A Cub Reporter in Albany in 1963

Paul Grondahl talks to two-time Pulitzer-winning biographer Robert Caro, who visits today, about his days as a young reporter covering the New York State Legislature in 1963.

"It was fascinating to see how state government worked," he said. "I learned a lot working under Newsday's chief political reporter, Dick Zander. What I discovered was that Robert Moses, who was not elected, had a tremendous amount of power up in Albany. Nobody really understood where that power came from. That spurred my initial interest in Moses."

"That was the first time I saw how political power works," Caro said. "It was not what you read about in textbooks. The bridge was a destructive idea, and yet I could see that it was moving forward and I had to understand why. I started thinking who is this Moses guy? He's not elected to anything. How'd he get so much power?" More.

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Oliver Stone Filming "The Power Broker" for HBO

Oliver Stone is making an HBO film based on Robert Caro's biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses, The Power Broker.

Caro will appear at the Egg on Monday, December 5.

From ArtInfo on the Huffington Post:

"Every robber baron is probably green with envy for the late Robert Moses, a powerful and polarizing force who shaped New York as we now know it, because Oliver Stone just signed on to direct a movie about him...." More.

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Caro and Vonnegut Barefoot at the Beach



Caro and Vonnegut in Sagaponack.
 (Photo originally appeared in Hamptons Shorts, 1999)

One sunny day in Sagaponack, renowned political biographer and seasoned interviewer Robert Caro—who comes to Albany, NY on December 5, 2011—had the tables tuned on him by none other than Kurt Vonnegut.   Their conversation, with Vonnegut posing questions to Caro (though it was supposed to be the other way around!), delves deeply into the nature of political power, the shared qualities of great fiction and non-fiction, and the pros and cons of writing with typewriters or word processors.  And, by the end, they were both barefoot!



Robert Caro, biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, will receive the 2011 Empire State Archives and History Award of the NYS Archives Partnership Trust, on Monday, December 5, 2011 at 7:30pm at the Egg at the Empire State Plaza.  The event is co-sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute.

P.S.  This event costs $10. (All other Institute realted events are free!)

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