living.

Former prison warden Tekla Dennison Miller wrote a memoir called "The Warden Wore Pink" (Biddle Publishing Company) about her twenty year career as a warden of a men's maximum security prison. She describes the experience of women in corrections and reveals the reality of prison life.

Esterita "Cissie" Blumberg writes a monthly column for the Catskill/Hudson Jewish Star. She grew up in a hotel in the Catskills, and later owned and operated it with her husband. Her new book is "Remember the Catskills: Tales by a Recovering Hotelkeeper" (Purple Mountain Press)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the new Clare Boothe Luce biography, "Rage for Fame."

Actress and model Isabella Rossellini talks about her famous parents, actress Ingrid Bergman and filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, and her own career. She has acted in numerous films including "Blue Velvet," and she was the spokesmodel for Lancme cosmetics company. Her new book about her life is entitled "Some of Me." (Random House)

Daniel Baxter, M.D. has written a new book about his work, "The Least of These My Brethren: A Doctor's Story of Hope and Miracles on an Inner-City AIDS Ward."

Walsh has written a new book about un-covering the truth about the Iran-Contra scandal, "Firewall: The Iran-Contra Conspiracy and Cover-up." Walsh is now counsel to Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City and serves as a legal mediator.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Knopf), a memoir by the late Jean-Dominique Bauby.

Alibhai-Brown describes her family's experience as Asians in Uganda in her autobiography "No Place Like Home." (Virago Press) Alibhai-Brown's family, like many others, was forced out of East Africa by president and military leader Idi Amin, twenty-five years ago. Alibhai-Brown moved to England and earned an degree in English at Oxford. Her freelance work is now published in the "Guardian," the "Observer," and the "Independent."

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews R.F Foster's biography "W.B. Yeats a Life : The Apprentice Mage 1865-1914 Vol 1. This first volume covers the years 1865 through 1914, a time during which Yeats met his great love and the subject of some of his finest poems, Maude Gonne. This is also the period in which the poet, along with Lady Gregory and John Millington Synge created the famous Abbey Theater and wrote some of his finest poems.