Chapter 9: Grief and Loss

Bookworm

KCRW

Arts

4.5 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Close friend of Michael Silverblatt’s and Bookworm editor for 30 years, Alan Howard guest hosts this episode on grief and loss. When the two met more than 33 years ago, Michael’s first words were, “What are you reading?” It was a question that brought Howard back to literature. Over the years, Michael did the same for thousands of listeners. With Bookworm, he was determined to return literary fiction and poetry to the center of the zeitgeist. In the process, he faced the realities of loss and grief. In conversation after conversation with writers he was forging collegial friendships with, loss itself was a frequent topic of those friendships and conversations. We’ll hear from Marilynne Robinson, Joan Didion, Jim Krusoe, Steve Erickson, Dave Eggers, and Mary Ruefle.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.
0:04.0	Boots!
0:06.0	Where would we be without booms?
0:11.0	Where would we be without good?
0:15.0	No, Tensberg.
0:16.0	It's a rhetorical question, sir.
0:19.0	But where would we need without books?
0:24.1	From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Alan Howard. Welcome to a special series, a bookworm retrospective,
0:34.3	a celebration of the 33 years of bookworm on KCRW with Michael Silverblatt.
0:40.8	Michael is on hiatus because of health reasons. Michael and I have been close friends for more than
0:46.9	33 years. 30 years ago, Michael brought me onto the Bookworm team to first market and then to
0:53.4	edit the show.
0:55.2	I read constantly as a child.
0:57.7	My mother, who was a devoted reader, let me read as much as I wanted.
1:02.6	So I devoured the tales of King Arthur in grade school.
1:06.6	Then Tom Sawyer in the seventh grade and the Bronte sisters in the ninth grade.
1:12.8	I studied literature at Yale.
1:15.0	One of my professors was the brilliant literary critic Harold Bloom, who became a frequent
1:20.1	guest on Bookworm.
1:22.2	After Yale, I went to UCLA's film school.
1:25.4	I've had a career in the movie business as a studio executive, a director,
1:29.6	and a screenwriter. When we met socially, Michael's first question to me was, what are you
	...

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