He is only one of the finest writers this country has ever produced.
Go to your local library and look up his work. Take it home and read it
(or listen to it). In addition to being one of our preeminent essayists,
and a primary influence on such notables as Edward R. Murrow, Charles
Kuralt, Walter Cronkite, Stan Freberg, Rod Serling, and is possibly *the*
primary reason Ray Bradbury decided to become a writer in the first place,
he was this nation's finest and most regarded radio drama writer of his
time, moreso than Arch Oboler or Orson Welles. He write the radio drama
"On A Note of Triumph" aired on *all three* radio networks on VE day,
wrote cantatas for the UN, was a contemporary and friend of Carl
Sandburg, wrote the feature film "Lust For Life" about Van Gogh...look
into any copy of "Who's Who." The listing goes on forever.


Unfortunately, at the height of his career, he was one of many who
ended up grey-listed, because one little creep who owned a chain of
supermarkets published a rag called Red Channels, which one day listed
Norman's name because some of what he'd written struck this jerk as being
maybe sympathetic to the Reds (never mind that this was stuff he had been
commissioned by the government to write during WW 2 to demonstrate
solidarity during the war). Despite this, his niche remains secure, and
he is what's known in the biz as a *writer's writer*. He has been a
friend and a mentor for over 15 years, and I've learned much from him
about what it is to be a writer, and a human being.


I'm serious. Go to your local library and look up his work. Or to
your local bookstore and track down a copy of his latest book, a collection
of his letters (cunningly entitled Norman Corwin's Letters), published in
hardcover by Barricade Books, containing his correspondence to friends,
family, and such notable long-term friends as Ray Bradbury, William
Shatner, Rod Serling, Robert Altman, Ken Burns, Philip Dunne, Charles
Kuralt, Walter Cronkite, Burgess Meredith, Philip Roth, Gregory Peck,
Eric Sevareid, Bill Moyers, Erik Barnouw, Groucho Marx, Carl Sandburg,
Leonard Bernstein, Bette Davis, Edward R. Murrow...well, you get the
idea.


jms