Cover of Audition: A Memoir | |
| Author | Barbara Walters |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Knopf |
Publication date | May 6, 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 624 |
| ISBN | 978-0-307-26646-0 |
| OCLC | 176951785 |
| 070.92 B 22 | |
| LC Class | PN4874.W285 A3 2008 |
Audition: A Memoir is a 2008 autobiography by American journalist and television personality Barbara Walters. The book was published on May 6, 2008 by Knopf. Audition provides a relatively full autobiography of Walters, spanning from her childhood to recent interviews. Walters discusses her work and personal life, confessing to an affair with Senator Edward W. Brooke and describing her relationship with Alan Greenspan.
An autobiography is a self-written account of the life of oneself. The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English periodical The Monthly Review, when he suggested the word as a hybrid, but condemned it as "pedantic". However, its next recorded use was in its present sense, by Robert Southey in 1809. Despite only being named early in the nineteenth century, first-person autobiographical writing originates in antiquity. Roy Pascal differentiates autobiography from the periodic self-reflective mode of journal or diary writing by noting that "[autobiography] is a review of a life from a particular moment in time, while the diary, however reflective it may be, moves through a series of moments in time". Autobiography thus takes stock of the autobiographer's life from the moment of composition. While biographers generally rely on a wide variety of documents and viewpoints, autobiography may be based entirely on the writer's memory. The memoir form is closely associated with autobiography but it tends, as Pascal claims, to focus less on the self and more on others during the autobiographer's review of his or her life.
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. Walters is known for having hosted a variety of television programs, including Today, The View, 20/20, and the ABC Evening News. Since retirement as a full-time host and contributor, she continued to occasionally report for ABC News through 2015.
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in addition to leading American literary trends. It was acquired by Random House in 1960, which was later acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998, and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. The Knopf publishing house is associated with its borzoi colophon, which was designed by co-founder Blanche Knopf in 1925.
The release of Audition was covered by major media outlets. Walters went on a promotional tour talking about the book, including an hour on The Oprah Winfrey Show and an interview with The New York Times . [1] ABC broadcast an hour-long special hosted by Charlie Gibson on May 7, 2008 to celebrate the book's release. The special, called Audition: Barbara Walters’ Journey, attracted 7.4 million viewers. [2]
The Oprah Winfrey Show, often referred to simply as Oprah, is an American syndicated talk show that aired nationally for 25 seasons from September 8, 1986, to May 25, 2011, in Chicago, Illinois. Produced and hosted by its namesake, Oprah Winfrey, it remains the highest-rated daytime talk show in American television history.
The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 125 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U.S.
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network that is a flagship property of Disney–ABC Television Group, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building.
