Welcome to the treat. I'm Elvis Mitchell. In his past lines as film critic for the LA Times and for NPR's morning edition, Kenneth Turan has made his living by offering a blend of knowledge and hard-worn opinion. So for his treat, he turns to a mind that built a reputation and a following from a charismatic mix of information and singular perspective.

I'm Kenneth Tehran and this is the treat.

What I really want to highlight what's been so influential for me is the nonfiction writing of a man named Edmund Wilson.

Edmund Wilson was what we call today a public intellectual.

He wrote these enormously researched, documented books.

He wrote a book call to the Finland Station about the origins of the Russian Revolution.

He wrote patriotic gore about the Civil War.

He was the first writer I come across who was both incredibly smart and analytical and knew his stuff from top to bottom, but was also very, very, very readable.

He did not feel he had a sacrifice anything.

The lightness is really the heart of it. He didn't take himself very seriously, even though he had every reason to. He wasn't self-important. There's nothing self-important about these books. They have the joy of self-discovery of he's so interested in the stuff he's telling you about.

He's so fascinated to have found it out.

That's what moves this material.

It's not like, boy, am I a smart guy.

You never feel that.

You feel his joy in discovery and his pleasure in passing on his knowledge.

He wrote stuff that is a pleasure to read, yet he knew so, so, so much.

And that's been a real inspiration for me.

That's something I try and do.

I try and be as full of content as I can be, but I really want to be understandable. I want people to enjoy

reading it. And Edmund Wilson is a treat to read, and you learn so much, you read to

the Finland Station, you read patriotic core. You will learn so much about the Civil War and the Russian Revolution

and life in general, it'll blow you away.

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