And i am a magazine writer so im always looking for my next meal. Whats the Next Magazine topic . And i thought, the hoxha children. He did have children, three of them, could make a good magazine piece. Then the next thought, i thought you could do a survey of such sons and daughters and make a book of it called children of monsters. And i filed the idea way off of the stove, not even on the back burner. But i acted on it years later. Brian hitler, mussolini, stalin, mao, kim, i could go on. Which one of these 20 that you profiled in here did you find was the family the most difficult with other human beings . Jay that is a close competition. The stalins had a lot of trouble. That should not surprise anyone. The mao children are a mess. Pol pot has a daughter that is welladjusted. He had her pretty late in life, he was about 60, 61 years old. She got married last year. Most are disastrous. There are not many happy stories, but there are some. Brian we got a lot of children and their d
Host jay, what were you doing in 2003 . Jay theres still host the book came out of the trip . Jay yes. Albania had suffered under a terrible dictatorship. Really one of the worst that man has ever known. The thing closest to it with the dictatorship of kim ilsung. Albania was like his personal dungeon. No one left the country or came into it. It was the perfect tyranny. I was being shown around the capitol. It occurred me to ask did hoja have children . What do you do . Did you stay in albania . Did you go out . What do you think . What do you like . Im a magazine writer. Im always looking for my next meal. Whats the Next Magazine topic . The hoja children. He did have children, three of them, could make a good magazine piece. Then the next thought, i thought you could do a survey of such sons and daughters and make a book of it called children of monsters. I filed the idea way off of the stove, not even on the back burner. I acted on it years later. Host hitler, muselinni stalin i cou
You doing in albania in 2002 . Jay well, i was in a state to our. After the collapse of communism in albania, when the country was in bad shape in and, i think, still is. Ryan children of monsters came out of that trip . Jay yes. Albania had suffered under a terrible dictatorship. Really one of the worst that man has ever known. The thing closest to it with the dictatorship of kim ilsung. Albania was like his personal dungeon. No one left the country or came into it. It was almost a perfect tierney. And so, i was being shown around the capital by a young man from the government to ministry. And it occurred to me to ask, did hoxha have children . What do you do . Do you stay in albania . Do you go out . What do you think . What do you write . What do you like . A magazine writer so im always looking for my next meal. Whats the Next Magazine topic . The hoxha children. He did have children, three of them, could make a good magazine piece. Then the next thought, i thought you could do a s
So i wouldnt say it plays an enormous role in their work. Any other questions . Im sure the research into this was enormous and the many sources but if you could i mean is there the top three or four that come to mind as sources of research that you went to for this book . 70 roughly of the book and it was just invaluable. The twain stuff. There is such great scholarship around twain. You can go to marc twain projects. Org and see all those letters from i think until 1881 and they are wonderful additions of his correspondence so when it comes to researching twain its actually ready straightforward. I think these other characters i had to dig deeper into the archives because their work securely Charles Warren stoddard are not as widely known. That was a little bit more of the detective work which i really enjoyed but the bancrofts had most of it. I was in l. A. At the huntington. I was here the San Francisco Public Library and the oakland Public Library and a couple of collections on th
From all 11 journalists that resonated with you as regards to why they left the profession state was i think most of them if not all of them said basically i wanted to do more. Would you ever come back to journalism . Im not sure. I love writing. I love writing this book. I think its more likely i would do another book. If youre a former journalist or if youre interested in the profession, celia wexler is the author of out of the news. Thanks so much. Thank you. And now from a conference on the 60th anniversary of the publication of Whittaker Chambers witness, a panel entitled without anticommunism what defines conservatives today . So, couldnt help remember, someone was talking about the adulation the world held unless everyone here is aware that august Educational Institute not too far from here, i mean bard college, theres actually an alger hiss chair inhumanities. My colleague, hilton kramer, the founding editor, had an Honorary Degree from bard when this new chair inhumanities was