Why is Wallace Stegner so widely read, but perhaps not as widely acknowledged as one of our

great American writers?

A.O. Scott will be here to talk about Wallace Stegner and his legacy.

Had it Sesame Street and Schoolhouse Rock revolutionize children's television, David Camp will

join us to talk about his new book, Sunny Days.

Plus, our critics will talk about the latest in literary criticism.

This is the Bookerview Podcast for the New York Times.

It's June 5th.

I'm Pamela Paul.

A.O. Scott joins us now.

He is a critic at large for the Times and is just embarked on a series of essays for

the Bookerview looking at American writers this week starting with Wallace Stegner.

Tony, thanks so much for being here.

It's great to be with you, Pamela.

So I want to talk a little bit about you and your job right now before we get into Stegner,

because you are on the culture desk of the Times reviewing normally films, although looking at

other things now is a critic at large.

What does the landscape look like?

What does a critics work look like for you right now?

Well, it looks very strange because for the last 20 years at the Times, most of what I've

been doing is writing about and reviewing new movies and often complaining about just how

they were too many new movies to keep track of.

...