This I Believe highres
Broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow began hosting the radio show This I Believe in the 1950s, and featured athletes, writers, entertainers, and everyday men and women reading essays they had written exploring the principles that guided their lives. The themes were timeless—war, love, racism, personal struggle, faith. The first book of This I Believe essays also was published in the 1950s. Together, the program and the published essays marked a turning point in American culture—both encouraged public discussion of private beliefs.
In 2010, Bob Edwards, a Louisville native and distinguished broadcaster, revived the radio series, and radio producer Dan Gediman began compiling, editing and publishing new collections of This I Believe essays in 2006. The latest volume, This I Believe: Kentucky, distills the beliefs of 60 writers across the state, including novelist Silas House, who believes “if more people were like dogs, we’d all be happier.” Also featured are author and editor Dianne Aprile, who believes in the power of silence because “words get in the way of reconciliation,” and poet and storyteller George Ella Lyon, who believes “going to nature’s school” helps people “step out of [their] walls of abstraction and into [their] bodies.” Three-time heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali believes his parents instilled confidence that led him to become a winner in the ring and fierce in battling Parkinson’s disease.
Through diversity of experience, individual tenacity and disclosures of the heart, the writers in This I Believe: Kentucky connect their beliefs to the Commonwealth and beyond.
This I Believe: Kentucky
Edited by Dan Gediman and Mary Jo Gediman
Butler Books, Louisville
$19.95 (P)