Adam Henig, “Alex Haley’s Roots: An Author’s Odyssey” (2014)
Alex Haley’s 1976 book Roots: The Saga of an American Family still stands as a memorable epic journey into the history of African Americans during the enslavement period and after. The 1977 televised ...
5 Helmi 201444min
Patricia Ebrey, “Emperor Huizong” (Harvard University Press, 2014)
Patricia Ebrey‘s beautifully written and exhaustively researched new book introduces readers to an emperor of China as artist, collector, father, ruler, scholar, patron, and human being. Emperor Huizo...
3 Helmi 20141h 6min
Lauren Coodley, “Upton Sinclair: California Socialist, Celebrity Intellectual” (University of Nebraska Press, 2013)
Everybody knows the author of The Jungle was Upton Sinclair (or, if they’re a little confused, they might say Sinclair Lewis). As Lauren Coodley shows in her new biography Upton Sinclair: California ...
1 Helmi 201457min
Clare Mulley, “The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville” (St. Martin’s, 2013)
It’s almost a cliché by now to say that we need stories of strong women, but that doesn’t lessen the fact that we do. And biography is a field uniquely poised to transmit such stories- of compelling,...
31 Tammi 201441min
Xolela Mangcu, “Biko: A Life” (Tauris, 2013)
Host Jonathan Judaken speaks with Xolela Mangcu, biographer of Anti-Apartheid leader Steve Biko, about the life and murder of Steve Biko, as well as the struggle for equality in South Africa under Apa...
25 Tammi 201433min
Neil McKenna, “Fanny and Stella: The Young Men Who Shocked Victorian England” (Faber & Faber, 2013)
There is no one way to write a biography, nor should there be. It’s a statement that seems obvious enough and yet one which is still, to some degree, casually combative. For biography has long been a...
10 Tammi 201452min
Lawrence J. Friedman, “The Lives of Erich Fromm: Love’s Prophet” (Columbia UP, 2013)
Erich Fromm, one of the most widely known psychoanalysts of the previous century, was involved in the exploration of spirituality throughout his life. His landmark book The Art of Loving, which sold m...
2 Tammi 201452min
Brian Jay Jones, “Jim Henson: The Biography” (Ballantine Books, 2013)
In the field of children’s programming, few people- with the possible exception of Fred Rogers- are as beloved as Jim Henson, a contributor to Sesame Street and Saturday Night Live, but most famous fo...
6 Joulu 201359min
