COVER STORY
Letters
Kurt Andersen talks with Jhumpa Lahiri about the artistry of letters and her most recent novel, The Namesake, in which a crucial letter never arrives.

Mogul Memos
David O. Selznick was a major Hollywood mogul, producing great films such as Gone with the Wind and Spellbound. But he was also a workaholic micromanager, obsessed with sending office memos. Through his memos, Selznick dictated every detail of production at his movie studio, from the size of Rhett Butler's collars to Alfred Hitchcock's camera angles. Produced by Eric Molinsky.
Go to David Selznick on IMDB
Purchase Showman, a biography of David O Selznick
Purchase Memo from David O. Selznick

Mail Art
In August, Studio 360 asked listeners to send us mail art. And you responded with fantastic enthusiasm. Streams of amazing things poured in through the mail drop from all around the world – a piece of toast, a coconut, a lump of clay, envelopes big, small, glittery, fragile, sturdy and crumpled. Kurt Andersen called some of the mail artists to talk about their work. Produced by Jonathan Mitchell, Michele Siegel, and David Krasnow.
Go to a slideshow of selected pieces of Mail Art we received
Go to the Electronic Museum of Mail Art

Young Werther
The German poet Goethe was 23 years old when he wrote his first novel, which he composed almost entirely of letters. The Sorrows of Young Werther spoke to readers, especially young men, in a way no book had ever done before, inspiring a crazed following and a rash of copy-cat suicides. Two centuries later, readers of young Werther's letters are writing him back -- via email. Produced by Megan Metcalf and Hilke Schellmann with Sarah Lilley.
Go to the Sorrows-of-Young-Werther.com
Go to Project Gutenberg and download the book
Go to this site and read more about Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Purchase Sorrows of Young Werther

Pushing The Envelope
Stephen Malinowski heard our request for mail art and decided to do a little experiment. He tested the post office to see what they would and wouldn't deliver by mailing not one, or two, but 100 pieces of mail art to our office, including crumpled envelopes, tissue paper, pieces of wood, Astroturf, even a postage scale with our address written on the side in permanent marker. Kurt Andersen spoke with Malinowski about the project he called "The scientific method as art."
Go to Stephen Malinowski’s website

SPECIAL GUEST
Jhumpa Lahiri
Jhumpa Lahiri is the author of The Namesake. Her debut story collection Interpreter of Maladies won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2000. It was translated into twenty-nine languages and became a bestseller both in the United States and abroad. Lahiri was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002.
Go to a bio of Jhumpa Lahiri
Read an interview with Jhumpa Lahiri about The Namesake
Purchase The Namesake

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The Pianist
Sviatoslav Richter, considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th Century, would have celebrated his 90th birthday last month. In a field full of eccentrics, Richter was still regarded as particularly unpredictable and moody—and one of the most enthralling performers who has set foot on a stage. Sara Fishko looks at the fiery phenomenon of the Russian pianist and his effect on a generation of music-lovers.
Purchase Richter Rediscovered
Purchase Sviatoslav Richter: Great Pianists of the 20th Century
Purchase Sviatoslav Richter: Great Pianists of the 20th Century vol. II

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