"Child of Light": Madison Smartt Bell's Biography of Robert Stone

By Tom Hall,

Rob Sivak

Published July 5, 2021 at 12:45 PM EDT

Madison Smartt Bell is an American essayist, literary critic, and author of more than a dozen novels and story collections. (photo by Jerome De Perlinghi)

(This conversations was originally broadcast on July 3, 2020)

Welcome back to this archive edition of Midday. Tom's next guest is Madison Smartt Bell. He’s the author of a dozen novels, and he’s perhaps best known for his award-winning trilogy of books on the Haitian Revolution and its iconic leader, the 18^th century general, Toussaint Louverture.

Bell has also written several non-fiction books, including a biography of Louverture, and a literary biography of an iconic American author who was also his close friend, Robert Stone. Stone passed away in 2015. Madison Smartt Bell’s biography of this singular and influential American novelist is called Child of Light.

Madison Smartt Bell and Tom spoke in June of 2020. Because their conversation was pre-recorded, we aren’t able to take any calls or on-line comments.