In 1995, Lalita Tademy left behind a successful Silicon Valley career to begin doing genealogy as she researched her ancestors, some impressive women who were formerly enslaved. It took her six years and many drafts to sell this novel based on her own family story. The manuscript to "Cane River" was originally a doorstop-sized 800 pages, and it was rejected by 13 agents before the author finally found the right agent and publisher. By then, she had winnowed it down to 400 pages, and after the book was released, it caught the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who made it one of her Oprah's Book Club selections. That catapulted the novel forward, and it became a bestseller. In 2001, she was out on book tour, and she came through Dayton. The day before she arrived, I called her in Atlanta and we had this conversation.
We had some extra time on the program, so I dipped into our archive and pulled out this excerpt from my only interview with the late Nat Hentoff. I recorded this interview 24 years ago upon the occasion of the reissue of Hentoff's memoir "Boston Boy: Growing Up with Jazz and Other Rebellious Passions." That book had originally been released during the 1980s, and it had gone out of print.
Recently, my radio colleague Dave Barber reminded me that in June, Nat Hentoff would have turned 100 years old. Hentoff was a music critic and a notable cultural critic. He had been on my bucket list of people I really wanted to interview.
The Book Nook airs Saturdays at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO 91.3 FM and streams at WYSO.org or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, Wright Memorial Public Library, and Tipp City Public Library.
