Following on the heels of C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History, a popular series on the lives of influential American writers from the colonial years to the 19th century, the public affairs cable network will air American Writers II: The 20th Century beginning March 31.
The new series will kick off with a program on the writers of the Harlem Renaissance, which will be broadcast live from the Schomburg Library in Harlem. Guests on the program will include Langston Hughes biographer Arnold Rampersad and Lucy Anne Hurston, niece of Zora Neale Hurston.
The series will be hosted by C-SPAN's Susan Swain; each live show will be broadcast on Sundays, 3—5 p.m., and will re-air on Fridays at 8 p.m.
The new series will feature such contemporary writers as Stanley Crouch and bell hooks; journalists Christopher Hitchens and George Will; actor Danny Glover; and others who will discuss the lives of the writers profiled.
Future programs will focus on the works of H.L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, and continue with programs on the Depression (John Steinbeck, William Faulkner); the Cold War (Whittaker Chambers, Jack Kerouac); and Social Transformation and Vietnam (James Baldwin, Betty Friedan).
