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Book Nook: "JFK, Earl Long, and Blaze Starr: Washington, DC" by Ken Bode

Cover Art by David Battle

This essay appears in The Antioch Review's Fall 2013 edition Cartography 101 with a Twist.

Here's an excerpt:

"What ties this little tale together, however loosely, is the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, one of the most extensively examined foreign policy events in modern American history.  That is where our story begins and ends.  As you will see, everything that might be known of those eighteen days still is not recorded in any of the vast literature, including things that didn’t happen but might have if the Russians had not sent their troublesome missiles to Cuba." "On a balmy afternoon in mid-October, 1962, a young woman sat in the visitors’ lobby of the White House West Wing.  From her seat, she could see down the first floor hallway past offices where official business was conducted.  She wore a conservative, gray business suit.  Her credentials identified her as a magazine feature writer, and, as she put it, “I had my official looking little leather briefcase.”  She wore minimal make-up and large plastic eyeglasses.  The glasses were cosmetic, part of a disguise."

Ken Bode has had a long and distinguished career as a journalist. In this conversation Ken talks about the corruption in politics, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and some of the outstanding interviews that he has conducted over the years.

Vick Mickunas introduced the Book Nook author interview program for WYSO in 1994. Over the years he has produced more than 1500 interviews with writers, musicians, poets, politicians, and celebrities. Listen to the Book Nook with Vick Mickunas for intimate conversations about books with the writers who create them. Vick Mickunas reviews books for the Dayton Daily News and the Springfield News Sun.