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Charles Ruas

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Conversations with Writers Series with Charles Ruas, 2004-2016

2004-2005: WPS1/Art on Air

  1. Pulitzer Prize–winning social critic David Shipler discusses his study, The Working Poor: Invisible in America, 2004 (27:06): MP3
  2. Novelist Walter Abish describes in Double Vision: A Self-Portrait his exodus from Austria to China, Israel, and the United States during and after WWII, 2004 (26:03): MP3
  3. Poet and novelist Fanny Howe takes on the artist’s role and the condition of doubt as a creative force in her essay collection, The Wedding Dress, 2004 (27:18): MP3
  4. Poet and activist Anne Waldman discusses, In The Room of Never Grieve, her anthology of writings on civil disobedience, 2004 (27:27): MP3
  5. Novelist Edwidge Danticat discusses “the dilemma of Haiti” in her short story collection, The Dew Breaker, 2004 (27:50): MP3
  6. Novelist Jessica Hagedorn discusses, Charlie Chan Is Dead, her anthology of contemporary Asian American fiction, 2004 (25:38): MP3
  7. Novelist A. S. Byatt discusses the short story collection, Little Black Book of Stories, Little Black Book of Stories, blending the elements of folktale and the darker elements of daily life, 2004 (29:52): MP3
  8. Chinese-Tibetan poet Wang Ping, in The Magic Whip, writes about women’s and children’s remarkable endurance to survive, 2004 (32:37): MP3
  9. Memoirist Lawrence Osborne on his essay collection, The Accidental Connoisseur: An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World, 2004 (29:46): MP3
  10. Editor Robin Robertson discusses his delightful anthology, Mortification: Writers' Stories of Their Public Shame, 2004 (30:16): MP3
  11. Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Lily Tuck discusses her work of historical fiction, The News from Paraguay, 2004 (30:08): MP3
  12. Novelist Patrick McGrath discusses Port Mungo, his psychological drama set in Honduras, 2004 (29:46): MP3
  13. Investigative writer Christopher Mason discusses The Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction House Scandal, 2004 (27:04): MP3
  14. Anne Waldman on civil disobedience, Laura Flanders on Bushwomen, a study of the women of the White House, and Carol Brightman on the myth of American omnipotence (Part 1), 2004 (33:05): MP3
  15. Anne Waldman, Laura Flanders, and Carol Brightman (Part 2),continue the discussion on civil rights, desegregation, protest of the Vietnam war, gay rights, and women’s liberation, 2005 (30:32): MP3
  16. Poet Ron Padgett on his moving account of lifelong friendship, Joe: A Memoir of Joe Brainard, 2005 (31:26): MP3
  17. Author Mary Dearborn discusses with Karole P.B. Vail, granddaughter of Peggy Guggenheim, the biography, Mistress Of Modernism: The Life of Peggy Guggenheim, 2005 (29:36): MP3
  18. Journalist Jean Nathan, in The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright, uncovers the backstory of the cult children’s book author’s traumatic manipulation by her mother, 2005 (29:12): MP3
  19. Barbara Goldsmith discusses Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie, her biography of a female Nobel-Prize-winner in a male dominated society, 2005 (29:30): MP3
  20. Translator Malcolm B. DeBevoise discusses Pascale Casanova’s The World Republic of Letters, a study of the cultural dominance of certain economic powers over others, 2005 (30:07): MP3
  21. Poet Eleni Sikelianos discusses her portrait of her brilliant but troubled father, The Book of Jon, 2005 (27:26): MP3
  22. Vestal McIntyre discusses his debut book of satirical short stories, You Are Not the One, 2005 (29:58): MP3
  23. Novelist and Vietnam veteran David King discusses the trajectory of rehabilitation in The Ha-Ha, 2005 (29:35): MP3
  24. Juris Jurjevics discusses The The Trudeau Vector, his thriller about conflicting world powers set in the Arctic Circle, 2005 (29:38): MP3
  25. Social critic Susan Willis analyzes the reality behind America's cultural myth of world dominance and our collective historical amnesia in Portents of the Real: A Primer for Post-9/11 America, 2005 (28:04): MP3

2011–2016: Clocktower/Art International Radio

  1. In Eileen Myles (Part 1), the poet discusses Inferno: A Poet's Novel, their book about a young female writer’s aspirations and self-discovery, 2011 (16:55): MP3
  2. Punk, Drugs, Poetry and Art. In Eileen Myles (Part 2), Myles reads from Inferno, 2011 (31:09): MP3
  3. Novelist and Vietnam veteran Juris Jurjevics, in Red Flags, investigates the opium trade during the Vietnam War, 2011 (29:21): MP3
  4. Biographer and historian Tom Shachtman writes about the mid-century social reformer, historian, social analyst and philosopher Eric Hofer in American Iconoclast, 2011 (27:58): MP3
  5. Biographer David Evanier takes on the life of iconic American entertainer Tony Bennett in All the Things You Are: The Life of Tony Bennett, 2011 (27:53): MP3
  6. Curator and critic Klaus Kertess discusses his insightful book of essays on art, Seen, Written: Selected Essays, 2011 (58:14): MP3
  7. Doron Weber discusses Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir, about the tragic loss of his brilliant young son due to congenital heart failure, 2012 (23:55): MP3
  8. Novelist George Michelsen Foy discusses, Finding North: How Navigation Makes Us Human, a blend of scientific study and memoir, 2016 (31:07): MP3
  9. Curator Karole P.B. Vail discusses the famous photographer in her in-depth study, Laszlo Maholy-Nagy, 2016 (26:30): MP3

Miss MacIntosh, My Darling: The Reading Experiment, 1974–1975

Introduction

  1. Anaïs Nin introduces Marguerite Young discussing Angel in the Forest. Charles Ruas interviews Young on New Harmony, Indiana, the site of two utopias: the first a religious commune, the second a socialist commune begun by Robert Owen, founder of the British Labour Movement, 1974: MP3
  2. Anaïs Nin introduces Marguerite Young speaking about Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. Charles Ruas interviews Young, who discusses her fifteen years writing the epic novel, 1974: MP3

Performances

  • Chapter 1: "Young Vera Escapes"

    Read by Broadway and screen actor Betty Lou Holland.
    Full performance (47:33): MP3

  • Chapter 2: "The Opium Lady"

    Read by Broadway star Marian Seldes.
    Part 1 (1:04:25): MP3
    Part 2 (1:03:17): MP3

  • Chapter 3: "Miss Macintosh and the Head Hunter"

    Read by off-Broadway comedian Alice Playten.
    Full performance (47:49): MP3

  • Chapter 6: "Madge, the Young Bride"

    Read by actor Dolores Brandon.
    Full performance (52:19): MP3

  • Chapters 16 & 17: "Miss Macintosh Revealed"

    Read by actor Tessa Saipan Kaner.
    Full performance (38:12) MP3

  • Chapter 18: "The Rape Scene"

    Read by Off-Off Broadway Pioneer H. M. Koutoukas.
    Full performance (1:01:35) MP3

  • Chapter 25: "Mr. Spitzer"

    Read by art critic and Vogue and Playbill editor Leo Lerman.
    Full performance (1:02:40): MP3

  • Chapter 26: "The Butterfly Recording Session"

    Read by Off-Off-Broadway pioneer H. M. Koutoukas.
    Full performance (1:11:10): MP3

  • Chapter 29: "The Butterflies"

    Read by actor and reader Michael Wager for Leonard Bernstein's New York Philarmonic Orchestra.
    Part 1, “Metamorphosis” (55:26): MP3
    Part 2, “Transcontinental Migration” (47:05): MP3

  • Chapter 61: "Mr. Spitzer Meets the Frog Musician"

    Read by director and actor John Ford Noonan.
    Full performance (35:00): MP3

  • Chapter 64: "The Bald Childhood of Miss Macintosh"

    Read by actor, Director of the Studio Theatre School at the American Negro Theatre, and co-founder of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, Osceola Archer.
    Part 1 (42:10): MP3
    Part 2 (43:35): MP3

  • Chapter 65: "Mr. Bonebreaker's Courtship of Miss Macintosh" & "Mr. Bonebreaker is frightened off by Miss Macintosh"

    Read by poet, playwright, and director Owen Dodson.
    Full performance (54:14): MP3

  • Chapter 66: "The Arctic Explorer"

    Read by writer and actor Wyatt Cooper.
    Full performance (59:30): MP3

  • Chapter 68: "The Christian Hangman's Confession"

    Read by Broadway stage and film actor Michael Higgins.
    Full performance (55:41): MP3

  • Chapter 70: "About Mrs. Hogden, the Arithmetic Teacher"

    Read by British war correspondent, proponent of Catholicism and the writings of Mao-Tse-Tung, and former president of PEN, Anne Fremantle.
    Full performance (1:03:49): MP3

  • Chapter 73: "About Esther Longtree"

    Read by actor Tessa Saipan Kaner.
    Full performance (56:44): MP3

  • Chapter 77: "Esther Longtree and the Shadow Child"

    Read by film and television star Madeleine Thornton Sherwood.
    Part 1 (35:51): MP3
    Part 2 (35:30): MP3

  • Chapter 79: "The Woman Who Was My Father"

    Read by Broadway star Marian Seldes.
    Full performance (57:07): MP3

  • Chapter 80: "The Infanticide"

    Read by distinguished stage and screen actor Ruth Ford.
    Full performance (1:09:51): MP3

  • Chapter 81: "Esther Longtree and the Toy Salesman" & "The Toy Salesman, Shipwrecked"

    Read by distinguished actor and director Earle Hyman.
    Part 1 (38:35): MP3
    Part 2 (50:52): MP3

  • Chapter 82: "The Descending Storm" & "Vera and the Stone-Deaf Man"

    Read by poet and actor Daisy Aldan (part 1) and Broadway and screen actor Betty Lou Holland (part 2).
    Part 1 (59:04): MP3
    Part 2 (36:02): MP3

Post-Script

  1. Chapter 26: "The Butterfly Recording Session, read by off-off Broadway Pioneer H. M. Koutoukas (1:11:10): MP3

    Editor's Note: This recording was not made as part of The Reading Experiment of 1974–75. We believe Koutoukas recorded this as he was working to produce a stage version of the book, which never came to be. We also decided not to edit out-takes and side comments—although they interrupt the reading a bit—as part of the historical record of this remarkable man.

  2. Artist Rob Wynne and poet and art critic Barry Schwabsky in Conversation about the Impact of Miss MacIntosh, My Darling: MP3

WBAI Archive

Historic Archives

  1. Richard Adams, Shardik, 1974 (44:02): MP3
  2. The Female Angst: Sally Davis, Anaïs Nin, Dory Previn and Joan Didion, 1972
    • Part 1 (41:30): MP3
    • Part 2 (1:07:41): MP3
  3. Donald Barthelme, The Dead Father, 1976 (1:33:59): MP3
  4. Donald Barthelme, City Life, Sadness, and Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts, 1976 (1:44:10): MP3
  5. Donald Barthelme, The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine and Guilty Pleasures, A Collection of Parodies, Political Satires and Other Pieces (1:32:20): MP3
  6. Donald Barthelme, Snow White and Come Back Dr. Caligari (1:29:32): MP3
  7. Louise Bogan, What The Woman Lived with Marian Seldes and Kathryn Walker, Manhattan Theatre Club, May 1975 (1:17:27): MP3
  8. Jorge Luis Borges, 92nd St Y Reading, 1976 (1:34:13): MP3
  9. Ed Bowes, Sexless: half a family, 1975 (52:45): MP3
  10. John Cage and Morton Feldman
    • Part 1, "The Global Village" (31:01): MP3
    • Part 2, "Impersonality" (29:18): MP3
  11. Virginia Spencer Carr, The Lonely Hunter: A Biography of Carson McCullers, 1975 (54:48): MP3
  12. Joseph Chaikin reading from Samuel Beckett's How it is, 1978 (14:34): MP3
  13. Joseph Chaikin reading poetry by pivotal writers, c. 1975
    • Part 1 (32:04): MP3
    • Part 2 (30:47): MP3
  14. Joseph Chaikin radio play outtakes, 1983 (23:24): MP3
  15. E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime, 1975 (53:59): MP3
  16. E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime (Original), 1976 (52:53): MP3
  17. Leon Eden on the art of biography, with Susan Howe, 1975 (1:00:52): MP3
  18. Leon Edel on writing and writers, 1975 (1:05:54): MP3
  19. Ed Friedman, Chinoiserie, with Ed Bowes, Ellie Karanauskas, Rochelle Kraut, and Robert Kushner, May 1977 (2:04:12): MP3
  20. Carlos Fuentes, Terra Nostra, 1976 (1:03:10): MP3
  21. Buckminster Fuller, And It Came to Pass — Not to Stay, 1976 (58:21): MP3
  22. Buckminster Fuller, Synergetics, with Louise Ballard and Judith Vivell, 1975 (55:21): MP3
  23. John Gardner, October Light, 1975 (46:02): MP3
    • Alternate edit, better audio quality (46:55): MP3
  24. Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, Return to Columbia (25:21): MP3
  25. Allen and Louis Ginsberg, Father and Son, January 19, 1968
    • Part 1 (57:57): MP3
    • Part 2 (1:11:43): MP3
  26. Allen Ginsberg interviewed by Duncan Campbell, on Buddhism and the Beats, Naropa University, 1975 (52:26): MP3
  27. Allen Ginsberg, a selection of lectures focused especially on William Carlos Williams at Naropa University, c. 1975
    • Lecture 1 (1:12:07): MP3
    • Lecture 2 (59:48): MP3
    • Lecture 3 (1:08:32): MP3
    • Lecture 4 (1:06:31): MP3
    • Lecture 5 (1:11:57): MP3
    • Lecture 6 (1:15:36): MP3
  28. Allen Ginsberg, The New School Lectures, 1969
    • Part 1: Reading from Planet News (29:07): MP3
    • Part 2: Reading from Planet News (28:49): MP3
    • Part 3: On William Blake's Songs of Innocence (32:25): MP3
  29. John Giorno's Dial-A-Poem Part 6, with Charles Ruas and Lynda Perry (1:00:39): MP3
  30. Alex Haley, Roots, 1976 (55:04): MP3
  31. Jean-Claude van Itallie, A Fable, 1975 (1:03:10): MP3
  32. Jean-Claude van Itallie, Interview, 2013 (28:19): MP3
  33. On Charles Ives, 1970s
    • Part 1: Who Makes War? (53:49): MP3
    • Part 2: The Minority Logic (37:17): MP3
    • Part 3: The Hope for Expression (33:28): MP3
  34. Maxine Hong Kingston: The Warrior Woman, 1976 (56:42): MP3
  35. Jerzy Kosinski: The Cockpit, with Charles Ruas and Linda Rothchild, 1975 (1:29:00): MP3
  36. V.R. Lang
    • Retrospective intro: On V.R. Lang, with Susan Howe, 2004 (13:02): MP3
    • Memorial Part 1 ft. John Ashbery, WS Merwin, Kenneth Koch, and Mary Manning, intro by Susan Howe, 1975 (56:43): MP3
    • Memorial Part 2 ft. Dee Wells and James Merrill, 1975 (43:18): MP3
    • Memorial Part 3: "I Too Have Lived in Arcadia," 1976 (1:25:29): MP3
  37. James Laughlin, Interview with Charles Ruas and Susan Howe, June 4, 1976 (1:41:43): MP3
  38. Mabou Mines performing Samuel Beckett's "The Lost Ones" and "Cascando," 1974 (1:34:09): MP3
  39. Albert Maysles and Ellen Hovde, Grey Gardens, 1976 (1:03:33): MP3
  40. Leonard Michaels, I Would Have Saved Them If I Could, Excerpt, 1975 (4:58): MP3
  41. Meredith Monk: Quarry
    • Part 1: Interview, 1976 (1:00:55): MP3
    • Part 2: Performance, 1976 (46:46): MP3
    • Part 3: Interview, 2012 (51:59): MP3
  42. The Life, Death, and Works of Pablo Neruda
    • Part 1: Nobel Peace Prize lecture and reading, 1975 (44:05): MP3
    • Part 2: Salvatorre Bizzarro interviews Matilde Urrutia, interspersed with readings, 1975 (48:55): MP3
    • Part 3: Salvatorre Bizzarro interviews Matilde Urrutia, interspersed with readings, 1975 (48:37): MP3
  43. Pablo Neruda: 92nd St Y Reading, 1966 (55:18): MP3
  44. Anaïs Nin, without reservations, 1966 (57:15): MP3
  45. Craig Nova, The Geek, 1975 (54:06): MP3
  46. Ishmael Reed, Flight to Canada, 1976 (50:34): MP3
  47. Ed Sanders, Tales of Beatnik Glory, 1975 (57:51): MP3
  48. Emily Sunstein, A Different Face: Mary Wollstonecraft, 1975 (49:28): MP3
  49. Dr. Han Suyin: The Morning Deluge, 1976 (52:52): MP3
  50. Robert Wilson and Philip Glass, performance of Einstein on the Beach, 1976 (39:47): MP3

© 1966–2016 Charles Ruas and all respective artists. Recordings available for non-commercial and educational use only. Distributed with permission of the author by PennSound.