Podcast appearances and mentions of alfred knopf

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist?  Were his efforts at emancipation the mere cold calculations of a politician whose sole aim was to win the Civil War, or do they point to some deeper ideals of America's first principles?  Joining Saving Elephants host Josh Lewis is Lincoln historian Dr. Allen C. Guelzo for a wide-ranging conversation on how Lincoln's efforts at ending slavery and saving the union may provide the clearest example of prudent American statesmanship in practice.   About Dr. Allen C. Guelzo Excerpts from the James Madison Program   Dr. Allen C. Guelzo is a New York Times best-seller author, American historian and commentator on public issues.  He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, National Affairs, First Things, U.S. News & World Report, The Weekly Standard, Washington Monthly, National Review, the Daily Beast, and the Claremont Review of Books, and has been featured on NPR's “Weekend Edition Sunday” and “On Point,” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (2008), Meet the Press: Press Pass with David Gregory, The Civil War: The Untold Story (Great Divide Pictures, 2014), Race to the White House: Lincoln vs. Douglas (CNN, 2016), Legends and Lies: The Civil War (Fox, 2018), Reconstruction (PBS, 2019) and Brian Lamb's “Booknotes.”  In 2010, he was nominated for a Grammy Award along with David Straithern and Richard Dreyfuss for their production of the entirety of The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (BBC Audio).  In 2018, he was a winner of the Bradley Prize, along with Jason Riley of The Wall Street Journal and Charles Kesler of the Claremont Institute.   He is Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Research Scholar and Director of the James Madison Program Initiative on Politics and Statesmanship.  Previously, he was Senior Research Scholar in the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University, and the Director of Civil War Era Studies and the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era at Gettysburg College.  During 2010-11 and again in 2017-18, he served as the WL. Garwood Visiting Professor in the James Madison Program at Princeton University.  He holds the MA and PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania.   Among his many award-winning publications, he is the author of Abraham Lincoln: Redeemer President, which won both the Lincoln Prize and the Abraham Lincoln Institute Prize in 2000; Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (Simon & Schuster, 2004) which also won the Lincoln Prize and the Abraham Lincoln Institute Prize, for 2005; Lincoln and Douglas: The Debates That Defined America (Simon & Schuster, 2008), on the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858; a volume of essays, Abraham Lincoln as a Man of Ideas (Southern Illinois University Press, 2009) which won a Certificate of Merit from the Illinois State Historical Association in 2010; and Lincoln: A Very Short Introduction (in the Oxford University Press ‘Very Short Introductions' series.  In 2012, he published Fateful Lightning: A New History of the Civil War and Reconstruction with Oxford University Press, and in 2013 Alfred Knopf published his book on the battle of Gettysburg (for the 150thanniversary of the battle), Gettysburg: The Last Invasion, which spent eight weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. Gettysburg: The Last Invasion won the Lincoln Prize for 2014, the inaugural Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History, the Fletcher Pratt Award of the New York City Round Table, and the Richard Harwell Award of the Atlanta Civil War Round Table.  His most recent publications are Redeeming the Great Emancipator (Harvard University Press, 2016) which originated as the 2012 Nathan Huggins Lectures at Harvard University, and Reconstruction: A Concise History (Oxford University Press, 2018).   He is one of Power Line's 100 “Top Professors” in America.  In 2009, he delivered the Commonwealth Fund Lecture at University College, London, on “Lincoln, Cobden and Bright: The Braid of Liberalism in the 19th-Century's Transatlantic World.”  He has been awarded the Lincoln Medal of the Union League Club of New York City, the Lincoln Award of the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia, and the Lincoln Award of the Union League of Philadelphia, in addition to the James Q. Wilson Award for Distinguished Scholarship on the Nature of a Free Society.  In 2018, he was named a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute.  He has been a Fellow of the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard University, and currently serves as a Trustee of the Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History.   Together with Patrick Allitt and Gary W. Gallagher, he team-taught The Teaching Company's American History series, and as well as courses on Abraham Lincoln (Mr. Lincoln, 2005) on American intellectual history (The American Mind, 2006), the American Revolution (2007), and the Founders (America's Founding Fathers, 2017).  From 2006 to 2013, he served as a member of the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities.   Dr. Guelzo's latest book, Our Ancient Faith: Lincoln, Democracy, and the American Experiment, which is discussed in this episode is available wherever books are sold.   He lives in Paoli and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Debra.  They have three children and five grandchildren.  His website is allenguelzo.com   Saving Elephants is coming to YouTube! We're thrilled to announce that Saving Elephants will be launching a YouTube channel in August with full-length episodes, exclusive shorts, and even live events!  Further details coming soon...  

Tayi Tibble in conversation with Tommy Orange, celebrating the publication of "Poukahangatus: Poems" by Tayi Tibble, published by Alfred Knopf. This live event took place in Kerouac Alley, between City Lights and Vesuvio Cafe, and was hosted by Peter Maravelis with an opening statement by John Freeman. You can purchase copies of "Poukahangatus: Poems" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/poukahangatus-poems/ Tayi Tibble (Te Whānau ā Apanui/Ngāti Porou) was born in 1995 and lives in Wellington, New Zealand. In 2017, she completed a master's degree in creative writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters, Victoria University of Wellington, where she was the recipient of the Adam Foundation Prize in Creative Writing. Her second book of poetry, Rangikura, will be published in the United States in 2023. Tommy Orange is the PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARD WINNER and best selling author of the novel There,There. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts. An enrolled member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, he was born and raised in Oakland, California. John Freeman is the editor of Freeman's, a literary annual of new writing, and executive editor at Alfred A. Knopf. His books include "How to Read a Novelist" and "Dictionary of the Undoing," as well as "Tales of Two Americas," an anthology about income inequality in America, and "Tales of Two Planets," an anthology of new writing about inequality and the climate crisis globally. He is also the author of two poetry collections, "Maps" and "The Park." His work is translated into more than twenty languages, and has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and The New York Times. The former editor of Granta, he teaches writing at New York University. He has a new collection of poetry, published by Copper Canyon Press, being released in the fall titled "Wind, Trees." This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

City Lights in conjunction with the Mechanics' Institute Library and Alfred Knopf present Leila Mottley in conversation with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, celebrating her fiction debut "Nightcrawling," published by Alfred A. Knopf. This live event took place at the Mechanics' Institute Library in San Francisco and was hosted by Laura Sheppard and Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "Nightcrawling" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/nightcrawling/ Leila Mottley is the 2018 Oakland Youth Poet Laureate. Her work has been featured in The New York Times and Oprah Daily. She was born and raised in Oakland, where she continues to live. "Nightcrawling" is her first novel. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, born and raised in New Orleans, studied creative writing at Dartmouth College and law at UC Berkeley. Her most recent novel, "The Revisioners," won a 2020 Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work and a George Garrett New Writing Award; was a California and Northern California Book Award finalist, a 2020 Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Award Finalist and a Willie Morris Award for Southern Writing finalist; was nominated for the 2020 Simpson/Joyce Carol Oates Prize; and was a national bestseller as well as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Her debut novel, "A Kind of Freedom," was long-listed for the National Book Award and the Northern California Book Award, won the Crook's Corner Book Prize, and was the recipient of the First Novelist Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Zyzzyva, The Paris Review; O, The Oprah Magazine; The New York Times Book Review; and other publications. She lives in Oakland with her family. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Nadifa Mohamed in conversation with Tommy Orange, celebrating the release of her new novel "The Fortune Men," published by Alfred Knopf. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "The Fortune Men" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/fortune-men/ Nadifa Mohamed was born in 1981 in Hargeisa, Somaliland. At the age of four she moved with her family to London. She is the author of "Black Mamba Boy" and "The Orchard of Lost Souls." She has received both The Betty Trask Award and the Somerset Maugham Award, and in 2013, she was named as one of Granta‘s Best of Young British Novelists. Her work appears regularly in The Guardian and the BBC. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she lives in London. Tommy Orange is a novelist and writer from Oakland, California. His first book "There There" was one of the finalists for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and received the 2019 American Book Award. Orange is a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. He attended Institute of American Indian Arts and earned the Masters in Fine Arts. He was born and raised in Oakland, California, and makes his home in Angels Camp, California. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Amitava Kumar in conversation with Aleksandar Hemon, discussing Amitava Kumar's new novel "A Time Outside This Time" published by Alfred Knopf. This event was originally broadcast via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. You can purchase copies of "A Time Outside This Time" directly from City Lights here: https://citylights.com/new-fiction-in-hardcover/time-outside-this-time/ Amitava Kumar is a writer and journalist. He was born in Ara, India, and grew up in the nearby town of Patna, famous for its corruption, crushing poverty, and delicious mangoes. Kumar is the author of the novel "Immigrant, Montana," as well as several other books of nonfiction and fiction. He lives in Poughkeepsie, New York, where he is Professor of English on the Helen D. Lockwood Chair at Vassar College. Aleksandar Hemon is the author of "The Lazarus Project," which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and three books of short stories: "The Question of Bruno;" "Nowhere Man," which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and "Love and Obstacles." He was the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship and a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation, and the 2020 Dos Passos Prize. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey. This event was made possible by support from the City Lights Foundation: citylights.com/foundation

Welcome to the thirteenth episode of “We Effed Up,” where we discuss a consequence of that age-old enemy of progress: corporate greed.SourcesLange, Brenda. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Infobase, New York, 2008.Marrin, Albert. Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy. Alfred Knopf, New York, 2011.Stein, Leon. The Triangle Fire. Cornell U. Press, Ithaca, 1963.Von Drehle, David. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America. Atlantic, New York, 2003.Waldman, Louis. Labor Lawyer. E. P. Dutton, New York, 1944. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Eco Flow Delta battery (insta stories) Mamiya Press Universal camera Leica m2 Nikon F Peak imaging (Film Lab) Supersense ONE INSTANT Film Yashika Y35 kickstarter Pentax 67 105mm f/2.4 Rolleiflex Valoi 360 scanner Holga panoramic images (Not Damon Winters as mentioned in the poidcast but Benjamin Lowy - see the work here) More about the technique here Jim's book - ‘The Next Turn May Reveal Heaven' Jim's bag - ‘The Marsden' by Millica Leica ‘akademie' Flaghead Photographic Newton Ellis camera repair Fuji GX617 - the panoramic beast Desert Island Camera Fuji GX617 Desert Island Book Bruce Weber - published by Alfred Knopf

Welcome to the sixth episode of “We Effed Up!” On this episode, we try to untangle the mess that is King Leopold II's pursuit of the Congo and why reading the fine print is so important.SourcesHochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost: A Study of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Mariner Books, New York, 1998.Jeal, Tim. Stanley: The Impossible Life of Africa's Greatest Explorer. Yale U. Press, Cambridge, 2007.Packenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa. Abacus History, New York, 1991.Reeves, Thomas C. Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester A. Arthur. Alfred Knopf, New York, 1975.Van Reybrouck, David. Congo: The Epic History of a People (Sam Collins, Trans.). Harper Collins, New York, 2014. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mira Sethi in conversation with Miranda Popkey, celebrating Mira Sethi's new short fiction collection "Are You Enjoying?" published by Alfred Knopf. This event was originally broadcast live via Zoom and hosted by Peter Maravelis. Mira Sethi is an actor and a writer. She grew up in Lahore and attended Wellesley College, after which Sethi worked as a books editor at The Wall Street Journal. She has written op-ed pieces for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian. Sethi regularly appears in a mainstream Pakistani drama series on television. She lives in Lahore, Karachi, and San Francisco. Miranda Popkey is a writer, editor, and translator from the Italian. Her writing has appeared in The New Republic, The New Yorker's page-turner blog, The Paris Review Daily, The Hairpin, New York's magazine “The Cut,” and many others. Her debut novel, “Topics of Conversation,” was published by Alfred Knopf in 2020. She currently resides in Massachusetts with her husband and dog.

Alex, Cody, and Colin reflect on and wrap up Gold Plated Balls of Steel! Find out the things they said that may have been wrong and, most importantly, who won the debate! And who knows...you may even get a sneak peek at next week's episode!Want to join the OUAT community? Have an idea for a change in history? Join our Facebook page!Editing by Hannah BurkhardtHosted by Alex Smith, Cody Sharp, and Colin Sharp.Milktoast Media LLC Show Sources: (Blame us for the whoopsies, not our sources. Our sources are great.)Brodie, F. (1945). No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. Alfred Knopf.Quinn, D. Michael. “The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844.” Brigham Young University 16, no. 2 Quinn, D. Michael. The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Salt lake city: Signature Books, 1994. 

Book of Mormon interpreter/writer and U.S. presidential candidate Joseph Smith fulfilled a great many roles in his life.  Many of those roles really ticked off the locals, which is why he was shot to death while jumping out of a second-story window.  But what would have been had Joseph Smith survived this encounter? Colin prophesies that Joseph Smith would fulfill the destiny laid out for him in the Book of Mormon. Cody suggests that the many denominations of the Mormon church would not have engaged in Game-of-Thrones-esque battles.Want to join the OUAT community? Have an idea for a change in history? Join our Facebook page! Editing by Hannah BurkhardtHosted by Alex Smith, Cody Sharp, and Colin Sharp.Milktoast Media LLCShow Sources: (Fact check us! Heard something wrong? Let us know.)https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/moro/10?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/eight?lang=eng https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/4-ne/1?lang=eng Brodie, F. (1945). No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith. Alfred Knopf.Quinn, D. Michael. “The Mormon Succession Crisis of 1844.” Brigham Young University 16, no. 2 Quinn, D. Michael. The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power. Salt lake city: Signature Books, 1994. 

Open: An AutobiographyAuthor:  Andre AgassiBuy Open  on AmazonLink to transcript of the full book review: www.everythingathletes.com/everything-athletes-book-reviews-open-by-andre-agassiFavorite quotes from the book:Page 8 - “Tennis is the sport in which you talk to yourself. No athletes talk to themselves like tennis players. Pitchers, golfers, goalkeepers, they mutter to themselves, of course, but tennis players talk to themselves - and answer...why? Because tennis so damned lonely. Only boxers can understand the loneliness of tennis players - and yet boxers have their corner men and managers…Tennis is the closest to solitary confinement.”19 - “...he plays with desperation, a more powerful drug than cortisone.” (about his opponent) 20 - “I win the next point. Deuce again. Elation. I give him the next point. Backhand into the net. Advantage Baghdatis. Depression.”25 - “People often ask what it’s like, this tennis life, and I can never think how to describe it. But that word comes closest. More than anything else, it’s a wrenching, thrilling, horrible, astonishing whirl.”29 - “I like the feeling of hitting a ball dead perfect. It’s the only peace. When I do something perfect, I enjoy a split second of sanity and calm.” 38 - “...I’ll now have a loss on my record - forever. Nothing can ever change it. I can’t endure the thought, but it’s inescapable: I’m fallible. Blemished. Imperfect. A million balls hit against the dragon - for what?”62 - (after losing) “I look into the stands for my father, and he’s staring down, concerned. Not angry - concerned. I’m concerned too, but damned angry also, sick with self-loathing...I say hateful things to myself as I pack my tennis bag.”90 - (talk with his friend about rigged carnival games to win a teddy bear prize) “Nah. You just have to toss two rubber rings around the neck of a Coke bottle. We’re athletes. We’ve got this.”  127 - “What if today wasn’t a bad day, but my best day? I think I’d rather die.”130 - “People, I think, don’t understand the pain of losing in a final. You practice and travel and grind to get ready. You win for one week, four matches in a row. Then you lose that final match and your name isn’t on the trophy, your name isn’t in the record books. You lost only once, but you’re a loser.”132 - “I laugh more than I’ve laughed since I was a boy, and even though it’s tinged with hysteria, the laughter has healing properties. For a few hours, late at night, laughter makes me feel like the old Andre, whoever that is.”206 - “I’ve always noticed the way players silently anoint the alpha dog in their midst, the way they single out the one player who’s feeling it, who’s likeliest to win. At this tournament, for the first time, I’m that player. I feel them all watching me in the locker room. I feel them noting my every move, the little things I do, even studying how I organize my bag. They’re quicker to step aside when I walk by, eager to give up the training table. A new degree of respect is directed toward me, and while I try not to take it seriously, I can’t help but enjoy it.”218 - “Every day this loss feels new. Every day I tell myself to stop thinking about it, and every day I can’t. The only respite is fantasizing about retirement.”231 - “This is the only perfection there is, the perfection of helping others. This is the only thing we can do that has any lasting value or meaning. This is why we’re here. To make each other feel safe.”255-256 - “A look of pure relief, and gratitude, and joe, washes over her face, and in this look, in this courageous little girl, I find the thing I’ve been seeking, the philosopher’s stone that unites all the experiences, good and bad, of the last few years. Her suffering, her resilient smile in the face of that suffering, my part in easing her suffering - this, this is the reason for everything. How many times must I be shown? This is why we’re here. To fight through the pain and, when possible, to relieve the pain of others. So simple. So hard to see.”226 - “Besides, it’s always easier psychologically to lose in the semis than in the final.” 272 - “I’ve been cheered by thousands, booed by thousands, but nothing feels as bad as the booing inside your own head during those ten minutes before you fall asleep.”304 - “I raise my arms and my racket falls on the clay. I’m sobbing. I’m rubbing my head. I’m terrified by how good this feels. Winning isn’t supposed to feel this good. Winning is never supposed to matter this much. But it does, it does, I can’t help it.” 304 - “Without Nick I wouldn’t be here. Without all the ups and downs with Brooke, even the misery of our final days, this wouldn’t be possible. I even reserve some gratitude for myself, for all the good and bad choices that led here.”

Mark Arax in conversation with Kit Rachils discussing the subject of his new book THE DREAMT LAND: Chasing Water and Dust Across California published by Alfred Knopf. A vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil–the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought. Mark Arax is an author and journalist whose writings on California and the West have received numerous awards for literary nonfiction. A former staffer at the Los Angeles Times, his work has appeared in The New York Times and the California Sunday Magazine. His books include a memoir of his father’s murder, a collection of essays about the West, and the best-selling The King of California, which won a California Book Award, the William Saroyan Prize from Stanford University, and was named a top book of 2004 by the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. He lives in Fresno, California.

Laura Claridge has written books ranging from feminist theory to biography and popular culture, most recently the story of an American icon, Emily Post: Daughter of the Gilded Age, Mistress of American Manners, for which she received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. This project also received the J. Anthony Lukas Prize for a Work in Progress, administered by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Born in Clearwater, Florida, Laura received her Ph.D. in British Romanticism and Literary Theory from the University of Maryland in 1986. She taught in the English departments at Converse and Wofford colleges in Spartanburg, SC, and was a tenured professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis until 1997. Laura's biography of iconic publisher Blanche Knopf, The Lady with the Borzoi, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in April, 2016. We met a her home in New York's Hudson Valley to discuss Blanche's role as publisher, and wife to Alfred Knopf.

In 1961, Walker Percy published his great Stoic-inspired novel The Moviegoer. Like all classics, the book's success was by no means guaranteed. In fact, it became the subject of one of the strangest controversies in publishing history. You see, even though the novel was brilliant, its publisher, Alfred Knopf, was no fan. He even fired the editor who acquired it and had been so instrumental in shaping it into the masterpiece it became. When it came time to nominate one of his titles for the National Book Awards that year, Knopf submitted The Château by William Maxwell, a now mostly forgotten book. It was only a bit of random luck for Percy that followed—the husband of a woman on the committee happened to have read a review of Percy’s book in the paper, read the book, loved it, gave it to his wife, who gave it to the other committee members a few days before the final decision needed to be made. Out of nowhere, Walker Percy’s The Moviegoer—the first novel of a doctor, not a trained writer—ended up winning the National Book Award. Again, you’d think that Knopf would have been ecstatic. One of his writers won book of the year! But he wasn’t. Even as the book started selling like crazy. He was too jealous. He thought it reflected badly on his judgement that he missed this, that he was obviously wrong. So he began to spread the rumor that the prize had somehow been fixed that year—that the husband (someone Knopf didn’t like) had forced his wife to vote for the book just to show him up. It was an ugly mess for everyone involved.Everyone, that is, except Walker Percy. Because, like a true Stoic, he just laughed at the whole thing. He accepted the award with gratitude, marvelling at all the good and bad fortune that had occurred beyond his control with this book. And then—as we should do today, whether we’re the recipient of a huge honor or an utterly unfair controversy—he got back to work on his next project.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition go The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Abdi Nor Iftin, author of Call Me American: A Memoir published just last week by Alfred Knopf. This book is the story of a miracle, a series of miracles, set against a backdrop of pain, suffering and horror. Abdi fell in love with America as a child. He learned English from Arnold Shwarzeneger and Michael Jackson, from Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. When the first waves of U.S. Marines landed, in Mogadishu to take on the cruel and lawless warlords, Abdi was one of the first to cheer the arrival of those heroes that he recognized from the movies. He was wearing American clothes, knew American dance moves and even took on American as his surname. Then, the Americans left, radical al-Shabaab took over and Western Culture was forbidden and things became deadly once again. Abdi, through a series of fortuitous and incredible coincidences and twists of fates, made his way to America. It’s much more enlightening to hear how all this happened through his voice, so welcome Abdi and thanks so much for joining us today.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition go The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Abdi Nor Iftin, author of Call Me American: A Memoir published just last week by Alfred Knopf. This book is the story of a miracle, a series of miracles, set against a backdrop of pain, suffering and horror. Abdi fell in love with America as a child. He learned English from Arnold Shwarzeneger and Michael Jackson, from Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. When the first waves of U.S. Marines landed, in Mogadishu to take on the cruel and lawless warlords, Abdi was one of the first to cheer the arrival of those heroes that he recognized from the movies. He was wearing American clothes, knew American dance moves and even took on American as his surname. Then, the Americans left, radical al-Shabaab took over and Western Culture was forbidden and things became deadly once again. Abdi, through a series of fortuitous and incredible coincidences and twists of fates, made his way to America. It’s much more enlightening to hear how all this happened through his voice, so welcome Abdi and thanks so much for joining us today.

Fr. Michael Gillis reviews War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. The publisher is Alfred Knopf.

Zim Zum Part I: "Captain Fiction" talks abut the fiction he writes, the fiction he edits (at Alfred Knopf) and his career as a magazine editor (Esquire).

The life of Alfred Knopf, publisher of, among others, Thomas Mann and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and according to Cooke "simply the best publisher of the twentieth century".