Three men got together in a tiny Manhattan studio this week to discuss a widely unread book. The occasion was CBS's long-run (15 years), longhair radio show Invitation to Learning. The three men: Critic John Mason Brown, Essayist Clifton Fadiman and Moderator Lyman Bryson.
The three quickly dismissed Walter Savage Landor's Imaginary Conversations as "a dead great book," then had a lively conversation about conversation while more than a million people listened. Talk is cheap, the three decided, but conversation has a different price tag on it. "There must be mind in talk to make it conversation," said Moderator Bryson. "Television programs...
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