NORMAN CORWIN: CENTENNIAL

On May 3, radio dramatist extraordinaire Norman Corwin reached his 100th birthday. To celebrate, Radio Spirits has published this anthology of the signature productions he wrote, produced, and directed in the 1940s. Most notably, the volume contains “We Hold These Truths,” a stirring paean to the Bill of Rights broadcast shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and “On a Note of Triumph,” joyously broadcast to ring in the new European peace on the first V-E Day and for several V-E Days thereafter. Some of the other nicely restored selections are delightful ephemera, war propaganda or gut-wrenching protests against inhumanity of one kind or another. Thus, this volume typifies the variety and depth of Corwin’s entire oeuvre for radio—an unprecedented, unequaled achievement by American radio’s greatest poet/playwright. Y.R. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2010]