Monday, October 02, 2006

Happy birthday, Graham Greene.

Today marks what would have been Graham Greene's 102nd birthday (he died in 1991).

Greene distinguished between what he called his "entertainments" (e.g., Stamboul Train, A Gun for Sale, Our Man in Havana, and The Confidential Agent) and his more mainstream novels (e.g., Brighton Rock), although the latter works often possessed crime elements.

Noted Simon & Schuster editor Michael Korda observed Greene at work and makes some interesting comments on Greene's work habits in his book Another Life: A Memoir of Other People (1999). There's a new book out on Greene: Characters and Plots in the Fiction of Graham Greene by Robert L. Gale.

Go here for excerpts from a 1969 BBC interview with Greene. For those wild for zither music and that mysterious character Harry Lime, I'll be broadcasting a radio production of Greene's The Third Man on my radio program "It's a Mystery" today at 11 AM ET. It stars Joseph Cotten and Evelyn Keyes. The program is Webcast here.

No comments: