Excelsior, You Fathead!

January 24, 2005
Although the prolific, multitalented Shepherd (1921–1999) was an actor, author, emcee, recording artist and screenwriter (A Christmas Story
), he's remembered by many as a late-night radio raconteur , who for 21 years on New York City's WOR-AM mixed heartland humor and hip, sardonic rants with memories of his Indiana youth. This prismatic portrait affirms Shepherd's position as one of the 20th century's great humorists. Railing against conformity, he forged a unique personal bond with his loyal listeners, who participated in his legendary literary prank by asking bookstores for the nonexistent novel I, Libertine
(when Ian Ballantine had Shepherd and Theodore Sturgeon make the fake real, PW
called it "the hoax that became a book"). Storyteller Shepherd's grand theme was life itself; Marshall McLuhan called Shepherd's broadcasts "a new kind of novel that he writes nightly." Minus guests and call-ins, it was talk radio, but Shepherd was the only voice, ad-libbing monologues like jazz riffs for a huge following via WOR's 50,000-watt reach. Novelist Bergmann (Rio Amazonas
) interviewed 32 people who knew Shepherd or were influenced by him and listened to hundreds of broadcast tapes, inserting transcripts of Shepherd's own words into a "biographical framework" of exhaustive research. 30 b&w photos. (Feb.)

Forecast:
Shepherd is the subject of several Web sites, and online promotion of this book has been snowballing for the past year. A dedicated audience will clamor for it.

February 15, 2005
Every December, television stations broadcast the 1983 film "A Christmas Story". Its evocation of a childhood endured has found a place in the hearts and psyches of thousands of Americans. The story came from the mind of humorist Jean Shepherd (1921 -99), whose life story Bergmann -a fan of the first order -relates here. "Shep," as he was known to followers and friends, was a talented man dealing with inner and outer demons, a vocal "riffer" lucky enough to have found several outlets for his creative genius. Besides writing gigs for "Playboy", Shepherd did talk radio for nearly 30 years in New York City and became a master of the format. Not a disc jockey, he sat behind a microphone for 45 minutes a night and told stories. Bergmann's devotion to Shepherd is evident throughout, but it gets in the way of the story, unfortunately. Including web sites that stream Shepherd's shows, this first biography is recommended for devotees of "A Christmas Story" and university libraries supporting radio broadcasting programs. -Larry Schwartz, Minnesota State Univ. Lib., Moorhead

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2005
These days, Jean Shepherd (1921-99), radio raconteur, social commentator, and author, is best known as the narrator of the perennially favorite holiday film " A Christmas Story" . But to his hardcore fans he was a pied piper of the radio waves--a nighttime voice that took them beyond their mundane realities by revealing how interesting the mundane can be. Shepherd broadcast almost nightly from 1955 to 1977 on WOR in New York City, gaining a cult following among the small community of insomniacs he dubbed the "night people." Although the author reveals himself as one of Shepherd's fans and this book as a labor of love--the title itself is a phrase Shepherd urged his fans to invoke--he makes no effort to hide his subject's faults. Bergmann points out that Shepherd's so-called nostalgia was actually antinostalgia: the painful memories of childhood and young adulthood are carefully masked by a fine midwestern sense of humor. A true storyteller and monologist--and a prickly genius. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)