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Arts

Publisher Releases Lullabies From 'Goodnight Moon' Author

11:39am March 07, 2014

Goodnight Songs is a compilation of formerly unpublished lullabies and poems by the author of Goodnight Moon, Margaret Wise Brown. Linda Wertheimer talks to Amy Gary, who discovered the new material.

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Terry Golway is a journalist and historian. His other books include Washington's General and Together We Cannot Fail.

The Case For Tammany Hall Being On The Right Side Of History

9:18am March 06, 2014

In a new book, Terry Golway takes a sympathetic view of Manhattan's infamous political machine. He says, "Tammany Hall was there for the poor immigrant who was otherwise friendless in New York."

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Retro microphone with an 'On the Air' illuminated sign on a desk.

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'Schmuck' Revisits The Golden Age Of Radio, And A Bygone Manhattan

3:12pm March 05, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

Ross Klavan's novel follows two radio sidekicks in midcentury New York: golden-voiced straight man Ted Fox, who has an eye for a good-looking dame, and funnyman Jerry Elkin, a veteran of World War II.

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Kevin Young's 2012 essay collection The Grey Album: On The Blackness Of Blackness was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

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Kevin Young On Blues, Poetry And 'Laughing To Keep From Crying'

2:46pm March 04, 2014

The poet describes his new book — about the death of his father and the birth of his son — as having a blues sensibility. "There are moments of humor even in the sorrow," he says.

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Fresh Air Remembers Literary Biographer Justin Kaplan

2:46pm March 04, 2014

Kaplan died Sunday at 88. His biography of Mark Twain won a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize. He also edited two editions of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Kaplan spoke to Fresh Air in 1992.

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Mark Harris' previous book is Pictures At A Revolution: Five Movies And The Birth Of The New Hollywood. He is also a columnist for Entertainment Weekly and Grantland.

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During World War II, Even Filmmakers Reported For Duty

1:35pm March 03, 2014

A new book looks at how the military and Hollywood directors teamed up during the war. The films they made helped show Americans what was at stake, and served as evidence during the Nuremberg Trials.

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Roving Literary Death Match Aims To Breathe Life Into Literature

7:09pm March 02, 2014

by Alex Schmidt

Imagine writers on stage, squared off in a fight to the death. That's the idea behind Literary Death Match –- kind of. It's a performance series that pits authors against each other in live readings.

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'The Natural' Of 1952 Holds Lessons For Today's MLB

3:43pm February 26, 2014

A new edition of Bernard Malamud's classic baseball story, The Natural, was just released. NPR's Scott Simon talks to Howard Bryant of ESPN about how the 1952 novel is more relevant than ever.

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These Stories Consider Solitude, With Echoes Of Emily Dickinson

2:20pm February 26, 2014

by Maureen Corrigan

It's been 15 years since acclaimed writer Lorrie Moore has brought out a new short story collection. Bark has some clunkers and some keepers, but critic Maureen Corrigan says it was worth the wait.

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Howard Blum is a former investigative reporter for The New York Times who's now a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.

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During World War I, Germany Unleashed 'Terrorist Cell In America'

12:06pm February 26, 2014

In Dark Invasion, Howard Blum explores the campaign of sabotage that Germany inflicted on an unsuspecting U.S. As ships and factories blew up, "no one really suspected a spy network," he says.

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