This month, A Novel Idea features two icons of contemporary culture; Jonah Raskin with his latest work A Terrible Beauty, the Wilderness and American Literature, his meditation on nature, wilderness, the American identity, and our heritage in American literature. Joel Selvin brings the richly patterned story of the darker side of the music industry through the prism of music producer, Bert Berns in his biography Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues.