August 10, 2007
He’s not the type of novelist who cranks out a new book every year. Ideas marinate in Richard Ford’s mind for years –- sometimes 50 years -- before they surface in his stories. Ford spent so much time gathering material and reworking the manuscript of his latest novel, The Lay of the Land, he kept the pages in his freezer for safekeeping. He talks with Kurt about the challenges of aging a character in real time.
For a time, Margaret Mitchell’s saga of the antebellum South was the second bestselling book next to the Bible. Gone With The Wind had it all: charming debutantes, a sacred family home, an indomitable heroine, the destruction of a society, and a whopping love story. Her book beat out another novel about a slaveholding family –- William Faulkner’s classic Absalom, Absalom –- for the 1936 Pulitzer. As part of our series on American Icons, WNYC’s Karen Frillmann takes a look at how its racial politics play out in 2006, and why Gone with the Wind still speaks to today’s readers and viewers.
The dobro guitar is often used in the movies to quickly establish a feeling of rustic, timeless America. But it’s actually a modern invention, and a surprisingly versatile instrument. Jerry Douglas is a master, and he’s played with the likes of Dolly Parton, James Taylor, Allison Krauss and Paul Simon. Douglas discusses his solo album The Best Kept Secret with Kurt – but he lets the dobro do much of the talking.
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, explains why boxes by the artist Joseph Cornell inspired him to re-think the craft of fiction-writing.
Rock star, movie actress, widow of Kurt Cobain -- Courtney Love has had a number of labels over the years. At 43, she is trying to put all that hard living behind her. Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love is a scrapbook of journal entries, letters, photos and scribbled lyrics. Love told Trey Kay that she wanted to share what she’s been through without smoothing the rough edges into anything like a memoir.
Studio 360 is a co-production of
Public
Radio International and
WNYC New York Public Radio, and is funded in part by
Ken and Lucy Lehman, the
National Endowment for the Arts, the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, and
DK Eyewitness Travel. Studio 360's American Icons series is supported in part by the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Our series on creativity and science is supported in part by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Our series on Underground Heroes is supported in part by the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. 
