Mark Helprin

Mark Helprin has been a scholar, soldier, farmer, commentator, and a speechwriter (unpaid, he insists) for Bob Dole.  He’s best known, though, as a writer of great fiction, and his...

Mark Helprin discusses his new novel, In Sunlight and in Shadow, which begins in New York in 1946. Harry Copeland, an elite paratrooper who fought behind enemy lines in Europe, has returned home to run the family business but his life is upended by a single encounter with a young singer and heiress.

Mark Helprin writes books with an adventurous spirit and great historical sweep. Not surprising for a guy who's held jobs as a surveyor, Israeli infantryman, and speechwriter for Bob Dole. Helprin talks to Kurt about his new book Freddy and Fredericka, a comic novel about ...