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Tony Horwitz (1958 – May 27, 2019) discusses his most recent book, “Spying on the South,” now out in trade paperback, with host Richard Wolinsky. Recorded May 17, 2019.

The author of several books that combine scholarship, history and travel, Tony Horwitz was a one of a kind author. In “Confederates in the Attic,” he looked at Civil War re-enactors in the Deep South. In “Blue Latitudes,” he followed the path of explorer James Cook, visiting islands in the Pacific Ocean. And in “Spying on the South,” now his final book, he follows the path of the young Frederick Law Olmstead, later to design Central Park, as he went down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers all the way to the Mexican border, seeing how a century and a half has changed the landscape and the people.

Ten days after this interview was conducted, Tony Horwitz died of a heart attack in Washington D.C., in the middle of his book tour.

An extended 49-minute version of this interview can be found as a Radio Wolinsky podcast.

Mavis Gallant, who died in 2014 at the age of 91, was a Canadian short story writer who spent most of her life in France. During her lifetime, she had 118 stories in the New Yorker, which made her one of that magazine’s most published writers. Along the way she did write two novels, but it was because of her shorter fiction that she was very much a writers’ writer.

A very private person, she only rarely gave interviews – but she did go on a book tour for her short story collection, Across the Bridge, and it’s then, on October 6, 1993, that Richard A. Lupoff and Richard Wolinsky had a chance to speak with her.

Wikipedia notes that her subject was frequently fascism, in particular about what she called “the small possibilities in people” which leaned them toward fascism. In a roundabout way, she discusses that in this interview.

New York Review Books Classics has published several volumes of her stories, most notably The Collected Stories, which features fifty two examples of her best work, and Paris Stories, curated by Michael Ondaatje. Across the Bridge is available in an e-book edition from Amazon.

Digitized, remastered and re-edited in August, 2020 by Richard Wolinsky

Extended 51-minute Radio Wolinsky podcast.Transcript of a 1999 Paris Review interview with Mavis Gallant.

Announcement Links

Book Passage. Conversations with Authors features Susan Minot on Saturday August 22, David Sibley on Sunday August 23, and Akwaeki Emezi on Wednesday August 26, all at 4 pm Pacific.

Theatre Rhino Live Thursday performance conceived and performed by John Fisher on Facebook Live and Zoom at 8 pm Thursday August 20 is Dickens.

If you’d like to add your bookstore or theatre venue to this list, please write [email protected].

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The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – August 20, 2020: Tony Horwitz – Mavis Gallant appeared first on KPFA.