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Remembering Radical Writer Jessica Mitford

Mitford died of cancer at the age of 78 on Tuesday (July 23). She was considered one of the premiere investigative journalists of her day, a muckraker in the tradition of Sinclair Lewis and John Dos Passos. Her targets included the Famous Writers School, a Midwest correspondence school, and the U.S. penal system ("Kind and Usual Punishment: The Prison Business"). Mitford's most recent book, "The American Way of Birth" (1992), declares that doctors perform too many C-Sections and de-legitimize midwifery. Near her death, Mitford was working on a revision of her most acclaimed work, "The American Way Of Death" (1963), which was a criticism of the American funeral industry. (ORIGINALLY BROADCAST 5/16/89)

21:19
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Other segments from the episode on July 26, 1996

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, July 26, 1996: Interview with Isabel Allende; Review of the album "The Complete Aladdin Recordings of Lester Young"; Obituary for Jessica Mitford.
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21:50

Novelist Isabel Allende on Losing Her Daughter

Allende's first work of non-fiction, "Paula," is now a bestseller in paperback. The book was inspired when her 28 year old daughter fell into an irreversible coma. It began as a letter to her dying daughter and turned into an autobiographical work telling of life from Allende's childhood in Chile to her exile in Venezuela and her move to San Francisco. Publisher's Weekly says, "Only a writer of Allende's passion and skill could share her tragedy with her readers and leave them exhilarated and grateful." (ORIGINALLY BROADCAST 5/1/95)

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05:54

Rebutting the Myth of a Broken, Post-War Lester Young

Jazz Critic Keving Whitehead reviews a new re-issue of jazz saxophonist Lester Young. It's called "The Complete Aladdin Recordings of Lester Young" from Blue Note. Whitehead says these recordings from the 1940s prove that, contrary to popular belief, Young's playing remained intact after his military service.

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Radical Writer Jessica Mitford

Mitford grew up in a wealthy English family. She cultivated her leftist politics early in life, and became an anti-fascist activist. She joins Fresh Air to talk about her relationship with the Communist Party during the McCarthy era, her early book about the death industry, and growing older.

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Human rights leader Jeri Laber

Human rights leader Jeri Laber. Shes one of the founders of Helsinki Watch, which eventually became Human Rights Watch. Her new book, The Courage of Strangers: Coming of Age with the Human Rights Movement is a memoir that is part personal history and part history of the human rights movement. Laber was executive director of Helsinki Watch from 1979 to 1995 and has written many articles for newspapers and magazines. She's been awarded the Order of Merit by President Vaclav Havel on behalf of the Czech Republic, and she's also won the prestigious MacArthur Grant.

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