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Tracy Kidder On Writing

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Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd at WBUR. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd at WBUR. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

This is what happened to a young aspiring writer back in 1977. He was trying to publish his first article in the Atlantic — right here in Boston.

He submitted multiple drafts, and each time they were sent back for more work, until finally the editor-in-chief returned the manuscript, with these words scrawled across it: "Let's face it, this fellow can't write."

Well that fellow was Tracy Kidder, who went on to become a Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author of such books as "Strength In What Remains, My Detachment and House."

Now Kidder has co-authored a new book about the art of writing with his longtime literary partner and friend, Richard Todd, who was Kidder's first editor back in those early days at The Atlantic.

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You can catch Kidder and Todd at the Boston Public Library. More information here.

This segment aired on January 31, 2013.

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