Books & Literature

Historian and author Deborah Gray White has compiled a new history of black women and their struggle against racism and male chauvinism. It's called "Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves 1894-1994" (W.W. Norton) White is a professor of history at Rutgers University and the co-director of the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan interviews historian and author Mike Wallace. He's co-authored a monumental new history of New York City, "Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898" (Oxford University Press). Wallace is a Professor of History at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

Holmes has written a new autobiography, "Against the Odds" (Thomas Dunne Book) about how he came up through poverty, and his training as Muhammad Ali's sparring partner.

Stilgoe is Orchard Professor of Landscape History at Harvard University. He's the author of the new book, "Outside Lies Magic: Regaining History and Awareness in Everyday Places" (Walker and Co.) He's been teaching the "art of exploration" for over 20 years, that is, learning to really look at the world around us.

Bob Ortega is an investigative journalist for The Wall Street Journal. He's the author of the new book, "In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and How Wal-Mart Is Devouring America" (Times Business/Random House). The book looks at how Wal-Mart went from a tiny variety store in backwater Arkansas to one of the world's largest corporations. In doing so, Wal-Mart's business practices have been imitated by other businesses and criticized for its impact on communities, and treatment of workers.

Critic Maureen Corrigan reviews "The Hours" (FS&G), Michael Cunningham's literary tribute to Virgina Woolf.

Jennings has collaborated with Todd Brewster on a new 12-hour documentary series which takes a look back at the 20th century. It's called "The Century" and will be broadcast early in 1999. There's also a companion book published by Doubleday. JENNINGS will discuss the project and his own 35 years in the news business.

Writer and critic Nelson George. He's one of this country's most prominent chroniclers of black music and culture. His new book "Hip Hop America" (Viking) is a history of Hip Hop, and a memoir of his own life, growing up to the musical strains of Hip Hop.

Lehman is the series editor of "The Best American Poetry." His new book "The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets" (Doubleday) is a cultural history about a group of poets in the 1950s who he says helped to reinvent literature, like John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch, and James Schuyler. They took their cue from the Abstract Expressionistic painters of the time who were also in New York.

Gabler's newest book is "Life: The Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality" (Knopf). His previous books are "Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity" and "An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood."

Maureen Corrigan reviews the new novel by Tom Wolfe, "A Man in Full" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux).

Our classical music critic will read two of his poems written about his 94 year old mother who has Alzheimer's and in a nursing home. The poems are: "The Two Horses (A Memory)" and "He Tells His Mother What He's Working On."

In 1980, Debbie Morris was a 16 year-old high school junior who was kidnapped, raped, and beaten by Robert Lee Willie. Willie's story was portrayed by Sean Penn in the film "Dead Man Walking." She has written about her life in "Forgiving the Dead Man Walking." (Zondervan)

President Carter has written 13 books since leaving office. His latest is "The Virtues of Aging" (Ballantine). In his retirement, Carter founded The Carter Center and launched The Atlanta Project a communitywide effort to attack the social problems associated with poverty.

Updike's newest book features Henry Bech, the moderately well known Jewish-American writer who was the hero of Updike's previous novels, "Bech: A Book," and "Bech is Back." His newest book is "Bech at Bay" (Knopf).

Rock historian Ed Ward continues his series on how country music was influenced by black and white music traditions.

Rock historian Ed Ward begins his two part series on Black and White country music.

Hillis is one of the world's leading computer scientists and is the designer of the world's fastest computer. He's also Vice President and Disney Fellow at Walt Disney Imagineering. His new book is "The Pattern on the Stone: the simple ideas that make computers work" (Basic Books)

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews the 50th Anniversary edition of Thomas Merton's spiritual autobiography, "The Seven Story Mountain" (Harcourt Brace).