Life Outside the Pages: 'A Chance Meeting'

By Liane Hansen

Published April 10, 2004 at 11:00 PM CDT

Rachel Cohen's book A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Writers and Artists, 1854-1967 describes encounters -- sometimes fleeting, sometimes influential -- between such luminaries as Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant, for example, or Richard Avedon and James Baldwin. Hear NPR's Liane Hansen and Cohen.

Liane Hansen

Liane Hansen has been the host of NPR's award-winning Weekend Edition Sunday for 20 years. She brings to her position an extensive background in broadcast journalism, including work as a radio producer, reporter, and on-air host at both the local and national level. The program has covered such breaking news stories as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the capture of Saddam Hussein, the deaths of Princess Diana and John F. Kennedy, Jr., and the Columbia shuttle tragedy. In 2004, Liane was granted an exclusive interview with former weapons inspector David Kay prior to his report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The show also won the James Beard award for best radio program on food for a report on SPAM.