>> do you want me to read what that says? >> sure. >> it says about 90 years after mark twain took this trip, ponds journal and photographs find their way to me, meaning nick. what a thrill it was. anything can be anywhere. happy hunting. so he encourages people to keep looking around, and that quote

anything can be anywhere, cadillac jack. another aspect of mark twain that i got into more recently is miniature books. all of the books in this cabinet have some tie-in with mark twain. they're either, they were either a story about him or one of the stories that he wrote that was translated -- or, i'm sorry, not translated, but miniaturized. so this is a story to he wrote about the civil war called "luck." and these are, these have bookplates in them from previous ownerrings. some of this is -- owners. some of these are famous people from the miniature book world. and the artwork is all miniaturized. and then it's just illustrated

and bound. then this is an interesting one here, the little teeny-weeny book. i don't know if i can get it out of there. do you want to see that? because i'm not sure, i think it's by barbara rehal, and she's noted for doing the really smallest miniature books. and she does all this artwork by hand. and it's actually got printing in it. you have to read it with a, like a 20 power magnifying glass. well, it's kind of like a long-term project, i guess. i've been working on it for 40 years plus. there's still things i don't have. a lot of it's monetary, you know? i don't have a first edition huck finn or tom sawyer because

they're not only rare, but they're many thousands of dollars, and i just haven't, haven't bought those. or even seen them recently. but hopefully, you know, that might, that might change in the future. >> for more information on booktv's recent visit to carson city, nevada, and the many other cities visited by our local content vehicles, go to c-span.org/localcontent. you're watching booktv on c-span2. here's our prime time lineup for tonight. up next, a book preview of erica jong's fear of flying 40th anniversary edition. then at 7:30, the story of nasa scientists who detected a mysterious force that slowed down the pioneer 10 and 11 spacecrafts in the '90s. at 9 p.m., susan crawford joins booktv on "after words." in an interview with andrew blum

of wired magazine, she talks about her book, "captive audience." and we conclude tonight's prime time programming at 10 p.m. eastern. the book "the poorer nations: a possible history of the global south." that all happens next on c-span2's booktv. >> host: forty years since this book was published. "fear of flying" is the name of the book. about 20 million at least copies have been sold worldwide. erica jong is the author, and she joins us now on booktv on c-span2. ms. jong, this book has been described as pornography or a feminist treatise. how do you describe it? >> guest: i think it's a novel about a woman trying to find herself, and what what has inted me very much about this book is that all over the world it has been read in languages as diverse as chinese, serbo-cro, -

croat, and people identify with it. now men as well as women. and they don't think it's a particularly raunchy book, although 40 years ago it had that reputation. in 40 years it has never been out of print all over the world. new editions keep appearing. and i think the reason is not because of the sex, but becausee it's extremely relatable. people see themselves in it. and i'm very proud to have written it. >> host: what sparked your writing this book? >> guest: i can't tell you. i wrote it and rewrote it throughout my 20s. i wrote it from a man's point of view, from a woman's point of view. i finally found the voice for it which was a new york, wisecrack ing voice -- which is

me, partly. it was the new york kid on the couch, wisecracking, full of yiddishisms, full of humor. and i think that description still holds. henry miller predicted it would make literary history and change the way books were written, and actually he's right. women write differently and men write differently because of "fear of flying." so it's turned into a phenomenon which was not about sex, but about liberating a new voice. and i think that is why the book has had this staying power. some people have compared it to hold toen callfield -- holden caufield, the catcher in the rye by salinger, it's been compared to everything. [laughter] >> host: who's the main character, and what are her

travels through the book? >> guest: the main character is isadora wing who's been married for five years to a psychoanalyst. she goes to a conference of psychoanalysts, she's bored with her husband, and she runs off with another shrink. sort of going from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak. and the book is her journey with this psychoanalyst which is both a journey through the present and a journey into her own past. and during this journey she finds out about herself and so does the reader. >> host: so you wrote this, rewrote this in your 20s, so you were writing it in the '60s, late '60s, early '70s? >> guest: early '70s, right. >> host: was there a feminist angle to this book when you were writing it? >> guest: every book i write is feminist because i believe that

women need more change than we have yet achieved. we have come halfway towards a female revolution, but we're not all the way there yet. we are no longer -- we don't yet have parity with pay. we don't yet have enough women in the boardroom. we are not yet liberated totally in the bedroom. neither the boardroom, nor the bedroom are equal. and so we still have a lot of work to do. >> host: what was the reaction in 1973 when this came out? >> guest: the reaction was enormous and completely contrary. some people loved the book, some people hated the book. i was called a pam moth pew den da, of all things -- >> host: which is what? >> guest: i think it's really what we today can say is a vagina. in those days we couldn't.

that's been liberated for us. but there was the most different kind of response to this book. some people adored it, underlined it, put asterisks in the margins. i have signed books that had so many underlined pages that there were almost no blank pages anymore. some people hated it and thought it represented the decline of civilization. [laughter] so that's a good thing, i think. when a book is both so much -- when a book evokes so much feeling, you know you're on to something. >> host: you started off as a poet. >> guest: i started out as a poet. i've published eight books of poetry, nearly as many books of poetry as novels. but a book of poetry is like a rose petal down grand canyon. who notices? my early books won all kinds of

prizes that were also won by sylvia plath and w.s. her win and so on, but my novels have overshadowed my poems which is really not surprising. i still consider myself a poet who fell into the habit of writing novels. >> host: do you still write poetry today? >> guest: always. and i think my poetry may well be the best thing i do. >> host: your other novels, overshadowed by "fear of flying," correct? >> guest: in many ways. >> host: do you resent that? >> guest: i've published so far eight novels including three wonderful historical novels. one set in ancient greece, one set in 18th century england, one set in shakespeare's venice. i don't resent that. i mean, very few writers are

famous for more than one book. charlotte bronte is only known for jane eyre. three of dickens' novels overshadow his other novels; david copperfield, great expectations overshadow all his other books. it is very rare that a writer is known for more than one book. of course i wish people would read my poetry and all my novels because i think i've made a journey and am a better writer today. but it's rare for a writer to be known for all her work. >> host: were you fearful when this book came out, or were you looking forward to it? >> guest: terrified. absolutely terrified. i wrote with the wind at my back, full of fear. i thought i would be hanged, drawn and quartered in some

ways, i have been. i truly didn't know what the result would be. i wasn't sure it would sell at all, let alone 27 million which is the current number. i had no idea it would be in chinese and russian and serbo-croat and bulgarian. who knew? so it has been an amazing ride. it has taken me, that book, "fear of flying," has taken me around the world with people in all languages saying i identify. >> host: what do men say about this book? >> guest: many different things. some men say it's helped me to understand women.me men say it'x object. one of the heroes of the book is an asian-american doctor, and he says you've made asian-american men sexy. everybody thought we just wore pocket pen protecters and were nerds. you've made us sex objects.

so i get a large variety of responses. >> host: erica jong, some feminists have called this pornography and have criticized "fear of flying." >> guest: not really feminists. many great femme new york cities were also -- feminists were also great lovers. george sands was a great lover. charlotte bronte's jane eyre ends up happily married. i don't think that feminists have criticized the sexuality. but i may have been one of the first feminists to say that you can have equality and also love men. and my own life has proved it. i've been married four times. i've been married to my present husband 25 years. i believe you can be a lover and a feminist. and my life proves it. >> host: would you compare in any way "fear of flying" to betty friedan's "feminine

mystique"? >> guest: not really because betty's work is a nonfiction work, and mine is a work of fiction. but, again, i think there is one similarity in that we're both writing about restlessness, female restlessness and a feeling that we have not yet achieved equality. we still want it, but our revolution is not there yet. >> host: we recently interviewed on booktv deborah spar who's president of barnard college who's just written this book "wonder women: sex, power and the quest for perfection." >> guest: and she writes about "fear of flying" in it. >> host: fear of flying struck a powerful chord in 1973, staying on the bestseller lists throughout '74, '75. no women had written quite so vividly and baldly about things,

about sex, etc. but that it really struck a chord, is what she said. and this is the president of barnard college -- >> guest: my college where i've established the erica jong writing prize, writing knellship which i support. -- fellowship which i support. and i began this program at barnard college for young women writers. and every year i donate to it to give fellowships to women who want to be writers or editors. and publishers. >> host: when you took "fear of flying," when you shopped it around in new york, how did you do it? >> guest: i never shopped it around. i had a poetry publisher, holt, which was then called holt, reinhart and winston, and they had published two volumes of my poetry, and they loved the book and took it. it was never shopped. i had a wonderful editor there who was quite revolutionary who

really got that that new things were happening for women and that the book expressed these things. and he wanted the book and was very excited about it. now, he was not sure it would sell, but he had a hunch that it might. then another editor came onboard and bought the paperback rights which in those days were divided. and she was a very powerful woman in paperback publishing, and she made holt send out 200 more galleys which she paid for because she was so convinced that the book would strike a chord. so these two editors -- one a man, one a woman -- really made the book. one was at holt, has never been out of print. the other one was at new american library, now penguin. and they both believed

tremendously in the book. and i don't think any of that would have happened without the second wave of the women's movement, without betty friedan which had ignited a fire of curiosity about women. what do we think, what do we want, what do we want in bed, what do we want at work, what do we want as mothers? all of that was in the air in part because of betty friedan's book. and i think that deborah spar understands the way all of those things played into each other. >> host: i've got to go back to the fact that your original editor was a man. >> guest: absolutely. very smart man. he was saul bellows' editor and phillip roth's editor. and he got that i was doing something akin to what phillip was doing and what saul was

doing. he got it. >> host: erica jong, did bookstores refuse this book at first? >> guest: bookstores never refused it. television networks wouldn't take ads, and the first typesetter didn't want to set type. but bookstores were very happy and sold a lot. >> host: did it immediately become a bestseller? >> guest: they never had enough copies in hard cover, so it would go on the bottom of the bestseller list and then go out of stock. and then it would go back on number 9 or 10, and then there were never enough copies. but then it came out in paperback and sold three million copies in the first month. so it just kept going. and as i said, it's never been out of print. >> host: your literary papers are at columbia. >> guest: that's right. >> host: and what does that mean? >> guest: that means that students, graduate students who

want to see all the rough drafts of "fear of flying" and my poetry and my other novels can study them in the rare book room at columbia. and i have allowed even undergraduates to study them, which is rare. i've allowed them to be open to all students. >> host: so people can see the rough drafts, can see your marks -- >> guest: right. >> host: can anybody or just people at columbia? >> guest: people who, people have to get permission from the rare book people at columbia and prove that they're a serious student, like with any archive. >> host: 1973 you're writing in longhand or by typewriter. are you losing your rough drafts today because of computers? >> guest: i save them to send to columbia. but i rewrite so many times that i have so many drafts. the current novel i'm just finishing has so many drafts,

and i save them all. i mean, i rewrite on the computer, but i often write first drafts on yellow legal pads as i always did. because i feel freer writing by longhand. and i don't feel as comfortable with the computer. if i write a book review, if i write a short piece, i may write on the computer so i can keep the, you know, i can keep in my mind the length. because there's a limit. but when i'm writing a novel or poems, i often write longhand. >> host: erica jong, this is 40 years since "fear of flying" came out. will people be reading this 40 years from now? >> guest: that i can't tell you. i don't know. i hope so. but i can tell you that many of the people who have received this copy and reread the book have told me that it's still very timely and current and very readable. so i hope we'll find a whole new

generation of readers with this edition. >> host: erica jong, author of "fear of flying" and other novels and poetry. 40th anniversary edition of "fear of flying" coming out in october. this is booktv on c-span2. >> visit booktv.org to watch any of the programs you see here online. type the author or book title in the search bar on the upper left side of the page and click search. you can also share anything you see on booktv.org easily by clicking share on the upper left side of the page and selecting the format. booktv streams live online for 48 hours every weekend with top nonfiction books and authors. booktv.org. >> the myth of workers buried in hoover dam has to be nevada's greatest myth. and, i would argue, it's an american myth. because since the completion of hoover dam in 1935 to the present as people visit that

great edifice on the colorado river that separates arizona and nevada, so many tourists, millions of tourists ask the tour guides where are the men buried in the dam, buried in the concrete? it's not true. but people want to believe that it is true. now, the question is, did people die on the dam? 112 men officially died on the dam. it was a dangerous project. but nobody was buried in the dam. and the question is, why not? well, one of the first things is, it's a construction flaw. if you leave a body in the dam and you keep filling the dam, it could break. at the same time, the way the dam was built with, it wasn't a monolithic pour. oh, well, he fell in, got to leave him there. no. it was by small segments. they could pull anybody out if they had to, and they did have an industrial accident where one man was buried, but he was dug out for the purposes of not, you know, undermining the dam's construction. at the same time, there's nothing in the newspaper,

there's no list of anybody. this would require the two counties, our county, mojave county, the state of arizona, the federal government, the six companies, the two newspapers all collaborating to cover up that men were buried in the dam. and i've heard before, oh, it was really grand cooley dam in washington, another concrete dam. i think the story goes this way: there was an earthen dam in montana built about the same time, the fort peck dam. and it did break away. and men were buried, and they were compacted. some were saved, but some were compacted in the dam. newspaper reports, there's a monument, everybody's name was identified. we know who they are. there's death certificates and vital statistics in montana. we have no death certificates for hoover dam, but you know what? people are going to believe this for the rest of time, and i'm going to keep trying to get them to not believe it. >> here's a look at some books being published this week. in "collision 2012: obama versus rom and the future of elections

in america," dan balz gives an inside look at the presidential campaigns of mitt romney and barack obama. brenda wineapple chronicles the social, political and cultural history of the u.s. leading up to the civil war and the reconstruction period that followed in "ecstatic nation." in "manson: the life and times of charles manson," jeff quinn chronicles the life of charles manson. "pink be sari revolution. " in "hothouse," the survival of art at america's most celebrated publishing house. robert wilson, editor of "the american scholar," recounts the

life and career of civil war era photographer matthew brady in matthew brady: portraits of a nation. look for these titles in bookstores this coming year and watch for the authors in the near future on booktv and on booktv.org. >> booktv is on location at bookexpo america which is the annual publishers' trade show held in new york city. and we're talking with the publisher of chicago review press about some of their upcoming titles. cynthia sherry, what do you have coming out this year? >> we've got the last warlord which is the life and legend of -- [inaudible] he was the afghan warlord who led the u.s. special forces to topple the taliban on horseback, and he's a very interesting character, and he's been fighting the taliban for 30 years. our author, glenn williams, is a professor at dartmouth, and he embedded with him and lived with

him and got to know his family. he had some really unique access. and when the u.s. forces pull out of afghanistan, he's been fighting the taliban for all these years, he's likely to come back to the forefront and be a major player again. >> host: so he's been an ally of the u.s. while we've been in afghanistan in. >> guest: that's him right there in the center. yeah, and he also believes in -- he's kind of a unique character, he believes in the education of women in afghanistan, and he's a bit of -- he's got some liberal tendencies, so he's very much against the taliban and the extremists. >> host: what was it like for professor williams to write this book? i mean, how well did he get to know him? >> guest: well, he really did get to, you know, live with him and get to know, you know, some of his family and friends, so, yeah, i think it was a really unique experience for him and, yeah, it's kind of a unique view of the war. >> host: is there any chance that he will be coming to the u.s. for the book tour? >> guest: no, probably not. [laughter] >> host: what else do you have coming out?

>> guest: we also have redefining girly, how parents can fight the sexual stereotyping of young girls. there have been a lot of books on the subject, but this book is very practical, and it gives parents practical strategies of when they go into the halloween store looking for costumes and they can't find things that are appropriate for their young girls, what steps they can take, you know, writing letters, finding the manager, what practical, you know, steps they can take. so it's very practical. and also gets parents to think about start -- getting started very young at not stereotyping their own kids. she has a popular blog called pigtail town, so it's all about redefining girly and capturing childhood again. >> host: and that's coming out in the fall of 2013. even in 2013 we're facing this same issue? >> guest: even more so now because you do, you really have this whole culture of, you know, of -- well, the halloween

costumes, it's difficult for parents to find halloween costumes that are appropriate for young girls because they're the short little french maid costumes ortlet costumes. but when you go into the toy stores, you go into any target, you've got the whole section which is all the barbie dolls, the whole section which is all the building toys. so it's getting more and more, i'd say. >> host: what is the chicago review press? are you private? >> guest: yeah, we're independently owned. we've been in publishing for 40 years, so we're celebrating our 40th anniversary this year. >> host: not associated with a university or anything? >> guest: no. the owner of the company was a grad student at the university of chicago, and he worked for the poetry magazine there, the chicago review. so when he got some wonderful things that he couldn't publish for the journal, he wanted to do them on his own. so he did get the permission to use the name, so we did take the name from the chicago review. >> host: what's your background? >> guest: i've been with the company for 25 years, so i started out in the accounting department here and have worked my way up through the company.

>> host: want to ask you about another book that you have, "above the din of what -- above the din of war." >> guest: yeah. one of our great authors, a great journalist, and he travel today afghanistan and really met with people there and really talked with them about what the experience has been with the u.s. occupation there and with the war that's been going on and what their feelings are. so he really gets in and meets with the shopkeepers and meets with the different people there. >> host: cynthia sherry, another book that caught our eye was sabrina lamb's new book. >> guest: yeah. this is "do i look like an atm. >>" and it's very practical and about financial education and starting young with your kids about understanding money and how to be responsible about your spending. and it's particularly interest in the african-american community who tend to spend a lot of money on, you know, when they have it on, you know, cars and, you know, fancy jewelry. and this is really kind of looking at your issues as a parent with money and how you

spend money and how pass better habits on to your kids. >> host: one more before we leave you, "home front girl." >> guest: yeah. this is a wonderful diary. it's a diary of a woman from chicago who she grew up in chicago, she went to the university of chicago, and during the war she was a teenager, and she kept a journal. and she was very politically active as a teenager and really smart. started at the university of chicago as a 16-year-old, got in. and her daughter found her journals much later in life and published them. so we published this journal as a teenager during war time in chicago. really a wonderful glimpse of what it was like to be in america on the home front during the war. >> in the 1990s, nasa scientists detected a mysterious force that was slowing down the pioneer 10 and pioneer 11 spacecraft. the first manmade objects to leave the solar system. konstantin ca