Author Jerzy Kosiński (1933-91) reads from and discusses his novel, Cockpit, with Charles Ruas and Linda Rosechild-Harris in 1975. Cockpit is the debriefing of a mysterious CIA operative, Tarden. Now a fugitive, he moves across the landscape free of identity, in search of adventure and intrigue. Kosiński describes the subtext as the authentic search for self and establishing being the protagonist of one’s own life while in service to the institutions that envelop us. Kosiński’s first novel, The Painted Bird, published in 1965, was heralded as a classic by the likes of Elie Wiesel and Arthur Miller. This was followed by a series of bestselling masterworks. His suicide followed a widely disputed account of the authenticity of his holocaust experience as a child in Poland.

Historic Audio from the Archives of Charles Ruas is produced by Clocktower Radio and broadcast in partnership with Wave Farm's WGXC 90.7-FM. Writes Clocktower Radio, "A unparalleled collection of recovered and restored programs from the seventies produced by Charles Ruas for WBAI-FM, New York's Pacifica station. It features reading, lectures, and performances by such cultural and literary icons as Allen Ginsberg, John Giorno, Anaïs Nin, William Boroughs, Buckminster Fuller, Sylvia Plath, Pablo Neruda, and Jorge Luis Borges, among numerous others.

Ruas is the author of Conversations with American Writers, a Fulbright scholar, and a distinguished French translator. He is also a contributor to ARTNews and Art in America. This series is produced in partnership with Charles Ruas, The Pacifica Radio Archives, The Yale Beinecke Library, The Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Collection, and numerous restorers, archivists and collectors."