Biography & Memoir

Book Critic John Leonard reviews A Way of Hope, the autobiography of Solidarity leader Lech Walesa.

Singer Judy Collins. She's just written an autobiography; it's titled Trust Your Heart.

Edna Buchanan, Pulitzer Prize-winning police reporter for the Miami Herald. Buchanan has written a book that details her daily routine. It's titled The Corpse Had a Familiar Face.

Father Niall O'Brien. He has worked for over 20 years as a missionary priest in the Philippines. He was imprisoned by the Marcos regime because he helped the poor to start self-reliant Christian communities. He continues his work in the Philippines under the Aquino government.

Cousin Brucie, one of the leading top-40 DJs in New York City in the early 60s when AM radio was king and New York radio set the national tastes in pop music.

Buck Clayton, jazz trumpeter, arranger and band leader. He was a member of Count Basie's original band.

Mark Mathabane. He grew up in poverty in a black township in South Africa. His skill at tennis caught the attention of Arthur Ashe and Stan Smith, who brought him to the U.S. on an athletic scholarship. He's written a book about his upbringing and the horrors of Apartheid. It's titled Kaffir Boy.

Book Critic John Leonard reviews The Fords, by David Horowitz and Peter Collier, the biography of the family that built the automobile empire. The Fords follows Horowitz' and Collier's books on the Rockefellers and Kennedys.

Betty White, longtime television actress. She currently stars in the NBC series "The Golden Girls."

Mamie Van Doren, one of Hollywood's blond bombshells in the fifties and sixties. She starred in the cult classics "Untamed Youth," "High School Confidential," and "Born Reckless." She's written a kiss-and-tell memoir called Playing the Field.

Tip O'Neill, former Congressman from Massachusetts and Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Indian writer Ved Mehta. He's written several books of autobiography, most all of which have been serialized in "The New Yorker" magazine. His autobiographies are poignant accounts of his blindness, his education in England, and the role that language came to play in his life.

Writer Michael Ignatieff. His new book, Russian Album, recalls, through diaries, photographs and a few mementoes, his forebearers, aristocrats at the time of the Russian Revolution. While most of the upper class was killed in the Revolution, Ignatieff's family fled to Canada.

Actress Shirley MacLaine. She'll discuss her varied career in entertainment and her recent spiritual explorations.

Book Critic John Leonard will review The Making of The African Queen, or How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind, by actress Katherine Hepburn.

Adam Hochschild, founder of the leftist magazine "Mother Jones." He's written a memoir about his ambivalent relationship with his father, an industrialist who operated a string of gold and diamond mines in South Africa.

Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson, a star player for the Dallas Cowboys throughout the 70s. He fell victim to a cocaine addiction and was one of the first professional athletes to admit to his problem.

Jehan Sadat, wife of the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Dr. Perri Klass writes extensively for magazines and newspapers, and has published a collection of short stories. Her new memoir, A Not Entirely Benign Procedure, details her experiences as a med student at Harvard.

Obie Award-winning playwright Adrienne Kennedy has a new, unconventional memoir called People Who Led to My Plays. She explores the experience of growing up as an African American in suburban Ohio, her drive to excel artistically and academically, and the people who influenced her throughout her life.