Wyatt Cooper on Families: A Memoir and a Celebration

Wyatt Cooper reads from his book, Families: A Memoir and a Celebration, and is interviewed by Charles Ruas. His wife is Gloria Vanderbilt and sons are Carter and journalist Anderson Cooper. After being asked to write about the concept of “the family” in the 20th century, Cooper produced a biography on his family. From enjoying countryside picnics to admiring urban horseback riding patrol officers, he reflects on his traditional southern upbringing and raising his own family in New York City. Cooper talks about past pressures to marry out of necessity and contemporary desires to do so out of want and desire. He recognizes this change in the family unit and seeks to celebrate it and define it as something that is necessitated by planting roots and building a connection to a certain time and place. This connection, Cooper believes, allows one to create an identity within the history of the place that one identifies with.

Families: A Memoir and a Celebration was published in 1975 by Harper & Row.

Originally recorded in 1975, this program has been restored by The Clocktower Radio; with the assistance of Charles Ruas. If you are interested in hearing another segment in which Wyatt Cooper is featured, click here.

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