Encounters with Authors

This collection features twenty articles on and/or interviews with authors, all originally written between 1979 and 1984. The authors span a wide range of styles—from poets to playwrights to writers of popular fiction to science fiction and more. While there is some indication that each of the authors were well-known at some time, I personally am only familiar with the works of Tennessee Williams and Chaim Potok. Some of the other writers included are names I’m vaguely familiar with, but never really read (Andre Norton, B. F. Skinner, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings). But the majority are unfamiliar…and dead—each chapter ends with an update, usually describing when and how that author died since the article was originally written.

I suppose there is some historical interest in these articles, but since only a very few are about authors I know, my interest in the collection is somewhat limited. I might wish for a similar collection of interviews with more familiar authors, but perhaps that would be too disillusioning. The interviews with the two authors whose works I had previously read and enjoyed left me feeling distaste for the authors as people. Other unknowns surprised me and made me want to search out their works.