The Best of NPR : Biography and Autobiography [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

National Public Radio (Author)

Book Description

Series: Best of NPR | Publication Date: March 1, 1998

A cultural landmark comes to audiobook! NPR presents award-winning programs like "All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Fresh Air, Car Talk ", and "Piano Jazz", that have become staples for thinking people everywhere. This recording includes Frank McCourt, Stephen Ambrose on Nixon, Glenn Gould, Edmund Morris on Reagan, James McBride, M.F.K. Fisher and more. (Radio) .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Biographies, says NPR commentator Neil Conan, are well suited to radio, "the perfect medium for storytelling." There really is something about the immediacy of the spoken word that makes the lives of the 10 extraordinary people we meet here capture the imagination--and renders their humanity clear to us. On side 1, we hear from the biographers of "some of the century's most inspiring, complicated, and enigmatic characters"--Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Elvis Presley, physicist Richard Feynman, and pianist Glenn Gould--along with audio clips from the subjects themselves. We learn not only the type of detail one needs to fully understand the life of a human being, but also how the contradictions inherent in all lives weave together into recognizable personalities. Side 2 discusses the challenges faced by the writer of the autobiography. Finding the truth about oneself and one's family and revealing it to the world isn't easy--especially since the truth "isn't always pretty." But writers Cyra McFadden, Mary Karr, James McBride, Frank McCourt, and M.F.K. Fisher do just that, with no trace of bitterness and a loving honesty that pays tribute to the powerful complexity of human relationships. This is a wonderful collection of insights into other people's worlds from which we can "draw lessons for ourselves." (Running time: 90 minutes, one cassette) --Uma Kukathas

From AudioFile

There's so much to be thankful for in National Public Radio's programming, so many far-reaching interviews and discussions. Several of such moments have been captured in this volume of The Best of NPR. Author Stephen Ambrose reflects on his challenge to write the story of Richard M. Nixon--a man he didn't much care for until he began to write about him. Glenn Gould biographer Otto Friedrich discusses Gould's tormented genius and compares performances from Gould's youth and those during his declining mental health. All the interviews reveal the secret to NPR's exceptional quality: intelligent questions asked of real people. R.A.P. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Hachette Audio (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570425507
• ISBN-13: 978-1570425509
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.8 x 6.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,661,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard P. Feynman was born in 1918 and grew up in Far Rockaway, New York. At the age of seventeen he entered MIT and in 1939 went to Princeton, then to Los Alamos, where he joined in the effort to build the atomic bomb. Following World War II he joined the physics faculty at Cornell, then went on to Caltech in 1951, where he taught until his death in 1988. He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1965, and served with distinction on the Shuttle Commission in 1986. A commemorative stamp in his name was issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 2005.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Discovering aspects of famous people biography writting., September 16, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Best of NPR : Biography and Autobiography (Audio Cassette)

Like all NPR programs, count on high quality entertainment when listening to this tape. Yet do not be mislead, these are recordings of the biographers, not of the famous subjects on whom they focused. (This is NOT "on" nor "by" Richard Feynman as one could have misunderstood.)

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Echoing Sentiments, January 18, 2002

By 

Mr. J. Pile (Fairbanks, Alaska United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Best of NPR : Biography and Autobiography (Audio Cassette)

I too was fool. This is NOT recordings of Richard Feynman and it is not BY Richard Feynamn. This is simply an NPR interview of the guy that wrote the book ABOUT Richard Feynman.

However, it is basically another tape of high quality NPR interviewing. ... and I have read many great books, simply because I heard about them first on an NPR interview.