Otto Binder
The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $33.26
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Derek Botten
About this listen
Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary chronicles the career of Otto Binder, from pulp magazine author to writer of Supergirl, Captain Marvel, and Superman comics. As the originator of the first sentient robot in literature ("I, Robot," published in Amazing Stories in 1939 and predating Isaac Asimov's collection of the same name), Binder's effect on science fiction was profound.
Within the world of comic books, he created or cocreated much of the Superman universe, including Smallville; Krypto, Superboy's dog; Supergirl; and the villain Braniac. Binder is also credited with writing many of the first "Bizarro" storylines for DC Comics as well as for being the main writer for the Captain Marvel comics. In later years Binder expanded from comic books into pure science writing, publishing dozens of books and articles on the subject of satellites and space travel as well as UFOs and extraterrestrial life.
Comic book historian Bill Schelly tells the tale of Otto Binder through personal letters and interviews with Binder's own family and friends. Schelly weaves together Binder's professional successes and personal tragedies, including the death of Binder's only daughter and his wife's struggle with mental illness. A touching and human story, Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary is a biography that is both meticulously researched and beautifully told, keeping alive Binder's spirit of scientific curiosity and whimsy.
©2003, 2016 Bill Schelly (P)2017 North Atlantic BooksListeners also enjoyed...
-
Sense of Wonder
- My Life in Comic Fandom--The Whole Story
- By: Bill Schelly
- Narrated by: Derek Botten
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning writer Bill Schelly relates how comics and fandom saved his life in this engrossing story that begins in the burgeoning comic fandom movement of the 1960s and follows the twists and turns of a career that spanned 50 years. Schelly recounts his struggle to come out at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness, how the egalitarian nature of fandom offered a safe haven for those who were different, and how his need for creative expression eventually overcame all obstacles.
-
-
Well told story that held my attention the entire time.
- By Kurt on 01-19-19
By: Bill Schelly
-
Harvey Kurtzman
- The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America
- By: Bill Schelly
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harvey Kurtzman created Mad, and Mad revolutionized humor in America. Kurtzman was the original editor, artist, and sole writer of Mad, one of the greatest publishing successes of the twentieth century. But how did Kurtzman invent Mad, and why did he leave it shortly after it burst, nova-like, onto the American scene? For this heavily researched biography, Bill Schelly conducted new interviews with Kurtzman’s colleagues, friends, and family, including Hugh Hefner, R. Crumb, Jack Davis, and many others, and examined Kurtzman’s personal archives.
-
-
Fantastic and in-depth
- By Joe C on 02-29-24
By: Bill Schelly
-
Dimension X
- The Outer Limit (Dramatized)
- By: Dimension X
- Length: 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A test pilot with fuel enough for 10 minutes vanishes for 10 hours - and returns with a fantastic tale of alien contact. This premiere episode of Dimension X originally aired on April 8, 1950.
-
-
Nostalgic listen even though predictable
- By Patrice on 07-11-14
By: Dimension X
-
MCU
- The Reign of Marvel Studios
- By: Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, Gavin Edwards
- Narrated by: Andrew Kishino, Joanna Robinson
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marvel Entertainment was a moribund toymaker not even twenty years ago. Today, Marvel Studios is the dominant player both in Hollywood and in global pop culture. How did an upstart studio conquer the world? In MCU, beloved culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred interviews with actors, producers, directors, and writers to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
-
-
Puff piece.
- By Habu1271 on 10-26-23
By: Joanna Robinson, and others
-
Asian Journals
- India and Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
- By: Joseph Campbell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
-
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
-
Comic Shop
- The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture
- By: Dan Gearino
- Narrated by: Douglas R. Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The early 1970s saw the birth of the modern comic book shop. Its rise was due in large part to a dynamic entrepreneur, Phil Seuling. His direct market model allowed shops to get comics straight from the publishers, bypassing middlemen. Stores could better customize their offerings and independent publishers could now access national distribution. In this way, shops opened up a space for quirky ideas to gain an audience and helped transform small-press series, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Bone, into media giants.
-
-
A good listen.
- By Amazon Customer on 08-30-20
By: Dan Gearino
-
Sense of Wonder
- My Life in Comic Fandom--The Whole Story
- By: Bill Schelly
- Narrated by: Derek Botten
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning writer Bill Schelly relates how comics and fandom saved his life in this engrossing story that begins in the burgeoning comic fandom movement of the 1960s and follows the twists and turns of a career that spanned 50 years. Schelly recounts his struggle to come out at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness, how the egalitarian nature of fandom offered a safe haven for those who were different, and how his need for creative expression eventually overcame all obstacles.
-
-
Well told story that held my attention the entire time.
- By Kurt on 01-19-19
By: Bill Schelly
-
Harvey Kurtzman
- The Man Who Created Mad and Revolutionized Humor in America
- By: Bill Schelly
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 21 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harvey Kurtzman created Mad, and Mad revolutionized humor in America. Kurtzman was the original editor, artist, and sole writer of Mad, one of the greatest publishing successes of the twentieth century. But how did Kurtzman invent Mad, and why did he leave it shortly after it burst, nova-like, onto the American scene? For this heavily researched biography, Bill Schelly conducted new interviews with Kurtzman’s colleagues, friends, and family, including Hugh Hefner, R. Crumb, Jack Davis, and many others, and examined Kurtzman’s personal archives.
-
-
Fantastic and in-depth
- By Joe C on 02-29-24
By: Bill Schelly
-
Dimension X
- The Outer Limit (Dramatized)
- By: Dimension X
- Length: 29 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A test pilot with fuel enough for 10 minutes vanishes for 10 hours - and returns with a fantastic tale of alien contact. This premiere episode of Dimension X originally aired on April 8, 1950.
-
-
Nostalgic listen even though predictable
- By Patrice on 07-11-14
By: Dimension X
-
MCU
- The Reign of Marvel Studios
- By: Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, Gavin Edwards
- Narrated by: Andrew Kishino, Joanna Robinson
- Length: 16 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marvel Entertainment was a moribund toymaker not even twenty years ago. Today, Marvel Studios is the dominant player both in Hollywood and in global pop culture. How did an upstart studio conquer the world? In MCU, beloved culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred interviews with actors, producers, directors, and writers to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
-
-
Puff piece.
- By Habu1271 on 10-26-23
By: Joanna Robinson, and others
-
Asian Journals
- India and Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
- By: Joseph Campbell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
-
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
-
Comic Shop
- The Retail Mavericks Who Gave Us a New Geek Culture
- By: Dan Gearino
- Narrated by: Douglas R. Pratt
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The early 1970s saw the birth of the modern comic book shop. Its rise was due in large part to a dynamic entrepreneur, Phil Seuling. His direct market model allowed shops to get comics straight from the publishers, bypassing middlemen. Stores could better customize their offerings and independent publishers could now access national distribution. In this way, shops opened up a space for quirky ideas to gain an audience and helped transform small-press series, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Bone, into media giants.
-
-
A good listen.
- By Amazon Customer on 08-30-20
By: Dan Gearino
-
See You at San Diego
- An Oral History of Comic-Con, Fandom, and the Triumph of Geek Culture
- By: Mathew Klickstein
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber, Lisa Flanagan, Tim Paige, and others
- Length: 19 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
See You At San Diego is the comprehensive chronicle of Comic-Con International and modern geekdom itself as told through countless stories by nearly fifty of the most integral members of the Comic-Con and fandom scene. This full-fledged oral history—bursting with intimate reflections, hilarious observations, and at times, heartbreaking stories—is about how the geek at last inherited the earth and the story of the transformation of mainstream American pop culture into comic book culture over the past century.
-
Wild Minds
- The Artists and Rivalries that Inspired the Golden Age of Animation
- By: Reid Mitenbuler
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1911, famed cartoonist Winsor McCay debuted one of the first animated cartoons, based on his sophisticated newspaper strip Little Nemo in Slumberland, itself inspired by Freud’s recent research on dreams. McCay is largely forgotten today, but he unleashed an art form and the creative energy of artists from Otto Messmer and Max Fleischer to Walt Disney and Warner Bros.’ Chuck Jones. Wild Minds is an ode to our colorful past and to the creative energy that later inspired The Simpsons, South Park, and BoJack Horseman.
-
-
Almost , Everything You Wanted To know About The Story Of Animation But Didn’t Know To Ask
- By Donald Roberts on 06-25-23
By: Reid Mitenbuler
-
Supergods
- What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
- By: Grant Morrison
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of the most acclaimed and profound writers in the world of comics comes a thrilling and provocative exploration of humankind's great modern myth: the superhero. In this exhilarating work of a lifetime, Grant Morrison draws on art, science, mythology, and his own astonishing journeys through this shadow universe to provide the first true history of the superhero - why they matter, why they will always be with us, and what they tell us about who we are... and what we may yet become.
-
-
Average history of comic books
- By Bradford on 09-30-11
By: Grant Morrison
-
Superman
- The Unauthorized Biography
- By: Glen Weldon
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How has the Big Blue Boy Scout stayed so popular for so long? How has he changed with the times, and what essential aspects of him have remained constant? This fascinating biography examines Superman as a cultural phenomenon through 75 years of action-packed adventures, from his early years as a social activist in circus tights to his growth into the internationally renowned demigod he is today.
-
-
Unauthorized and fairly biased
- By AdarkanddrearyKnight on 05-15-22
By: Glen Weldon
-
Slugfest
- Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC
- By: Reed Tucker
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes audiobook treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. They are the two titans of the comic book industry - the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes - and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader.
-
-
Loved it, but...
- By Smitty on 05-02-18
By: Reed Tucker
-
Marvel Comics
- The Untold Story
- By: Sean Howe
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 17 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history - Marvel Comics - and the outsized personalities who made Marvel, including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby.
-
-
It's as if this book was written for me!
- By Greg on 03-15-13
By: Sean Howe
-
All of the Marvels
- A Journey to the Ends of the Biggest Story Ever Told
- By: Douglas Wolk
- Narrated by: Douglas Wolk
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The superhero comic books that Marvel Comics has published since 1961 are, as Douglas Wolk notes, the longest continuous, self-contained work of fiction ever created: over half a million pages to date, and still growing. The Marvel story is a gigantic mountain smack in the middle of contemporary culture. Thousands of writers and artists have contributed to it. Everyone recognizes its protagonists: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men. Eighteen of the hundred highest-grossing movies of all time are based on parts of it. Yet not even the people telling the story have read the whole thing.
-
-
A tool buried in performative identity politics
- By Jeffrey on 03-14-22
By: Douglas Wolk
-
A Marvelous Life
- The Amazing Story of Stan Lee
- By: Danny Fingeroth
- Narrated by: Danny Fingeroth
- Length: 14 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Danny Fingeroth’s A Marvelous Life: The Amazing Story of Stan Lee is the first comprehensive biography of this powerhouse of ideas, who, with his invention of Marvel Comics, changed the world’s ideas of what a hero is and how a story should be told. With exclusive interviews with Lee himself, as well as with colleagues, relatives, friends - and detractors - Fingeroth makes a doubly remarkable case for Lee’s achievements, while not ignoring the controversies that dogged him his entire life - and even past his death.
-
-
A Detailed and Personal Look at Stan the Man
- By G. Hernandez on 07-29-20
By: Danny Fingeroth
-
Walt Disney
- The Triumph of the American Imagination
- By: Neal Gabler
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 33 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Walt Disney was a true visionary whose desire for escape, iron determination, and obsessive perfectionism transformed animation from a novelty to an art form, first with Mickey Mouse and then with his feature films–most notably Snow White, Fantasia, and Bambi.
-
-
Diane Disney
- By Amanda on 02-15-13
By: Neal Gabler
-
The Stephen King Companion
- Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror
- By: George Beahm
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Claire Christie
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Stephen King Companion is an authoritative look at horror author King's personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King expert George Beahm, who has published extensively about Maine's main author, is your seasoned guide to the imaginative world of Stephen King, covering his varied and prodigious output: juvenalia, short fiction, limited edition books, best-selling novels, and film adaptations.
-
-
A Kingopedia: Books, Movies, Bio and Art
- By tru britty on 02-28-16
By: George Beahm
-
The View from the Cheap Seats
- Selected Nonfiction
- By: Neil Gaiman
- Narrated by: Neil Gaiman
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An inquisitive observer, thoughtful commentator, and assiduous craftsman, Neil Gaiman has long been celebrated for the sharp intellect and startling imagination that informs his fiction. Now The View from the Cheap Seats brings together, for the first time ever, more than 60 works of his outstanding nonfiction on topics and people close to his heart.
-
-
The very best View is from the Cheap Seats
- By Jessica on 06-20-16
By: Neil Gaiman
-
The Supergirls
- Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines
- By: Mike Madrid
- Narrated by: Colby Elliott
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Comic book superheroines bend steel, travel across time and space, and wield awesome forces. These mighty females do everything that male superheroes do. But they have to work their wonders in skirts and high heels. The Supergirls asks whether their world of fantasy is that different from our own. Are the stories of Wonder Woman’s search for an identity, Batwoman and Power Girl’s battle for equality, and Manhunter’s juggling of a crime fighting career and motherhood also an alternative saga of modern American women?
-
-
Love For the Heroines!
- By Troy on 08-31-12
By: Mike Madrid
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
The Stephen King Companion
- Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror
- By: George Beahm
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Claire Christie
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Stephen King Companion is an authoritative look at horror author King's personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King expert George Beahm, who has published extensively about Maine's main author, is your seasoned guide to the imaginative world of Stephen King, covering his varied and prodigious output: juvenalia, short fiction, limited edition books, best-selling novels, and film adaptations.
-
-
A Kingopedia: Books, Movies, Bio and Art
- By tru britty on 02-28-16
By: George Beahm
-
Georgette Heyer
- Biography of a Bestseller
- By: Jennifer Kloester
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international best seller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's best-selling authors. Despite her enormous popularity, she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was 17 in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success, and 90 years later it has never been out of print.
-
-
Heyer as a person
- By Jerri C on 06-15-15
-
Superman
- The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero
- By: Larry Tye
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From two-fisted crimebuster to über-patriot, social crusader to spiritual savior, Superman—perhaps like no other mythical character before or since—has evolved in a way that offers a Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait of America over seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who continues to embody our best selves.
-
-
This Superman soars
- By tru britty on 07-13-15
By: Larry Tye
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
-
-
Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
-
Libertarians on the Prairie
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books
- By: Christine Woodside
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Generations of children have fallen in love with the pioneer saga of the Ingalls family, of Pa and Ma, Laura and her sisters, and their loyal dog. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have taught millions of Americans about frontier life, giving inspiration to many and in the process becoming icons of our national identity. Yet few realize that this best-selling series wandered far from the actual history of the Ingalls family and from what Laura herself understood to be central truths about pioneer life.
-
-
Very Interested!!
- By ME00625 on 01-16-17
-
The Stephen King Companion
- Four Decades of Fear from the Master of Horror
- By: George Beahm
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper, Claire Christie
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Stephen King Companion is an authoritative look at horror author King's personal life and professional career, from Carrie to The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. King expert George Beahm, who has published extensively about Maine's main author, is your seasoned guide to the imaginative world of Stephen King, covering his varied and prodigious output: juvenalia, short fiction, limited edition books, best-selling novels, and film adaptations.
-
-
A Kingopedia: Books, Movies, Bio and Art
- By tru britty on 02-28-16
By: George Beahm
-
Georgette Heyer
- Biography of a Bestseller
- By: Jennifer Kloester
- Narrated by: Phyllida Nash
- Length: 14 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Georgette Heyer remains an enduring international best seller, read and loved by four generations of readers and extolled by today's best-selling authors. Despite her enormous popularity, she never gave an interview or appeared in public. Georgette Heyer wrote her first novel, The Black Moth, when she was 17 in order to amuse her convalescent brother. It was published in 1921 to instant success, and 90 years later it has never been out of print.
-
-
Heyer as a person
- By Jerri C on 06-15-15
-
Superman
- The High-Flying History of America's Most Enduring Hero
- By: Larry Tye
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From two-fisted crimebuster to über-patriot, social crusader to spiritual savior, Superman—perhaps like no other mythical character before or since—has evolved in a way that offers a Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait of America over seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who continues to embody our best selves.
-
-
This Superman soars
- By tru britty on 07-13-15
By: Larry Tye
-
So We Read On
- How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures
- By: Maureen Corrigan
- Narrated by: Maureen Corrigan
- Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Conceived nearly a century ago by a man who died believing himself a failure, it's now a revered classic and a rite of passage in the reading lives of millions. But how well do we really know The Great Gatsby? As Maureen Corrigan, Gatsby lover extraordinaire, points out, while Fitzgerald's masterpiece may be one of the most popular novels in America, many of us first read it when we were too young to fully comprehend its power.
-
-
Reading Gatsby as an adult reveals its greatness!
- By Mark on 10-06-14
By: Maureen Corrigan
-
And So It Goes
- Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
- By: Charles J. Shields
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 17 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author and biographer Charles J. Shields crafts this fascinating portrait of literary icon Kurt Vonnegut. The first authorized biography of the influential American writer, And So It Goes examines Vonnegut’s life, from his childhood to his death in 2007, and explores how the author changed the conversation of American literature.
-
-
Probably only for die hard Vonnegut fans
- By Watery M on 12-22-12
-
Libertarians on the Prairie
- Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books
- By: Christine Woodside
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 6 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Generations of children have fallen in love with the pioneer saga of the Ingalls family, of Pa and Ma, Laura and her sisters, and their loyal dog. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books have taught millions of Americans about frontier life, giving inspiration to many and in the process becoming icons of our national identity. Yet few realize that this best-selling series wandered far from the actual history of the Ingalls family and from what Laura herself understood to be central truths about pioneer life.
-
-
Very Interested!!
- By ME00625 on 01-16-17
-
Slugfest
- Inside the Epic, 50-Year Battle Between Marvel and DC
- By: Reed Tucker
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first in-depth, behind-the-scenes audiobook treatment of the rivalry between the two comic book giants. They are the two titans of the comic book industry - the Coke and Pepsi of superheroes - and for more than 50 years, Marvel and DC have been locked in an epic battle for spandex supremacy. At stake is not just sales, but cultural relevancy and the hearts of millions of fans. To many partisans, Marvel is now on top. But for much of the early 20th century, it was DC that was the undisputed leader.
-
-
Loved it, but...
- By Smitty on 05-02-18
By: Reed Tucker
-
Empire of Self
- A Life of Gore Vidal
- By: Jay Parini
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The product of 30 years of friendship and conversation, Jay Parini's Empire of Self probes behind the glittering surface of Gore Vidal's colorful life to reveal the complex emotional and sexual truth underlying his celebrity-strewn life. But there is plenty of glittering surface as well - a virtual who's who of the American Century, from Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart through the Kennedys, Princess Margaret, and the creme de la creme of Hollywood.
-
-
Well done!
- By Christopher on 03-22-16
By: Jay Parini
-
The Ten-Cent Plague
- The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
- By: David Hajdu
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the years between World War II and the emergence of television as a mass medium, American popular culture as we know it was first created in the bold, pulpy pages of comic books. The Ten-Cent Plague explores this cultural emergence and its fierce backlash while challenging common notions of the divide between "high" and "low" art.
-
-
Very frightening
- By Paul on 09-24-08
By: David Hajdu
-
Ayn Rand and the World She Made
- By: Anne C. Heller
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 19 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ayn Rand is the author of two phenomenally best-selling ideological novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, which have sold over 12 million copies in the United States alone. Through them, she built a right-wing cult following in the late 1950s and became the guiding light of Libertarianism and of White House economic policy in the 1960s and '70s. Her defenses of radical individualism and of selfishness as a "capitalist virtue" have permanently altered the American cultural landscape.
-
-
Great history of both Rand and her era
- By Mark on 08-07-10
By: Anne C. Heller
-
Mark Twain
- A Life
- By: Ron Powers
- Narrated by: Ron Powers
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mark Twain founded the American voice. His works are a living national treasury: taught, quoted, and reprinted more than those of any writer except Shakespeare. His awestruck contemporaries saw him as the representative figure of his times, and his influence has deeply flavored the 20th and 21st centuries.
-
-
Buy the Book
- By W.Denis on 10-22-05
By: Ron Powers
-
Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story
- A Life of David Foster Wallace
- By: D. T. Max
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Foster Wallace was the leading literary light of his generation, a man who not only captivated readers with his prose but also mesmerized them with his brilliant mind. In this, the first biography of the writer, D. T. Max sets out to chart Wallace’s tormented, anguished, and often triumphant battle to succeed as a novelist as he fights off depression and addiction to emerge with his masterpiece, Infinite Jest.
-
-
Max avoids hagiography or a sycophant's biography
- By Darwin8u on 06-11-13
By: D. T. Max
-
Process
- The Writing Lives of Great Authors
- By: Sarah Stodola
- Narrated by: Andi Arndt
- Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ernest Hemingway, Zadie Smith, Joan Didion, Franz Kafka, David Foster Wallace, and more. In Process, acclaimed journalist Sarah Stodola examines the creative methods of literature's most transformative figures. Each chapter contains a mini biography of one of the world's most lauded authors, focused solely on his or her writing process.
-
-
Excellent!
- By Davina Rush on 04-10-15
By: Sarah Stodola
-
Salinger
- By: David Shields, Shane Salerno
- Narrated by: Peter Friedman, January LaVoy, Robert Petkoff, and others
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Shields and Salerno illuminate most brightly the last 56 years of Salinger’s life: a period that, until now, had remained completely dark to biographers. Provided unprecedented access to diaries, letters, legal records, and secret documents, listeners will feel they have, for the first time, gotten beyond Salinger’s meticulously built-up wall. The result is the definitive portrait of one of the most fascinating figures of the 20th century.
-
-
Ingenious novel or biography? Hard to tell....
- By Melinda on 09-05-13
By: David Shields, and others
-
Gabriel Garcia Marquez: A Life
- By: Gerald Martin
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In his novels and short stories, Gabriel García Márquez has transformed the particulars of his own life and the lives of his fellow Colombians into wondrous fiction. While telling the story of the sloppily dressed, skinny young man who rose from obscurity as a provincial journalist to international fame as the progenitor of a new literature, Gerald Martin also considers the tensions in García Márquez's life between celebrity and the personal quest for literary quality, between politics and writing, and between the seductions of power, solitude, and love.
-
-
Great content, somewhat disappointing narrator.
- By Paola Herrington on 01-08-13
By: Gerald Martin
-
The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
-
-
Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
-
Street Gang
- The Complete History of Sesame Street
- By: Michael Davis
- Narrated by: Caroll Spinney
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When the first episode aired on Nov. 10, 1969, Sesame Street revolutionized the way education was presented to children on television. It has since become the longest-running children's show in history, and today reaches 8 million pre-schoolers on 350 PBS stations and airs in 120 countries. Street Gang is the compelling and often comical story of the creation and history of this media masterpiece and pop culture landmark.
-
-
An important subject, but hardly gripping
- By Scott T. Hards on 09-24-10
By: Michael Davis
-
Draft No. 4
- On the Writing Process
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Draft No. 4 is an elucidation of the writer's craft by a master practitioner. In a series of playful but expertly wrought essays, John McPhee shares insights he's gathered over his career and refined during his long-running course at Princeton University, where he has launched some of the most esteemed writers of several generations. McPhee offers a definitive guide to the crucial decisions regarding structure, diction, and tone that shape nonfiction pieces and presents extracts from some of his best-loved work, subjecting them to wry scrutiny.
-
-
McPhee is the Craft
- By Darwin8u on 09-19-17
By: John McPhee
What listeners say about Otto Binder
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MJ
- 09-21-21
Excellent
This well told biographical account of Otto Binder was very insightful and informative. It gives a greater understanding of the history of pulps and comics in the beginning and how they evolved as well as Otto’s role in all of it. The narration is superb.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Vales Tales
- 11-06-19
A Touching and Interesting Story
A lot of Otto Binder's work (the Golden Age Captain Marvel, lots of his Silver Age Superman writing, his Adam Link Robot stories which became the basis for my second-favorite episode of The Outer Limits) meant something to me before I read this book, I knew nothing about his life.
Now I do, and it made me both smile and cry a bit: he experienced some big tragedies and difficulties.
I didn't even know how to pronounce his last name, because I have an old friend and his family always pronounced it as if it rhymes with "finder". But according to this book, it's pronounced as if it rhymes with "cinder".
His origins, his family and his close relationship with his brothers, how he started writing, first in the pulps, the then in comic books, then writing about space for NASA, among others, his books and articles on science and "pseudo-science" (what might be called "psychic phenomena", UFO stuff, etc)... All covered here.
But also his friendships, his working relationships, his family life all come alive.
While the reader is not the best I've heard, he does a very good job.
Highly recommended, especially for fans of comic books, science fiction, the history of pop culture etc
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Customer
- 03-18-19
excellent book
Good listen, Otto's story is very interesting i have a lot of words left to write
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joshua
- 06-25-19
Epic history of Otto Binder
A great history of one of the best comic authors of the golden and atomic age of comics.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- HB Fan
- 11-03-17
fascinating history of a key comic book writer
This is a very entertaining book. It was given to me as a gift, because I'm a fan of the Supergirl TV show. According to Schelly's book, Binder created her in the comic books he was writing for DC. Binder was a pretty fascinating guy, it turns out. You don't even need to be a comic book fan to enjoy this biography. It's well-researched and written,and even tugged at my heart strings!
Plus the narrator does an excellent job. highly recommended!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful