so, you know, personally they're among my favorites. one of my all-time favorites is lee iacocca who i did a book with, actually, at bantam books that set records, and it's probably the book i'm most closely associated with. and lee and i became good friends over the years and, happily, about four years ago i did another book with him, and he was then in his probably mid 80s which became a best seller. so it was kind of rewarding. i was always fond of mario puzdo who still has written my most favorite book, "the godfather." he's a great character. >> and, um, lastly, i guess, kind of to bring us all around where do you see the future, what do you see book publishing going in the next 10, 15 years? >> well, i think it's going to go rapidly to an

electronic-driven business. and by that i mean i think not too far down the road that the electronic book will be what i would call the reader's edition. it's clear to me now that people will read electronically and enjoy it, have gotten over the concerns about physical books. so in terms of what i said earlier, the convenience of the delivery system, the pricing, people have already shown us that the electronic books will and be are important. so i think a smart publisher has to look down the road and say, well, if my main audience is electronic, then maybe i should release the electronic edition as the primary edition. and follow it up with what i

would call the furniture edition because the physical books are still, you know, adored, cherished by readers and saved. i mean, there are millions of miles of book shelves in america that you're going to have to fill with something. and so i think that there will be plenty of opportunities to sell physical books, but i don't think physical books will be the dominant format 5-10 years from now. i think electronics books will. and is so i think that today's publisher has a challenge to figure out how to manage in the old world of paper and ink and transition their company into the new world of digital publishing. knowing that both are going to be important, but what i see -- and certainly i'm not intimate with it anymore -- but i don't see publishers looking at

electronic books as individual formats that need to be published separately. i see most publishers happily letting the e-book tag along on the efforts that they put forth for the physical books. i think that's a mistake, um, that will be recognized and corrected. but it's difficult because you've got people who are trying to preserve one world and thrive in a new world. it's not the easiest challenge in the world, and i also think, and i think this is important, that relatively quickly original e-book publishing will evolve so that there will be books that will be only published electronically. and then if they succeed in an electronic edition, might then be published in a physical edition or might not. so i think a lot more books will be published as a result of the electronic book phenomenon, but

different books. >> are e-books as lucrative as printed books? >> they should be more lucrative. um, it depends upon how the publishers account and how much overhead they charge through the electronic edition. but in the electronic format you have no manufacturing costs. you have no, um, selling or distribution costs. you do have some selling costs. so you, basically, have the creative cost of creating the content, you have marketing costs, and then you have the author's participation, the royalty payments. um, it -- i can't imagine that there are going to be -- that they aren't going to be hugely more profitable. they should be. >> this yearbook tv is looking at eight cultural cities. mr. russell is the author of

"savannah: a history of her peoples in 1733, a comprehensive book about his hometown. it's about 40 minutes. >> preston is a man of many parts; physician, painter, historian and writer. he even finds time to play golf. since preston retired from medicine after 30 years at memorial hospital, his paintings have appeared in regional art shows and in homes throughout the united states and be europe. and europe. as well as here at the fair and at the morris museum in augusta. his book, "the low country: from savannah to charleston," contained 85 of his paintings which capture the mystique of the region. preston russell along with his wife, barbara heinz, who's with us here today -- if you could stand up? [applause]

co-authored "saw van that: a history of her people since 1733." and his most recent book is "lights of madness: in search of joan of arc." his pending work, i guess this means you're working on it now -- >> right. >> deals with france's involvement in the american revolution and the father and son relationship between george washington and the young marquee delafayette. dr. russell, i will also point out, has been an enthusiastic patron of the savannah book festival since its beginning and was an author speaker in 2008. ladies and gentlemen, a true renaissance man, preston russell. [applause] >> thank you. thank you very much, jack.

i see my reputation has exceeded me. give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, send these. the tempest tossed to me. this could easily apply in our country of immigrants to the founding of savannah in 1733, but as we all know, it applies to the statue of liberty 150 years later, a gift from france during our first centennial in 1876. indeed, savannah was founded in 17be 33 -- 1733and is 50 years older than before america was even recognized as a country in 1783. so a story of immigrants. and i guess we're pretty proud of these parts, being rather old and traditional. charl stone yangs just up the

road also are a little bit older than us and get a little bit uppity or whatever about how much older and heartier they are, perhaps, than us. and it has been described that charl stone yangs are like the chinese in the sense they both eat a lot of rice and worship their ancestors. [laughter] but with a little making up to do, after nearly 300 years of marrying your first cousin and all the right families, all six or eight right families over this time, matter of fact, i think my home state of tennessee is like four million people but only seven last names. [laughter] that's the motto of tennessee. but with this going on it has been said that you're not considered to be from an established savannah family until your first and last name are the same. [laughter] we might take that as literal evidence from a proud jewish

revolutionary war patriot who lived near the 18th century. there is an old saying that many of us know that the j everything ws -- jews own it and the crackers enjoy it or the rednecks like me have a good time at this sort of thing. the third oldest jewish congregation was founded in 1733 in savannah. anybody want to take a guess on the two older? in the audience? >> [inaudible] >> that was really the snapper there, right. it wasn't providence, it was newport, rhode island, but that was a good one. and new york is the other one. concerning the irish running it, even to this day we have the second largest st. patrick's day parade in all the world, and a couple of years ago two irishmen came from dublin and had a great time and then said, all right, we've learned a lot over the weekend.

we've learned that savannahs has the second largest st. patrick's day parade in the whole world and new york has the second best. [laughter] um, georgia founded in 1733 was the last and, indeed, the poorest 19th colony which was -- 13th colony which was admitted to the not union because there was no union, but which showed up as an english colony. and can out of good pr and gamesmanship, it was named after the king george the ii, and it's also remains the largest state in the union east of the mississippi river. and it was originally put here as sort of a spoiler, buffer territory between the established english colony in south carolina and the spanish colony down in florida. and since this whole area from,

say, south carolina down to the florida line was completely up in the air, as long as you are grabbing territory that's going to be contested, why not go all the way? because the original drawings georgia which were spliced down went all the way from the atlantic ocean to the pacific ocean cutting through god knows what, whatever that would keep going if it just kept going. so you might as well go big for it. initially, this was a haven for all sorts of people, particularly a religious haven. sixteen languages ranging from welsh to gaelic to arabic were spoken in the new colony of georgia. as a matter of fact, john wesley, who came over to evangelize the indians here, could speak five languages. that is before he stormed back to england to found the methodist religion and wrote about a year of being in

savannah: i shook off the dust of my feet and left georgia after having preached the gospel there not as i ought, but as i was able, unquote. see, he left rather disgruntled. and it's not for nothing that the main biography on young john wesley is named "strange fires." and you can sort of figure that out for yourself. he had a few problems with some of the young women here in the colony of georgia. [laughter] i mentioned a religious haven. the jews came here in 1733 from portugal. soon after germans and no rave yangs came. they tended to settle up in ebeneezer and founded their church which is about 20 miles up the road. because the germans wanted as much as possible to preserve their language, they religion and their customs, a little bit more than rest of us here in savannah. christ church is a manifestation

of this being an english colony founded in 1733 and sit on johnson square. anglican church at that time, and you had people like john and charles wesley and george whitfield considered the most universeally acclaimed evangelist in the world at that time who when he was here founded america's first orphanage which was bethesda, which is, remain bethesda. these were followed by scottish presbyterians who were the genesis of the presbyterian church down on bull street and just a generation or two later you have the foundings of the oldest black church in america. which is represented in first african baptist church with founders like andrew bryan and is located not that far from here on franklin square, and it's always open any sunday to a very vibrant visitation of people who enjoy their colorful and beautiful service.fá

central to the founding of georgia was a mysterious person named james oglethorpe. we don't know that much about him except maybe for the worst in this sense. he was, had a speckled or a spotted youth. he actually killed some young man in a bar brawl, was not sent to prison for reasons not understood, so he emerges over in georgia appointed by the trustees to come over and sort of be the head of this first colonization of anglican settlers. and english historian named ken nyet dover -- kenneth dover in our book wroting wrote somethins rather interesting about the background of oglethorpe. quote, a friend of oglethorpe's laden with debt which he could not pay was thrown into the fleet prison and died there of

smallpox under horrifying conditions. few among us comprehend suffering and injustice until they are thrust up under our eyes by the experience of someone we know. and we like to be judged by what we do then without too close of scrutiny of what we failed to do before. oglethorpe's reaction to the death of his friend, robert castell, was to ask parliament to visit the london prison and make recommendations for reform. some -- not enough -- of the guilty were punished and some -- not enough -- regulations were made to correct abuses in the future. at any rate, the curtain which hid the fate of the desperate from the eyes of the secure and prosperous were torn, was torn and would never again be patched up.

certainly, the curtain was torn forever for james oglethorpe, and it was the emotional epiphany that gave the rest of his long life iron-willed commitment. one of the legacies we have here are our squares which almost everybody knows. they originally, they were up to 24 at one time. i think we might be back at 23. i keep losing count of who gets put back and who hadn't been replaced yet. and the squares were laid out,s it was sort of like a form and function in this sense. the squares could be used as defensive units in case the spanish came up and attacked savannah. also 40 families would be put around each square in an identical lot which was 60x90 feet in dimensions, and a church would be put on each square, and those families would have the equivalent of a black warden who

was responsible for just good discipline on each square as well as very practical matters of raising ten militia men to possibly fight the spanish if they ever came up from st. augustine. the trustees' garden was laid out, let's see, to the east of f us by sweat equity of the new colonists, and one thing was, of course, to raise vegetables to eat, etc. , and to raise mulberry trees which in turn would be food for silkworms, and we were going into the silk business instead of having to pay such high prices to people like france and italy. and so there became, savannah and the colony of georgia was a private business venture, a private business venn r church church -- venture. at which one of the quotations in the various journals, england will go rich by sending her poor

abroad. and it was estimated by close studies of a given family in london gained perhaps ten pounds and would otherwise consume 20 pounds whereas if transported to the new colony of georgia, they might generate with silk and other sweat equity up to 600 pounds a year. so it would be sort of a win/win situation. and on founders day, february the 12th, 1733, 114 of these anglican colonists arrive tonight queen anne on february the 12th, a wonderful georgia day which people like lisa white wherever she's standing has been part of in terms of having children parading as colonists. so it's a very, very vibrant thing since i've been here of school children remembering their heritage and founding.

however, of those 114, over half of those were dead by the second year from fill in the blanks; snakebite, fevers, everything under the sun. so it was, you know, the a horrible time here for the first five or ten years physically. and yet we read such provocative literature as this. this is oglethorpe's account written in 1733 which were descriptions of a swampy, sandy, steamy wilderness that he had never laid eyes on. quote, the air is healthy. false. being always serene, pleasant and temp rate, ditto. never subject to excessive heat. rank lie. [laughter] or cold nor to sudden changes except, of course, for the annual hurricanes we all have. laugh the oil is impregnated with -- the soil is impregnated

with such a fertile mixture that they use no manure. they have apples, lemons and pairs besides the peach and apricot. whoever tastes them will despise the insip bid, watery taste of those we have in england. and yet such is the plenty of them that there are given to the hogs in great want -- quantities. so we've got a slip between boosterism and reality. concerning the crackers, which is my gene pool, basically down and out scotch-irish types. i grew up in tennessee, so i'd be a good example of a hill billy. others grew up in the mountains of virginia, north carolina -- or were settle inside the mountains of north carolina and virginia. and when some indian property was opened up in the 1770s,

they really came in droves, and these were people that didn't smell so good most of the time. and probably most of them couldn't read or write. i imagine they were good presbyterians though. and one of the trustees, the english trustees described them thus: idle and disorderly say grants, great villains, horse stealers, etc. by no means the right sort who should settle our lands, unquote. which was pretty accurate. however, say after a span of about 10-20 years the idealism of a perfect utopian colony based on private industry and silk growth collapsed. the beginning motto was in latin, not for self but for others. pretty noble sounding. but after about 20 years it much could have been like what's in

it for me. in other words, it started off idealistic but remained dysfunctional. with the loss of the silk industry, thus, they switch today the rice industry in, say, 20 or 30 or 40 years poo the cotton industry -- into the cotton industry, 1793, requiring vast amounts of raw manpower. and the ban on slavery which had been originally effective for at least 20-30 years disappeared in the 1750s. and so by that time the colony of georgia was bankrupt, it was sort of given back to the british government, dumped back you might say. and slavery began in earnest. at one point, one settler here described it has become proverbial down here to say poor

as a georgian. unquote. during the revolutionary period in 1779, the second largest, most bloody battle of the american revolution took place here between the french and the americans as allies against the british. and it only rivals bunker hill surface the most manpower lost. and there's a large pit in which french and americans were thrown together in what is now the battlefield park that is, literally, sacred grown. there may be 6 or 700 unmarked graves together in the pit which is right in the middle of battle park site. in 1793 eli whitney invented the cotton gin and thing changed. with a new prosperity that extended all the way up to the american civil war and, actually, savannah was a pretty

rich little place say for the first half of the 19th century. and then we had the civil war, and in 1864 general sherman ended his march from atlanta to the ocean down near saw -- down here in savannah, and he brought 60,000 guests with him which was the union army. sherman had previously been to savannah, he lost savannah. there was no burning or looting or destruction. savannah was spared, and then sherman just left savannah about four months later with those 60,000 troops. matter of fact, a significant number of marriages occurred between savannah women and northerners, et. so we come up past the american civil war through the reconstruction period end anything 1876 -- ending in the 1876, and by the 1920s cotton

had failed because of overgrowth and the lack of fertilization. and then in came the boll weevil. sosa van that was back to being poor again. by 1946 lay day astor described on her visit to savannah that savannah was a beautiful lady with a dirty face. and by that time and by the '40s and '50s, the old houses in down on the savannah were worth more dead than alive to get the bricks to build new houses. one city planner said atlanta was so poor that she was not able to destroy herself, unquote. but progress did make some hideous end roads in this putting highways through one part of the old town and a street through three of the precious squares. and at one point they were even going to extend lincoln street through the colonial secretary which is the place of all georgia's founders over there in

the cemetery. come to the rescue 1954 was the historic preservation society who finally had had enough when the old city market was destroyed, and they built, subsequently, an incredibly hideous looking parking lot. i mean, there are parking lots, and then there's incredibly ugly parking lots. so they banned together and formed what some detractors have called it hysterical savannah foundation to save the old house starting in 1954. and literally seven little old ladies and some of them in tennis shoes went around throwing their bodies in front of old buildings and the wrecking ball to stop the progress, and the resolving fund began to buy houses for nothing, $5,000, fix it up. don't change it but restore it to what it was and sell it for

25,000 or some. so you're got 25,000 and you do it and do it and do it until presently, at some point, savannah now has the most restored district which is quite an accomplishment in what has been done since 1954. and to those seven little old ladies, i won't name any of 'em. one described -- they are twittering old ladies in tennis shoes. they use their brains, they work, and they have clout. and it clearly showed. and downtown or historic savannah are sometimes called nods meaning north of gaston street. so you have nogs terms, and my wife and i live on gas on the street. we're not truly nogs so we live on the south half, so we're

so gs. we just can't quite break into the inner circle of them. so tourism and the port and, certainly, savannah college of art design have all headed up to what is now a sparkling savannah that we see in the present. just a few more words before closing. um, some people, not without justification, have gotten a little fed up over the centuries with savannah's maybe insular nature. one of them was dr. john harney who was the editor of the savannah georgian who wrote in 1818 just before he left which, by the way, was two years before savannah one today the ground --

burned to the ground twice, wrote this parting shot: may all your free citizens, wealthy or poor, be bribed for their votes as they have heretofore. may every quack doctor be patronized still and his talents be judged by the length of his bill. may all your quack lawyers find themes for their tongues and their brains get the applause that is due to their lungs. may your miserly merchant still cheat for their pence, and with case any brains show a great deal of sense. now, to finish my curses upon your ill city and express in few words all the sum of my ditty, i leave you, savannah, cursed as far, the worst of all curses to remain as you are. [laughter]

however, we certainly have had our people that have been charmed by savannah, and one of them being john who in the early 990s, of course, "midnight in the garden of good and evil," one of the best-selling books in the history of publishing. matter of fact, tourism and the economy went up 40% the year after "midnight in the garden of good and evil" came out. ..

personality breeder vv oct greater brilliance and the closure than would have been possible anywhere else in the world. thank you very much for your attention. [applause] >> if anybody would like to ask any questions, i would be glad to give it a try. yes? >> could you talk about the historical conservation movement you mentioned a bunch of mittal ladies in tennis shoes, but his name was john williams who was involved in the community, the gay community was very involved from pretty early on as well.

has there been a thriving community in savannah and long time or did that start in the 20th century? >> has been a thriving today community in the savannah a very long time or just since the 20th century? >> in terms of chronology i don't have a feel for that but i certainly think that there is a thriving community here in that regard and i am sure they've done, you know, many policy things in that regard. yes, lisa. >> can you talk about the need of americans that he found when he arrived in 1733? >> movies for the yamacaw peoples, a lesser branch of the nation which pretty much covered what we call the southeast and the cherokees would start appearing in tennessee, my home state.

tom was said to be 7 feet tall. we don't know better but we surmise that that is not the case. and he was said to be 100-years-old but he was certainly open-minded towards english settlement and in this with the leadership of tom work very helpful to the early colonists in terms of helping with planning and all of policy things you can think of and as a matter of fact, tom achichi was a hero that died in 1730 something, 1739, whatever, 1740, and he was buried in -- what is that, reynolds? >> [inaudible] >> right, right. and there's a story about him. there and say in the 19th century a member of the gordon family was buried there and this goes full cycle.

but the founder in 1912 was eg trustees six gili and during her reception when she was married she subsequently over the years became blind, excuse me, deaf in one year. so since they put that giant monument of over tom achichi's grave, the family said when they have bad luck there's tom achichi person getting us again and they saw the advantage. they were not part of the great trail of tears but they kept going west were. yes. >> in your opening you use the phrase as i read in your book and heard before that savanna is

owned by the jews and run by the irish and enjoyed by the crackers. from the hills north georgia and tennessee, but i've always wanted to add the work was done by the african americans. you mean that indication when it became economically important to have cheap labor that that was the case. both sutphen and a land of's main cities came through the civil rights movement in a better position than other cities in the south, birmingham obviously was tarred by its response to the civil rights movement. do you have anything to share about how the civil rights movement was received in savannah? >> i was not here when this would have been in the 1960's

for. they might be able to court this say within the last ten years there was a story about the integration of savannah and had something there was a pickup on line of the city too busy to hate to read a few remember -- i'm sorry. anyway, the city was a positive statement about the comparatively peaceful integration during the 1960's with savannah and to people i do know what and w.w. law who was a postman of the naacp and work closely together to open a swimming pools and all kind of things to get things done in a quiet way than they might be. as a matter of fact and that very, that article obviously i

can't remember martin luther king jr. was quoted in 1964 as saying that savannah was the most integrated city in america, not just the south but in america. yes? >> would you tell us a little bit about savannah's famous songwriter who we just celebrated this year? >> welcome the johnny mercer, but i don't have much of a lawyer to tell about johnny mercer, i don't know much about him or have any good stories about him. anybody else? >> it plays a big role in savannah is the military beginning with the army air field and also the steward follow-up, but the history of

the airfield is quite interesting, and i'm sure you have some stories about that somewhere. >> they are not in the book but stationed at hunter which is the b-17 who did most of the bombing in europe they like the bombing is one of the british did something like really 32,000 airmen died in the three or four years bombing germany, a great tribute. also related to military and the economy. this was a significant station during the spanish-american war of 1798. the troops gathering along with tampa i believe covering tampa about its role in the spanish-american war maaskant there also was a significant role here, too, concerning that conflict. and maybe like a lot of other places certainly shipping a lot

was built during world war ii which must have felt the economy as well. >> when did it become so important to savannah? >> i'm not much of a maritime historian. i don't really know. anybody else is what -- certainly beginning of the late 19th century like the 80's they have stuff like naval stores and turpentine lost on the positions i don't have much of a practical mind on imports and exports, but there was definitely the late 19th century when all that began and just kept going and going. we keep climbing up the ladder we may or may not be the second largest port on the eastern seaboard. it's not the third but we are doing pretty good in that

regard. yes, robert? >> one reason sherman didn't is because of the port and needed the port of savanna and the machine shots and savannah. >> well, he came to the seat to be refitted with the navy, the northern mazie supplies and everything. that might be a factor, but like i said sherman led the place. the winner of 1864 the war was already over. everybody pretty much had given up. as a matter of fact savannah was the first city in the south to officially rejoin the union that took a pledge even before the civil war was officially over. yes? >> that's also studied the incidence of? >> isn't that like the field order -- is todd still here?

just put a marker around there are around madison square that covers that background. >> [inaudible] >> yes, related to the green melon house. >> also he did leave and lead all the way from atlanta to savannah which is why the railroad museum here has normally been attacked principal for turntable still working, and it is because sherman needed it. he decided he kept the lines going to either brownswick or south carolina but left the line from atlanta to savannah open and the turntable. >> interesting. i was watching something on the history channel in terms of the magnitude of the system starting at the american civil war the

north had something like 160,000 miles, lots of miles away the south had 28,000. disproportionate numbers in the midwest compared to the south. [inaudible] can you tell was a little bit about that history? >> i don't know how they are made. >> i think that was lost from generation to generation. nobody knows the bricks today but there is the most sought out bricks we have to we estimate the savannah graves are sought out i didn't cover them unfortunately in my book. thank you for your attention and for coming tonight. [applause]

>> is there a nonfiction author your book you would like to see featured on booktv? send an e-mail at booktv.c-span.org or tweet at twitter.com/booktv. what are you reading this summer? booktv wants to know. >> i'm reading it ulysses by james joyce. i started on january 1st it's a resolution through the book by june 16th that's bloom's day, the date the book is built around, the central character it's a classic but it's intangible, hard to read but i will get it done. also, i will be reading founder switches a book about those who are part of the american revolution and a lot of interesting stories, to books by patrick o'brien, master in command and far side of the

earth which is what was put together to make the movie starring russell crowe. i love the movie and want to read the books now and the of a book i will be reading is called sword and honor which is a compilation of military stories, some commission and written at the time of the 19th century battles in the napoleonic war and the civil war. that's what i will be reading this summer. >> up next on book tv with a critical capitalism. this lasts about one hour and 20 minutes. >> my name is peter tebeau in the event coordinator here at city lights the store and i would like to welcome you all to city lights come a literary landmark since 1953. we are very ytd to delighted and happy to have with us ha-joon