I did my fourth interview with Bill Bryson in October, 2013. Little did I know that I would never speak to him again. I have a lot in common with the author. We grew up in Des Moines during roughly the same period, he's older than me. We lived on the same side of town, attended the same high school, and had a number of mutual friends. Bryson moved to England and became a best-selling author. I never met him while I was still living in Des Moines but I certainly heard about him. Our mutual friends were always talking about their buddy who had moved to England and became an author. A few years ago Bill Bryson announced that he had written his last book, that he was retiring. So there will be no more interviews with him.
During the 1990s he came through our area on book tour and I finally met him. I'm a big fan of his work, he's one of our great humorists. His travel memoirs are my favorites, especially his blockbuster "A Walk in the Woods." If you have read that book then you know about Bill's hiking companion Steven Katz. Katz was a pseudonym for Matthew Angerer, a chum of Bryson's from Des Moines and someone I had known since I was in my teens. Matthew died earlier this year. Ten years ago we talked about Matt/Katz during this interview. That's why I dusted this one off to listen to it again. I miss Matthew and I'm sure Bryson, or Billy, as Matthew often called him, misses him, as well.
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