This week's podcast features two showbiz grades both of whom died in 2014.

First, what made Mike Nichols such a genius?

Ash Carter and Sam Cashner will be here to talk about their oral history.

Life isn't everything. And how did Elaine stretch his life capture the evolution of Broadway?

Alexander Jacobs will be here to talk about her biography still here the mad cap,

nervy, singular life of Elaine stretch. Alexander Altow will give us an update from the publishing

world plus we'll talk about what we and the water world are reading. This is the Bookerview

podcast for The New York Times. I'm Pamela Paul.

Ash Carter and Sam Cashner join us now. They wrote together an oral history of Mike Nichols.

It's called Life isn't Everything. Mike Nichols, as remembered by 150 of his closest friends,

Sam, Ash, thanks for being here. Yes, thanks for having us. Thank you. What was the genesis of

this project? Well, after Mike's death, I was at Vanity Fair and wanted to do an oral

history as much as we can get away with in the magazine. And Ash had worked as a PA with Mike,

and I knew him somewhat. And so I thought it best to join forces. And so we did this for the

magazine originally. And it was so interesting. And there was so much material that it just kind of

presented itself as a book kind of instantly as soon as we saw it together in the magazine.

It must have been painful to have to cut it down to magazine size.

Well, indeed, the piece was originally assigned at 6,000 words that ran at 11,000 and still

not a word practically about his theater career, about his time at the Compass Players as a founding

member of improv. I mean, there was so much still on the table. Ash, you are a very lucky person

having worked as a PA. What did you work on? I worked on Charlie Wilson's War. That was my first

job out of college. I was one of five PA's. So there's a big set. So that was the Tom Hanks, Julia

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