Bookmark with Don Noble: Roger Rosenblatt (2003)

Roger Rosenblatt has spent decades writing with clarity, wit, and moral urgency about American life, politics, family, war, aging, grief, patriotism, and the human condition. Familiar to many public television viewers as a frequent essayist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Rosenblatt has also written for Time, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and other major publications. In this episode of Bookmark with Don Noble, Don Noble speaks with Roger Rosenblatt at Southern Voices, the annual conference for writers and readers at the Hoover Public Library. Their conversation explores Rosenblatt’s recent books on aging, materialism in America, and patriotism after 9/11, as well as the long career of a prolific essayist who has written thoughtfully and provocatively on hundreds of subjects. Rosenblatt is the author of numerous books of essays, memoir, fiction, and drama, including Rules for Aging, Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit of Happiness, Where We Stand: 30 Reasons for Loving Our Country, Children of War, Lapham Rising, and Making Toast. His essays for Time won two George Polk Awards, and his television essays for PBS earned both Peabody and Emmy honors. Bookmark with Don Noble features conversations with writers whose work has shaped Alabama, the South, and American literature.