Biography & Memoir

Martha Reeves is the lead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, the Motown group which made it big in the 60's with such hits as "Nowhere to Run," "Heat Wave," and "Dancing in the Street." Her new autobiography, "Dancing in the Street: Confessions of a Motown Diva," is about her career, her conflicts with other Motown singers and managers, and her experiences touring during the height of the Civil Rights movement.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews poet Peter Davison's account of the thriving literary scene in 1950s Boston, called "The Fading Smile."

Dr. David Hilfiker is a physician who left a rural family practice in Minnesota to treat the urban poor. In his new book, "Not All of Us Are Saints," he describes his frustration both with the system that allows people to live in poverty, and with the patients who frequently flout his medical advice. Hilfiker's first book, "Healing the Wounds" won the "American Medical Writers Associatin" prize, and was named among the "Best Books of the Year" from the NYT Book Review.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "True North," a sequel to Jill Kerr Conway's autobiography, "The Road from Coorain."

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews Julia Blackburn's new book "Daisy Bates in the Desert," an experimental biography about the real life Australian woman who often lied about her past and identity.

Sindiwe Magona is a fiction writer who was born and educated in South Africa. Her autobiography, "To my Children's Children," traces her life under the apartheid system. In her memoir, she describes her childhood in a poor South African town, and the hasty end a teenage pregnancy put to her career as a teacher. The memoir won an honorable mention from the 1991 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Magona has also published a novel, "Forced to Grow," and a collection of short stories. She currently works as a translator for the United Nations.

Karolyi coached Nadia Comaneci in the 1976 Olympics, where she was the first person to score perfect tens in Olympic history. Karolyi and writer Nancy Ann Richardson have collaborated on a biography of his life, called "Feel No Fear." The book tells of Karolyi's defection from Romania to the U.S., and how he brought the American gymnasts Mary Lou Retton and Kim Zmeskal into the public eye.

Ladd is a 24-year-old writer who has just published an autobiography, "Out of the Madness." He writes about growing up in the Dallas housing projects with his mother, who was a heroin addict. Ladd describes how he struggled to educate himself and eventually became a writer. His book started out as an article, written when he was 20, and published in "Dallas Life." Ladd currently writes for the "Dallas Morning News," and attends college.

Nelson Peery has just published his memoir, "Black Fire: The Making of an American Revolutionary," about coming of age against a background of racism, the Depression, and World War II. The book chronicles Peery's travels west during the Depression, and his experiences as a soldier fighting in World War II. He writes about his simultaneous love for America and hatred for the people who discriminated against African Americans, especially in the Army.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews "No Gifts from Chance," Shari Benstock’s new biography of writer Edith Wharton.

Josephine Humpreys and Ruthie Bolton. Humpreys is a fiction writer who won the Pen/Hemingway award in 1985 for "Dreams of Sleep." She recently transcribed and edited the life story of Bolton, who grew up in the same area of Charleston, South Carolina as Humphreys. The novel is called "Gal," and details Bolton's experiences growing up with an abusive grandfather in 1960's South Carolina.

Merchant Seaman Captain Rudolph Patzert. In 1947 he captained a ship that was part of a clandestine effort by the Jewish underground to smuggle Holocaust survivors into Palestine. Palestine at that time was under British rule, and a British air and sea blockade prevented immigration to the country. Patzert's ship, the Paducah, was a 45 year-old rundown converted gunboat, his crew inexperienced; and they were thwarted every step of the way: British intelligence hounded them, preventing them from refueling and re-watering.

Gerald Early is Director of African American Studies at Washington University, and author of several books. His newest book is a memoir about raising his two daughters, "Daughters: On Family and Fatherhood," (Addison-Wesley). One reviewer wrote, "a powerful reminder of the complexity and mystery, and abiding love that exists in families. . . this narrative. . is also suffused with the glory and pain and generational patience of black culture in America."

Stewart Udall served three terms in Congress, and as Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. He is the author of a new book, "The Myths of August", (Pantheon) which chronicles his struggle as one of the first lawyers to represent thousands of Americans who were injured or killed by the testing of atomic weapons. Udall spent years investigating and litigating cases filed by Southwestern families who had been harmed by atmospheric testing of atomic bombs, and by families of Navajo men who developed lung cancer after mining Uranium for the Government.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews: "Kay Boyle: Author of Herself," by Joan Mellen.

Norma McCorvey. She was the plaintiff in Roe vs. Wade. In the lawsuit she was called Jane Roe to shield her privacy. In her new book "I Am Roe" (Harper Collins), she tells her story. She was poor, alone and pregnant. Her case became a landmark Supreme Court decision--it gave women the right to choose abortion. But McCorvey ended up giving birth to the child because the Supreme Court decision came too late.

Writer and former film maker Gretel Ehrlich is the author of "The Solace of Open Spaces," a collection of essays about life on Wyoming's high plains. It was while walking on the Wyoming plains, that Ehlrich was struck by lightning. The force of it threw her forty feet, severely damaged part of her nervous system, and sent her into a "solitary limbo." Ehrlich returned to her parents home for medical treatment and began trying to understand what happened to her.

Retired Astronaut and former test pilot Alan Shepard. He was America's first man in space in 1961; the voyage covered 302 miles and lasted 15 minutes. Ten years later with Apollo 14, he made it to the moon, playing golf on the moon's surface. (In 1969, the Apollo 11 landed on the moon, and Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon). Early in his space career, Shepard was diagnosed with an inner ear syndrome which could have ended his career. Shepard grounded himself in 1963 and became Chief of the Astronaut Office.

Commentator Maureen Corrigan reviews the new memoir by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "Colored People."

Scholar and activist Henry Louis Gates, Jr. He's Professor of English and Chairman of Afro-American Studies at Harvard and one of Afro-American studies most visible and controversial proponents. Gates believes that Black studies should be a methodology, not an ideology, and that you don't have to be black to teach African-American literature.