John Dunning biography

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Readalikes

John Dunning
Rykken Johnson

John Dunning

John Dunning Biography

John Dunning is the Nero Wolfe Award-winning author of Booked to Die; The Bookman's Wake, a New York Times Notable Book of 1995; and The Bookman's Promise. An expert on rare and collectible books, he owned the Old Algonquin Bookstore in Denver for many years, and now does his bookselling online. He is also an expert on American radio history and the author of a novel about old-time radio, Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime, and a nonfiction book, On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio.

His other works include The Holland Suggestions, Denver, Deadline, The Sign of the Book and The Bookwoman's Last Fling.

He was for many years host of the weekly Denver radio show Old-Time Radio. John Dunning lives with his wife, Helen, in Denver, Colorado.

John Dunning's website

This bio was last updated on 01/01/2015. We try to keep BookBrowse's biographies both up to date and accurate, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's a tough task. So, please help us - if the information about a particular author is out of date or inaccurate, and you know of a more complete source, please let us know. Authors: If you wish to make changes to your bio, send your complete biography as you would like it displayed so that we can replace the old with the new.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" backstories
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $10 for 3 months or $35 for a year
  • More about membership!

Interview

An Interview with John Dunning, author of Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime


What's the story behind Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime?
It's a novel I've wanted to write for years -- to show what it was like to work in radio when it was the top entertainment medium in the country. Even movies took a back seat to radio in the Thirties and Forties, especially in the Thirties. The country was in the middle of a depression and people couldn't afford to go out. It cost a dime or a quarter to see Eddie Cantor on the screen -- you got him free on the radio, and it was all live, that was the excitement and magic of it, it was happening right then as you were listening to it. There was no phony laugh track, a comic lived or died by his material, and there were a dozen ways a dramatic show could fall apart. But when it worked, ah, man!...there were some great shows, some almost perfect pieces of air. Radio was a wonderfully creative business then, but everything you read and see plays it as high camp, as if the entire radio era was directed by Woody Allen. It wasn't like that, not to the actors who did fifteen shows a week, not to the writers who created what went on the air. To them it was the stuff of ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" backstories
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $10 for 3 months or $35 for a year
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by John Dunning at BookBrowse
The Bookwoman's Last Fling jacket The Sign of The Book jacket Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" backstories
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $10 for 3 months or $35 for a year
  • More about membership!

Readalikes

All the books below are recommended as readalikes for John Dunning but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose readalikes

  • John M. Daniel

    John M. Daniel

    John M. Daniel is a graduate of Stanford University (American Literature), where he also did graduate study as a Wallace Stegner Fellow in the Creative Writing Program. He completed the Radcliffe College Publishing Procedures... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Sign of The Book

    Try:
    The Poet's Funeral
    by John M. Daniel

  • Louis de Bernieres

    Louis de Bernieres

    Louis de Bernières is a British novelist. He is most famous for his fourth novel, Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

    In 1993 de Bernières was selected as one of the "20 Best of Young British Novelists", part of a ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime

    Try:
    Birds Without Wings
    by Louis de Bernieres

We recommend 7 similar authors

View all 7 Readalikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" backstories
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $10 for 3 months or $35 for a year
  • More about membership!

Support BookBrowse

Become a Member and discover books that entertain, engage & enlighten!

Join Today!

Editor's Choice

  • Book Jacket
    My Name Is Leon
    by Kit De Waal
    Kit de Waal's striking debut, My Name is Leon, has inspired this big, long, complicated question: ...
  • Book Jacket: New People
    New People
    by Danzy Senna
    Danzy Senna has spent virtually her entire writing career exploring the complicated intersections of...
  • Book Jacket: Hunger
    Hunger
    by Roxane Gay
    In this penetrating and fearless memoir, author Roxane Gay discusses her battle with body acceptance...

Book Discussion
Book Jacket
News of the World by Paulette Jiles

A brilliant work of historical fiction that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.

About the book
Join the discussion!

First Impressions

  • Book Jacket

    Young Jane Young
    by Gabrielle Zevin

    From the author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry comes a novel that will have everyone talking.
    Reader Reviews

Win this book!
Win The Resurrection of Joan Ashby

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas

Epic, propulsive, incredibly ambitious, and dazzlingly written--a story about sacrifice and motherhood.

Enter

Word Play

Solve this clue:

I's A D Before D

and be entered to win..

Books that     
entertain,
     engage

 & enlighten

Visitors can view some of BookBrowse for free. Full access is for members only.

Join Today!

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends books that we believe to be best in class. Books that will whisk you to faraway places and times, that will expand your mind and challenge you -- the kinds of books you just can't wait to tell your friends about.

 
https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/552/john-dunning
www.bookbrowse.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2017-34
43939
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:PI7OTG4LZUV3QNTHRCFI6QMVISBFBAWT
<urn:uuid:8abd43bf-a48b-4909-afd3-58bd1bb59352>
2017-08-22T17:10:24Z
209.164.1.26
application/xhtml+xml
sha1:K4Q2AGA4K5JBSMAGEKETFY7MEYJACOOP
<urn:uuid:6b9a2ade-2362-49ac-986f-f41a8088a152>
https://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/552/john-dunning
response
<urn:uuid:9df772b0-3f0b-4c31-9285-23cf852688c7>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-145-153-138.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2017-34
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for August 2017
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf