you think of the books and what should be on this list. >> roberta schafer, the last book you have in here was published in 2002. >> yes. we kind of decided to put a cutoff on it. we thought if we're really going to be looking at books that shaped america, we have to give them an opportunity, give books an opportunity to prove their worth in shaping america. so this is an organic endeavor by the library of congress. we intend to keep looking at books that keep shaping america, but we thought, you know, about a decade, that's a good place to stop. so since we're in 2012 now, let's stop at 2002, and we'll keep revisiting it. ..

many of them continued to be and have not gone out of principle even though it wasn't specific criteria so many of them have been translated and carried american ideals across the world. >> i want to ask about another specific book which is a lovely dickenson's book of poetry. >> of course emily dickinson is a must have american poet. but the particular book we have on the show is done by a cooperative in key west and they reproduced the book of poetry and a facsimile of her house in amherst and a little tree and it is made of recycled material.

emily dickinson is a phenomenal poet and we didn't know about her or discover her until the mid-1950ss when we were able to see her poems and loved her poems in the way she had in mind. >> who was doing the editing? >> guest: there are professional editors. they like to make their pen and make you conform. for emily that was all full. >> host: roberta shaffer, library of congress, books that shaped america is the name of the exhibit. the library of congress is at 1 and independence avenue in washington d.c. across from the nation's capital. that is the library of congress's books the shaped america exhibit. it is available to go see and you can look at it online at pelosi.gov but we would like your input. what books do you think should be included in such an exhibit and what books should be included? if you would like to participate

in an online discussion with roberta schaeffer of the library of congress, one that we will then air on booktv we would like to hear from you. e-mail us at booktv@c-span.org. >> from the 2009 key west literary seminar author and critic gore vidal discusses his writing like a conversation with the audience. mr. vidal died at the age of 86 on july 31st, 2012. this is about an hour. >> welcome tonight to the memorial lecture at the key west literary seminar and i want to thank miles friedman and the staff for inviting us. we have had a marvelous week of discussing historical novels, fact and fiction, relationship of fiction to history and it seems appropriate in such a context to have with us one of

the premier historical novelists of our time and political commentators and essayists, gore vidal. gore has been a major figure on the american literary scene for many decades ever since his novel of world war ii when he was a mere babe of 20 years old. he has been at it strong ever since with 25 novels and countless books of essays, screenplays, plays from broadway like visit to a small planet, best man and he has been a political commentator of incredible importance to this nation especially during these dark years we have just experienced under the regime of george w. bush. i certainly look to mr. vidal as a beacon, a lighthouse. he has also been a friend of mine for a long time.

i like him very much. a deer man. is with great pleasure that i welcome to key west mr. gore vidal. [applause] >> there was some trouble with my microphone. let's make sure you were being heard. >> i can shout. >> mr. gore vidal has rarely had trouble being heard. ego above the masses. we are at a seminar, subject of history and fiction. as far as i can think, hardly

any other novelists has approached history more meticulously work assiduously or aggressively than you have. you famously -- don't mean to steal your jokes but you famously called this the united states of amnesia. >> i had forgotten that. >> you had forgotten that. [laughter and applause] >> i remember you saying to me you were trying to teach this nation something. would you address this, a little bit of the united states of amnesia or lack of historical understanding and what has gone wrong and how as a novelist you have been able to respond to this crisis. >> we have the words educational system to every major government on earth. until you have better teachers or better textbooks to take the country seriously. i don't know that there is much

to be done about it. every president wants to be the education president even though i am about to go home. and the only education we got at the end was don't do that again. it was a cautionary tale called family of secrets. >> what is that guy? russ baker? [talking over each other] >> forgive me. family of criminals and why they are not all in jail i don't know. if i seem a little dazed, reasoning about their crimes and proposed crimes. >> how they got away with it

because the press is venal, easily bought in one way or another and to see what they are doing. i have been reading the section on weapons of mass destruction and karl rove, and advisor to this president, karl rove really said it is pretty clear that you can get anything you want done as president if you can start a war. isn't that wonderful? start a war and so junior did. and here we are. >> you anticipated this very much in your series of novels about american empire and the chronicles of empire which is a series of seven novels, reaching back to colonial times and taking the panorama of american

history until the year 2000. we see again and again a collusion going on between the press and the government. >> it has not been a happy experience. and the constitution does have flaws in it. i hear what i think are rather intelligent commentators who couldn't figure out why we had the electoral college. they couldn't figure out all kinds of things. why you had to be born in the united states. i thought anybody who knew american history knew that it was put into the constitution to keep alexander hamilton from becoming president. because he was born in the caribbean. and everybody hated him in government. that is a basic part of our history. nobody cares about it.

suddenly in one week we lost a lot of habeas corpus, the thing that happened -- magna carta which is the last thing the president of england left us because they were heading to the east and out of here. that was an extraordinary thing to have lost that. that is one of the building blocks. i think of -- i was brought up in washington d.c.. professional politician, senator. we had a magnificent president, franklin delano roosevelt. that was a great man hated by the bush family particularly going all the way back to president bush, an obscure member of the senate from connecticut. they all hated roosevelt because

he was a communist and he was going to do this and he lacked -- he liked black people and he was going to destroy everything. i could hear the voice of the right wing then every time the senator from arizona saw fit to bestowed his wisdom upon us in the campaign and he was making the case that obama wants to become president so he could tax all the poor people of the country. what you going to live on. and out of the shots as they say. there will be a spokesman for the senator from arizona. he is going to tax and spend. that was 1936. i remember that campaign.

alfred landon trying to -- which he failed to do. they are still at the same old watering hole. somebody once said everything on earth changes except the avant-garde theater. [laughter] >> a lot of people are interested in historical fiction. the use of the past as a kind of mirror leaders the reflection of the president and mirror of the future. i wonder if you could reflect a little bit on how you came to write the american chronicles and in a sense give us your view of history from a novelist's you.. how you worked. >> i was brought up in the engine room which is the senate. my grandfather was blind from the age of 10 and the use to beat him on the floor of the

senate and find a seat for myself. easier then than now. hy was about to say this. a story about roosevelt. he was not very mechanically minded and had to use one of these shares for the entire five terms and got elected to six terms. he got stuck. the chair would this work and he is trying to get from his office to the cabinet room. everything broke down. there is no secret service at all going to dallas for the weekend and he said get me out of here. and there were no stewards' around the white house to dared move him. he was like the emperor so he said the navy department is right next door and use and for one of those sailors and have

him push me out. i don't think he trusted anybody else in washington. and the kids came over from the navy and started to push the president across his office into his secretary's office. she wasn't there. it was the red shoes all over again. the sailor could stop. and he was shaking with nervous. the president was beginning to shake too. later he said of course i thought of assassination. presidents to, you know. as he was taken on this long trip across the white house, with kids shaking behind him, out of control, nobody is around the.

everybody is in dallas. the sailor just saw an open door and drove him into a closet. here is the emperor of the west just sitting there surrounded by carbon paper which is how we defended ourselves in those days. afterwards everyone is congratulating everyone on how cool this is but he said i suspected assassination. presidents do, you know? and then i realized now that i am here in this closet that i am the first president ever to be fired. nice sense of humor, that man. the other one, president feels all he has to do is show his face and we will laugh.

>> i used to love it when reagan was president boris that he read his speeches with a real sense of discovery. [laughter] >> well -- and he always read his speeches looking at the floor which is where his dialogue would be in westerns. you don't want somebody holding the script at an exciting moment. gangsters have moved on to the ranch. he was always looking down to see what the next words were. he would look surprised. >> in case you hadn't guessed gore is one of the greatest impersonators of presidents ever to come down the pike. he does a great reagan. his nixon is unparalleled. he wrote a play called an evening with richard nixon. were you ever tempted to write a novel about nixon? >> an evening with richard

nixon, nobody wanted to spend one. i miss gauge the market place. >> earlier in the day there with a picture of lincoln up there and i seemed to put another face in. could you say something about i have always loved your novel "lincoln". you take lincoln from his inauguration day right of to the assassination and we are coming on the 200th anniversary of his birth. have your thoughts on lincoln shifted over the years? >> no. i like thinking about him. contrasting him to the horrible time we have been going through which i don't think he would have believed this could happen like this. a lot of new books about him. the best has always been david -- david herbert donald use the head of american history at

harvard and he was the best lincoln scholar of my time and are borrow from him quite freely. has doris stern barrault's from me. wasn't that the brilliant notion that people all his rivalswasn'n that people all his rivals in the white house? i wrote about that and she took it like a magpie. flattery you must accept no matter the bearer. [laughter] >> you have moved to me in a very interesting way between writing novels which are fiction and books which really are history. i don't know if the audience is

familiar with your book inventing a nation but a few years back published as an astonishing collection of essays about how our constitution was created by a group of enlightenment intellectuals in philadelphia in 1787 after philadelphia convention. and the teacher -- you found a wonderful quotation from benjamin franklin which i have never seen before. >> he was very negative. he didn't work out on it. he distinguished america and wanted him to be there at constitution hall. as he was leaving all an old lady friend of his was sitting in the vestibule and said what did you come up with? we have got a republican. ifsaid what did you come up wit?

we have got a republican. if we can keep it. the last thing they wanted was benjamin franklin telling the truth even in the vestibule. so they had four kids, young college guys. following him around to make sure he didn't talk too much to say how much he disliked this constitution. one of the kids leaving him out of the hall said why are you so negative about it or whatever phrase he would have used, about our handiwork in philadelphia? what he said, every constitution in the history of mankind of a nation like ours featuring representative government, everyone of them has failed. why should i think this is going to be the great exception?

boys want to know why has it failed? and franklin, everybody thought he was senile. he was tough as nails. he said you know, it is a curious thing that what has defeated every attempt to make the template -- sure he did not use that were -- for a constitution of a country like this has not worked. why is that? is it wrong we put together? he said no. fails because of the corruption of the people and that meant all of us. he had no favorites among us. he thought we weren't too a. and we couldn't sustain it. when i saw magna carta go a year

or two ago, not a peep. not even senator bird of west virginia who can be counted on -- not even he said anything. that we were losing it. as quickly as that. and then we saw what happens to the judiciary. one while the judge after another was appointed to keep george bush's friends out of jail. has the great man from tennessee said, to the victor belongs the spoils. that was how andrew jackson made his contribution. it has been a sad history. what is really sad, we have no media we can trust. anybody can buy it.

[applause] so how people are to be informed by don't know. i read foreign papers to find out what is going on here. i will read a british paper. >> one thing you suggesting chronicles of empire is this is not a new thing. the media essentials working for the administration. promoting their wars, getting behind -- getting the people behind their corrupt policies. >> they can't think of anything else to do i suppose. they support power. >> do you support the idea that in the past few certainly did of having another -- having a new constitutional convention? >> thomas jefferson thought we should have a constitutional convention every 30 years, once a generation. i think that is a bit too often but every now and then

certainly. there are a lot of things that break down and a lot of bad practices become habit. that is what a lot of it is. bad practices. nobody set out to destroy it. >> can we recover. you have an essay on the shredding of the bill of rights and what has been done under the george bush administration and this is a genuine question here. consulting be done to restore american liberty, american freedoms? >> i sent a note to the president-elect. you talk too little about the future and goals of your administration. the restoration of the constitution of the united states should be number one on your list because that is where we are naked. [applause] and i hope it will fall on

fertile ground. >> can you talk a little bit about your ambition for your chronicles of empire now? you have the seven novels. where do you stand with that? you read the column for all time with the bowlen age? >> trying to but i didn't. i will have another go at it but i realize the most important area that i skipped, the mexican war. i have always hated it. that is no reason not to write about something. it was done on my part to let it float by. so many lives have been told. what this administration did, what was done on such a scale was to make lying the national

pastime. they all do what you know. some say good morning you are looking so well when the other person is near death. that is good manners. lying to get something like an election is dangerous. talk about the corruption of the people. you can't tell them anything. they don't want to know anything. in upstate new york and i used to go around parent teacher groups. and i get around a bit and i never met a stupid 6-year-old.

i never met an interesting 16-year-old. am i seeing of the wrong people? could you tell me what it is you have done to our educational system? they are proud to know nothing. ignorance is bliss far better than any thing of the chemical nature. bliss is achievable. >> can something really be done in the american schools to improve the teaching of history in a way that people won't be so gullible, so susceptible to the corrections of media? >> where would you find the teachers? you have to have people pretty well-rounded who know a lot. eric boner was asked a question by an journalists who had come away from this message, one of

this country's few great contemporary historians, i just heard you say history is up for grabs thinking anybody -- saying that. and when was the first of for grabs? he said you better read -- last thing a journalist ever wants to reach. you may remember one thing from the past. i was inspired to say at the election of george bush to the first -- mark my words he will end his office as the most hated president in our history. it came to pass. i won't do anymore tea leaves or tell you what the market is going to do next.

i don't go in for that kind of black magic. >> it was stunning to see him get away for a brief while with the iraq war. that would take some doing. >> you can -- you can declare war on a country if nobody knows where it is. people were very puzzled why we were over there fighting. i spent three years in world war ii and i remember thinking in 1945 the germans folder that the japanese folded and i remember thinking this is going to be nice. we have done this. and watching newspapers about baghdad falling. i would have said you are crazy and wish bill of the united states if you like that sort of

thing. people complain about the lack of patriotism. patriotism depends on having an identifiable country that you know something about. it is not just stars and stripes. and wearing french decorations. >> inadvertently mr. vidal was made commandant of the order of something or other. we should call you commandant. i would be remiss if i didn't ask you something about your work on roman history. i love your novel julien. i wonder if you could talk before we open this up to the audience and hope there will be questions for you. could use a little something about how you came to write that book?

>> which one? >> julian. >> i don't like monotheism. it was much better world in the greek and roman world which was divers when it came to god's. it was also the world of velocity which was even better. thoughts. i thought the world was a better place in the fourth or fifth centuries. monotheism grabbed us by the throat, only one god. only one factory. only one wage for all. the damage that was done from that moment on is still with us. out of that came all wars. there can only be one leader of

the world. there can only be one religion. in the english civil war of the seventeenth century both sides, the cavaliers went into battle, many of you have ancestors who were in that war, went into battle yelling killed for jesus! that is a great christian thought, isn't it? >> you went to rome to research julian. >> i went to rome to research it and started researching everything. my final work in that field was something called creation. one man had he lived to be 75 could have known socrates' the personal the buddha, confucius, zoroaster. unlikely but he could have.

recourse in comparative religion. rather useful now that we have been the greatest nation world has ever seen. just look around. people flocked from all over to live here, to enjoy our education and medical prowess. aren't we lucky? >> we have a crowd of people who have lots of questions for mr. vidal and people with microphones on both sides left and right. so let's begin with the questions. make sure you keep your questions clear and witty. >> i am one of your great

admirers. one that you would not like because i am a conservative republican who never voted for george bush. >> i like you for that. >> i think you are really great. what i don't understand in reading your essay is how you can say the enormity -- the unconstitutional in normandy committed by lincoln and roosevelt are even more growth than those of george bush and how you can feel roosevelt was a great man when he was one of the critical persons in creating -- >> you sound like a republican back from 1936. we passed all that. we move on. he gave us a world empire. i don't feel any need for augustus. i thought we were better off without one. the right wing which i assume you pledge your allegiance, the right wing at the empire.

and the mess we made -- >> vidal is serious about roosevelt in the golden age. and really brought on or anticipated -- it was quite true. everybody in the services knows this. i had a cousin of my grandfather who was admiral of the fleet at pearl harbor which roosevelt has ordered and go back -- in san diego. a lot of things wrong with it but he got us out of the depression. he made the country matter in the world which it did not

before and it does not matter now. >> let's move on to another question. before war breaks out in this room i sense a rumbling. >> in key west i hoped you could speak about your friendship with tennessee williams. and you were working on a play of his that he was working on when he died. could you speak about that? >> his estate asked me to prepare for broadway. his last play which is in quite good shape, a fascinating play, looking forward to doing it, produces all the lawyers looking for the state. nothing extraordinary. it could never get done because

people get in piece after piece. [laughter] >> could you talk about tennessee? >> the glorious bird is what i call him. he always had a town called glorious -- the image of the bird is all over his writing. i remember chance was the guy's name, the character's name and he talked a lot about being a bird without flight which is a normal human condition. no means of access to the skies or aerial navigation. he was marvelous that metaphor.

we didn't deserve him. he was by far our best playwright but he was a true original and every play, novel, short-story that he wrote, time magazine detected and lewis cronin burger, and a sexy little thing. his mind was a swamp. in tennessee, very good reviews so at least he died knowing he had been appreciated by that allow the magazine. and he was kind of funny. i am going to quote -- he had to warn -- tennessee always

suspected you were up to no good. totally paranoid and then attacked all his life by the press for no good reason except they felt like doing it. i did a piece going through every bad review he got. but i was riding in the other direction. particularly time magazine. this one has struck again and there was a wonderful -- tennessee coming out of the swamp mud trickling down his face and holding his typewriter and barely got out of it. the caption was from ecclesiastes. i can't help my religious bent. my great grandfather was a methodist mission. in time all things sean come to

pass. they were furious and the bird was happy. i see what you mean. did you have to quote so many bad reviews? how are they going to get the point of what we are talking about? he said still suspecting a plot we are all out to get him. >> wasn't it with tennessee that he went to visit andrei jean? >> we went to visit santayana to visit the blue and nuns in rome. the bird behaved himself too. >> there is another question. a hand up over here. can't see very much with the light. here we are right here. >> i was rather struck in empire by your depiction of teddy roosevelt. i am wondering if it was

informed by any reminiscences of your family. >> i knew his daughter alice extremely well. she had teeth like tombstones. but oh she had a tongue like a razor. when dallas was in the room -- he knew you would be the subject of her next text. there was an artist called bill walton very much in favor with the kennedys. a charming guy but she would say things like bill walton was leaving a party i wonder what became of bill, she said in a voice you could have heard all the way to silver spring. he settled for just being like

me, a local -- what words did she use? just the local think. in washington d.c. never left. she thought that was tragic. gore here with this magnificent novel he has written and she got the title wrong, not julien. the other one that begins with a j. he got out and saved himself. we are happy to see him come back. bill is just always hear. it was kindly meant but don't think it played very well. >> another question. there is a hand up over there somewhere.

is there a microphone in the balcony? >> yes there is. >> there she goes. all right. >> theodore roosevelt came to be from my grandmother who looked after the blind senator. and in rock creek park and taking a walk with another lady friends down by the creek. and she was suddenly out of the woods and there was a crashing sound and feel roosevelt. and heading straight for them. he said stand aside.

i am the president. she never forgive that. he dared call them women? they were ladies. >> question up there? >> you talk a lot about government. what do you think about bernie madoff and the economy? >> he is a great hero naturally. [laughter] >> just delivery. >> a lot of dreadful people were caught. probably a lot of nice people were caught. more zuckerman deserved to be caught by somebody like bernie madoff. the first thing you do if you don't like franklin roosevelt is you say he destroyed capitalism because all these rules and regulation. you can't poison the people the way every decent country can.

they don't want to be regulated. they don't want us to have nontoxic shrimp. they know what they are doing. and the congress has been so supine for the past few years congress doesn't care about if either. so we have an unregulated country and you can't have an unregulated modern country. diseases fred too rapidly. and the dream was to reverse everything franklin roosevelt had done. they understood nothing about economics. he was a keynesian economists and saved our system for which he was called a traitor to his class. his class was so much higher than that of his critics i think he never paid any attention to

what they had to say. he saved the whole show. obama is going to have to show the same kind of agility. my father was director of air commerce for roosevelt for 40 years and he said you didn't like him much. my father is a republican from south dakota. but he said you can't help but admire the president because when something goes wrong, let's try something else. and he did. and the law of averages, he won. >> let's have another question. >> mr. vidal, do you see any parallels with what happened today with gibbons's assertion

that the roman empire failed due to their incursion in the middle east? >> no. they had been everywhere anyway. they were running the whole world. palestine and the kingdom of judea were property of the emperor of rome. they took that from granted. was it a good thing or a bad thing? history has not yet judged. it made greek the international language and that was the language of intelligence after which comes our new testament not to mention most of our great literature from the past. we should be grateful for the romans for spreading greek all over. >> you have been talking to me the last few days about the threat of terrorism and i wonder if you could comment on that. >> there were warnings about

9/11. but the idiots in office paid no attention. and the japanese warned us. everybody knew we would have a mishap on this period of time. the bush people were so happy they risk dealing money right and left. that is what they were in office for and getting rid of regulations because president bush, grandfather of the still incumbent president, was one of those most backed republican senators who didn't understand anything that was not kind of in kindergarten talk. these people are stupid. >> your essay on 9/11 and the george bush response to 9/11 you talk a lot about blood for oil and how it is not for nothing

and so many people connected with the bush administration were oil company executives. >> like stays with like. you got to read this book. is absolutely wonderful. the family of -- what is that? family -- because i did my own title for a family of flyers and they why about everything. even when it is inconvenient they tell a lie. fascinating amount of work and you won't believe what and they got away with. it goes back to press thought bush who was dealing with the nazis. he was still in the senate from

connecticut has got a warning from president roosevelt the use two words, treason and one other word and prescott bush vanished for a time. they feel they have no allegiance to anything but their own money. bad to have people like that in public office. >> there was another question in the middle. can we bring the microphone to the center. there we go. >> i read today that the gop's number one enemy in the future is going to the al franken who may be the next senator from minnesota. do you think there's a place in the senate for a comedian? [laughter] >> well they have a hundred now. i am not an al franken fan. he is a comedian who never made

anybody laugh. he is a writer who never wrote anything worth reading. just went around talking about how he is going to be elected to the senator from minnesota and he got that handed to him. i don't see him doing anything useful. minnesota to me -- absolutely the most stimulating place in america. >> could you not hear that? >> i said minnesota means progressive sir, the farm labor coalition. it is a serious state. i know it is on the verge of socialism. i am so terrified. >> there is a question right here. with the blue shirt.

>> the finding your hard to miss norman mailer? >> i was very fond of norman mailer. i can't say i was fond of his writings. i was published in 46 that he was published in 48. we are close contemporaries. there's a nice picture if you like pictures, norman mailer and me in vanity fair. but good journalist -- and the war was heating up and walking around for the great voices of american literature speak against the war in the middle east and so on. and the only three voices from literature that we heard were kurt vonnegut, norman mailer and

gore vidal, three octogenarians who served in the second world war. you will get the picture. >> what do you think of sarah palin? [laughter] and caroline kennedy? >> sarah palin -- that horrible speech of hers, i am going to tell you, you got to know, there is some -- something came to mind reading her quoted dialogue. just the way she thinks will work class americans speak. we all sounds like oxford graduates to me compared to how

she sounds and she has everything wrong. every time she says we americans i am ready to kill. and i suppose she is good for fun and frolic. >> good for saturday night live anyway. >> she brought them to life. [laughter] she did have some useful edifying purpose. [talking over each other] >> she could have been the successor to aaron burr and the cheney. >> we will never know. i can hardly wait. >> but carolyn kennedy? >> last time i saw her she sat on my lap. [talking over each other] >> about 5 years old and she had

a puppy dog on a leash and i was in the upstairs sitting room with jack and jackie and jackie promise to take her swimming down in the basement so she came up to connect with the dog. no, i can't do it now. she was very a angry and bawled him out. the dog didn't look too happy either. that is the last time i saw her. i can speak with any great knowledge. >> you won't address for possible future as senator from new york? >> considering what we got in there i don't think she is going to pull the average down greatly. [laughter] [applause] >> another hand up over there somewhere. question? in the middle. right here. a woman with a white jacket.

>> one of the questions i wanted to ask was more about amelia earhart and some of the people your father was in touch with in his leadership in aviation. would you tell us more about some of these folks? >> amelia -- wanted my father to marry her and she wanted to marry him. and i said years later why didn't you marry her? he had gotten rid of my mother which was all anybody was interested in. and there she was. amelia was wonderful. she didn't like football anymore than i did and he would take us to the army navy game at west point and she was a good poet and she would have a handbag filled with homes she had written so we would be reading her poetry as the game unfolded. this is not one they play with a

stake. and by was the mascot of the army team of 1925 and they lost. amelia was not a great flier. this was a problem. [laughter] lindbergh had a nasty sense of humor and he didn't like competition particularly from this golden girl from the west. he would always announce after she had done a flight somewhere the word is amelia made a good landing. shaking his head with wonder. what happened -- there making a movie about her with an actress

called -- what is she called? she has a name. blonde woman. looks not unlike her. but she is going to play amelia. my father's theory because he was in charge of the search, there was no sign of her. all the nonsense that she was a spy for the united states is nonsense, tabloid stuff. what she was was fed up. she hated her marriage to george palmer putnam, the publisher. she wanted to get out of it. the range two huge personal tours after she came back from his flight and this is too much.

she was having a premature change of life and she was not feeling in the jolliest mood about the world. my father fought she killed herself. what about her navigator? amelia was perfectly capable of hitting him on the head with one of his own bottles. she would have killed him before she crashed the plane. i remember the last conversation i had with her we were coming back from west point and the army navy game and she had a map with her at the pacific and this was one of those carriage cars with a thousand people staring in the window. she was the most famous woman on earth and they were obsessed with her.