Charlie Rose

Guests: Alice Trillin RSS

1996:

1. 

   A conversation with Calvin and Alice Trillin

   with Alice Trillin and Calvin Trillin on Jul 5, 1996

   Duration

   20 min

   Comments

   Rating

   * * * *

Alice Stewart Trillin (May 8, 1938 - September 11, 2001) was an educator, author, film producer and long time muse to her husband, author Calvin Trillin. She was also known for her work with cancer patients. Trillin is a recurring subject in her husband?s writings, including his 2006 book titled “About Alice.”

Trillin taught English at Hofstra University and at the City University of New York, where she became a writing program specialist. While at Hofstra, Trillin received the Samuel Rubin Foundation to set up “Project NOAH,” a project designed to assist and tutor minority students.Her interest in curriculum development led her to consult for WNET television station and help it design new approaches to educational programming. She formed the company “Learning Designs” to produce educational television series, such as “Behind the Scenes,” starring the illusionist duo Penn & Teller, which aimed to teach pre-teens about the creative process in the visual and performing arts. The series won several awards including the Japan Prize in the largest international children’s film festival.

Trillin developed lung cancer, apparently as a result of exposure to second-hand smoke during her childhood. She wrote of her experience as a cancer patient in the article “Of Dragons and Garden Peas: A Cancer Patient Talks to Doctors,” in the “New England Journal of Medicine” in 1981. In 1979, Alice Trillin learned that her friend?s 12-year-old son Bruno Navasky had been diagnosed with cancer. A letter she wrote to Bruno, describing her own experiences and attempting to cheer him, was later published in a book form titled “Dear Bruno.” The book was illustrated by “New Yorker” artist Edward Koren.

Source - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Stewart_Trillin