"My Long Trip Home" writer Whitaker looks at the life of legendary comedian Bill Cosby, from his beginnings as a stand-up who took advantage of opportunities to becoming the star of one of the most successful sitcoms of all time. "What was really interesting about it is [Cosby's] influence on the culture at large," Nelson says of the book. Before "The Cosby Show," middle-class African-American families were simply not seen on American TV, she points out. "He and his work have just been huge to define a part of American culture that we didn't see before."
