Authors Reading Free Audio & Video

Allen Ginsberg's Howl is the ultimate beat poem, and what better way to experience it than listening to Ginsberg read it himself. PennSound features two recordings of Ginsberg reading Howl, one from 1956 (the year he published it) and one from 1995 (a few years before his death).

Arthur Miller reads from Death of a Salesman with actress Mildred Dunnock, who played Linda Loman in the original Broadway production. It was recorded at 92Y on February 2, 1955.

In 1957 and 1958 Nobel Prize-winning American novelist William Faulkner served two terms as the University of Virginia's first Writer-in-Residence. During this time Faulkner spoke and answered questions at many of the writing and literature classes and these lectures were recorded on audio.

Truman Capote reads "Among the Paths to Eden" and Breakfast at Tiffany's at 92Y in 1963.

John Cheever was an American novelist and short story writer. He is sometimes called "the Chekhov of the suburbs".

Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874, in Pittsburgh - July 27, 1946) was an American writer, poet, feminist, playwright, and catalyst in the development of modern art and literature, who spent most of her life in France.

With the dry wit that has come to make her a literary icon, Margaret Atwood reads selections from her work and discusses writing in this audio download released by the Lannan Foundation.

Allen Ginsberg reads "What would you do if you lost it?" at 92Y on February 26, 1973. This recording kicks off the Dave Nolan Poetry Series, in honor of our beloved audio archivist who passed away in 2010.

Listen to a reading from one of America's most versatile and prolific writers: Joyce Carol Oates. She pulls no punches in her public reading, as she reads from her novella Rape: A Love Story.

This excerpt is Kurt Vonnegut's very first public reading of the classic Breakfast of Champions, three years before it was published. Recorded May 4, 1970 at Unterberg Poetry Center of 92nd Street Y.