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The Best of the Book Nook: "Birth of the Cool: Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant Garde" by Lewis MacAdams

Vick Mickunas' 2001 interview with author Lewis MacAdams.

20 years ago Lewis MacAdams made his only appearance on the program.
MacAdams, who died last year, was probably best known as a poet or as an
environmentalist. When I talked to him he was just publishing a very
cool book. I say the book was cool because it really was about being
cool and describing what it meant to be cool. The concept of what is
cool remains a fleeting one. We know what is cool when we see it or hear
it or taste it or smell it or touch it don't we? It's just really cool,
right? We know that when it is.

And Lewis MacAdams was so very cool.

The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public LibraryClark County Public LibraryDayton Metro Library, and Wright Memorial Public Library.

Vick Mickunas is the host of Book Nook on WYSO, which he created in 1994. He has conducted more than 1,700 author interviews, from Studs Terkel to Lee Child to John Glenn. He is a book critic for the Dayton Daily News and the Springfield News-Sun.