i and k bailey hutcheson. i hope you have great summer reading. . .

c-span: why did you do this? >> guest: i did it because i am a reader of biography, and i -- whenever i'm reading biography, i love the parts about family and i love the letters. and i had read a collection of a n. c. wyeth's letters andnd r theodore roosevelt's letters.c and when i had my own children,l it was a book that i wanted to read. thought, oh, i wonder what other great americans have written to their children, and i wanted to read those letters and ito couldn't find it. and at first, i wanted my fathe to do the book. fs my father is the historian david mccullough.myf mcd i thought that it was a good book for him to do because i wanted to read it. tha and he loved the idea.. but i realized after a while -- he thought it was a terrificizea e ea, but he wasn't going to do it. so i went to work on it myself. c-span: how did you do it? >> guest: i first began byt compiling a big list of great americans, hundreds of people.

a great list of -- compiling a lit of hundreds of great americans -- exiling a list of hundreds of great americans. and i exiled a list of how many had children and how many department have children. many didn't have children. i began to look at those who did have children, if there were collections available. and cut the list down and you down and down until i had approximately 3,000 letters that i read and i chose my favorites many >> how long did it take you to do that? >> 3 1/2 years. >> how did you go about finding the letters? >> well, there is something -- a reference book -- a series of reference books called "the dictionary of biography" many notable americans are in that reference book. at the end of each entry it tells you where the collection of their papers is held.

so it was a question of tracking them down, at libraries and archives, and universities. and i also had contacts with some of the families directly sometimes letters were sent to me. people heard about the project and people would send me some pieces. and that's how i did it. >> you referenced a fellow named mike hill. >> yes, mike hill is a researchers and i hired mike to help me. he did a lot of the road work. he was out going around making copies of letters. he would send me enormous binders. all of the -- here are all of the letters of john duey to his children. all of the laura engler wilder letters. >> how old are england, nathaniel, and luke? >> 7, 4, and 9 months. >> how many letters are in this

book. >> that's why i didn't travel. >> how many letters are there? >> roughly 100. >> what's the one letter that you would want their kids to read that might give them guidance? >> i think that each child is different. so it may be a different letter for each child. for my child the w.e.b. dubois letter is one of the most poignant. >> this? >> no, that's from frederick douglass. it's a letter telling her what he expects out of her and to have faith in herself and that he expects her to be a wonderful woman. a terrific letter. >> and the letter was written to her -- where was she? >> she was 14 years old, and she had just gone to england to go

to a boarding school. it was a privilege for her to attend. >> it says, above all, remember that you have a great opportunity. are you in one of the world's best schools, millions of boys and girls all over the world would give almost everything that they possess to be there. you are there by no desert or merit of yours but by lucky chance. why would he say that? >> that he was able to provide her that opportunity. but he goes on to tell her what he expects her to do. to take herself and do hard things while she's there. read for discipline. work hard. enjoy it and -- and he says too, that it's the u beneath the skin that matters. -- it's the you beneath the skin that matters. >> because people will wonder about her brown skin and crinkly

hair. how old is your daughter? >> 7. >> have you read any? >> yes, they love alexander graham bell's letter. he wrote about a trip that he's on, and he has seen a sting ray and he sends his daughters the lips of sting ray and the tail and he sends them through the mail. he was a wonderful educator of children and an educator of the deaf. but in teaching children, he felt strongly that they should learn by doing, and here is an example of him. he wants his children to see what a sting ray looks like, and he puts it in the mail to them. >> also there's a letter to his daughter when she was 21. >> yes. page 161.

the corny jokes? >> yes, what was the point of the jokes? >> he was busy crunching numbers, so to speak, working on data that had to do with genetics and the deaf. i think that it was a break from his work. he loved corny jokes and sat down and took break from his work and sent these jokes, and i include it in the book because they are so corny and to see this incredible scientist and inventor, that he would spend the time to send this to his daughter i thought was hysterical. >> you point out that his wife mable was deaf. how bad was his hearing? >> his hearing i'm not sure. she was completely deaf and he was an educator of the deaf. and his father was as well. >> let's amount nature the

jokes. an italian count introduced his american heiress to his friend as his fiance ee. >> the queen of holland ate latest remark to her husband, is my crown on straight? >> never take a 12:50 train, because it is 10 to 1 if you catch it. >> why is a garle mirror, she is a good looking lass. why is a stick of candy like a horse? the more you lick it, the faster it goes. >> when a girl faints, why should you always bring more than one doctor? if he is not brought to, she will time -- she will die. >> corny, corny, corny. >> he also goes on to write a lot more in here. he said i sent a suicide note to mr. kenon, i count that he has a

more curious cause of suicide. he's telling stories? >> yes, he's telling stories and about things that he's read. and it seems to be sort of a release for him to sit down and write to her. >> who -- in your experience, who wrote the most to their children that you found? or who wrote a lot? >> theodore roosevelt wrote all the time to his children. ancele adams writes a lot -- ansel adams write a lot to his children. and there are funny letters and also some of, i think, some of the most touching let's in the book. >> some are mean. >> some are very mean. jack london's letters are shocking. they're just so, so cruel. >> i actually happened it opened to that page. 181.

first of all, a little background on who jack london was. >> he was a writer. and his most famous short story was "call of the wild." what page? >> 181. >> when gosh chove was here for -- gorbchov what he read the most and he said jack london's book. why would that be? >> i don't know why that would be for him. but his books are adventus and manly and carries -- and ventureus and manly and carries -- adventureus and manly and carries you right through. but to his daughters, he's so cruel. and i think that these letters are also an example, often a parent when writing to their child is writing to themselves, i think, and in these letters he

addressed the letter to his daughter and he's sending it to his 12-year-old daughter, but he's really aiming the letters at his ex-wife whom he's not too fond of. >> he said that shot his prize mare in the head, his finances were in trouble, fatally ill with disease, kidneys, and during the summer a dream of his lifetime went up in smoke on his 1,500 beauty ranch, which burned to the ground. why don't you read the first letter there to joan, and you say that she's 12 years old. if you need those glasses. >> i will put them on. thank you. august 24, 1913. dean joan, i feel too miserable to write this at my desk. i'm in bed to twry. remember that i'm your father, i have fed you, clothed you, and

housed you from the moment you first drew breath. i have all the father's heart of love for you. what have you done for me in all of the days of your life? what do you feel for me? am i merely your meal ticket? do you look upon me merely as a creature of whim or fantasy that compels him to care for you and take care of you? because he is a fool who gives much and receives -- well, receives nothing. please answer the forgoing questions. i want to know how i stand with you. you have your dreams of education. i try to give you the best of my wisdom. you write me about the demands of the u.c. in relation to high school courses, i reply, one by telegram, two, by letter, and i received no word from you. am i dirt under your feet? am i beneath your contempt in every way except by way of a meal ticket? >> how much research would you have to do around these letters

and what the circumstances were? >> i would have to find out as much as i could about what was happening and i would do that through -- in this case through biog physical and other collections -- biog physical and other collections of -- biographies and other collections of letters. there were notes about what was happening in his life at that time. but each one did require quite a bit of digging. some more than others to find out what the story was. >> did your father or mother write you letters when you were growing up? >> my mother many >> did you keep them? >> yes, i kept them. we now all talk on the phone all the time. so i don't have many recent letters from her. but no letters from my father. people ask me that all the time. >> what are the circumstances that your mother would write you? >> she would write just kind of regular letters about what was going on day to day. i was in college or -- probably

through college and then it stopped because we started talking on the telephone more. long distance became much less expensive. >> where did you go to college? >> middlebury college. >> in vermont? >> yes. >> when in your own family did history become interesting to you or biography? >> my whole life. my father started writing history before i was born. his first book came out the year before i was born. so history was a part of life for us, and as the youngest of five children, at the dinner table every night we would talk about our days and we would hear what was going on in the building of the brooklyn bridge or what was going on in the panama canal. so have i had it with me all -- have i had it with me all my life. >> what about your cybilings? >> my sister is a mother, and by

brother billy is a can'ter, and -- carpenter and my brother jeff is a lawyer. >> you've been working for your dad how long? >> two years. >> what do you do? >> i'm a lecture agent. when "truman" came out. i headed to medical school. and "truman" came out and it was kind of a dream for all of us to have it hit wait it did. and i decided to defer from medical school for a year and help with what needed to be done. and during the course of that year, i realized that there was a business there in being a lecture agent. so i didn't go to medical school and started a lecture agency. and that's what i do. >> where do you live how? >> rock port, maine. >> houp people do you represent? >> -- >> how many people do you represent? >> about eight people. all writers and terrific

speakers. >> who? >> frank mccourt, evan thomas, david, and richard norton smith. >> as a representative, what does someone like that do? >> i do everything from finding places for speakers to speak to negotiating the fees, to determining what kinds of topics they'll talk about in their speech, and then we do all of the knitty, gritty logistics, like this is where you're staying, and then the followup. >> you've done this for 12 years. what have you ftsed happening about peep -- what have you noticed happening about the people's interest in the live speech? >> i think that it has increased. it's because there are many more agencies like mine. the demand is much more. people like it hear the real person many they love to see them, shake their hand.

there's nothing like it. so think that that has increased tremendously. >> is there any way to give us some idea of how large the average audience is? >> there isn't an average. i mean, sometimes an event will be as small as 20 people. this weekend we're working on an event were there were 24,000. it goes all over. the average would probably be somewhere in the 500 to 2,500 range. >> for somebody who speaks, what is the average number of speeches that they would give in a year? >> it depends on the person. >> what's the most? >> the most of people that i have represented would be 70 speeches a year. >> and what would the -- how many of that would be college audiences? >> a quarter maybe. there are corporate audiences, college audiences, celebrity

speaker series, subscriber-based series, and sometimes there will be an unusual event like a -- like a real estate developer that built a new building and they want to get prominent people into the building to see what it looks like, so they have a speaker come and have a lunch and everybody think that's they're here to see the speaker, and they are, but they're also seeing this terrific new building that has been built. >> what is the most that anybody would pay for a speaker? and what would be someone with the lower range that they might pay? >> speakers that i represent and these are my speakers. we all know that the fees are astronomical would be between $5,000 and $50,000. >> go back to history on this. have you ever looked at the history of speaking and how many people years and years ago did the same thing of making money off of speakers?

>> i haven't studied it. one of my favorite letters is elizabeth katie stanton writing to her daughter. she is giving speeches on the road. she gives two a day. and it's a terrific description of what her life on the road was like. it's not that different i don't think, than life on the road for speakers now. the hard part is the travel. it's the getting there. it's the receptions and the dinners around the -- that surround the speech. that's the part that tires people out and drains them. and in the book, katie stanton's letter describing her trip, although much more arduous, is the same feeling that she has. >> one of the things that i noticed in reading your letters is how often a reference to religion or god or jesus christ or being a christian in the letter. i counted over 30 of the letters that you've got in here. did you notice that? >> i did notice that.

it was not my intention -- i wasn't looking for that, but it was a big part of the lives of people and there are quite a fufmente -- a few. >> al fordman -- alford mann, who was he? >> he brought to the attention of the country that in order to be powerful, we had to demand the seas. >> this is the letter in 1890. he says that he lectured his three children on everything from medical practices, page 47. >> thank you >> to which authors were acceptable to read, mark twain was in the approved. do you know why he didn't want them to read mark twain? >> i don't. >> he write toss his daughter helen who is -- writes to his

daughter helen, who is 17. you must not allow your sell to be worried about this trait -- yourself to be worried about this trait of your character which is different, that might make you different. do you know what that is about? >> she was having trouble attaching to people. and he -- it was a sentiment that he had felt in himself. that he often felt detatched from other people. and it's a case of do as i say, not as i do. he's telling her she can do better than he has, and that she really -- that indifference is something that she should shy way from as much as possible. she needs to feel it. she needs to be attached. and sometimes people find -- they act like that detatchment is a strength. and he's telling her, no, it's a weakness and you have to work on it. >> he later says, like yourself,

i'm natural lin different to others, and for many years i thought it was something to be proud of. have you known anybody who is totally indifferent to others? >> yes. i think i have known people indifferent to others. >> how does it manifest itself? how do you see it? >> you can see that their level of emotion, their reaction to events in their lives, whether they're terrific or terrible all sort of stay at about the same level, same pace. >> another one that was somewhat nasty was ewe neen o'neil. >> yes -- eugene o'neil. >> yes. >> who was he? >> a ply wright. he won -- he was a playwright. he won the noble prize. i love to see the writers particularly writing off stage.

to see when they're not doing something for publication and to see how they write to their children. >> he wrote to his son eugene o'neil who is 19 at the time. the letter was in 1930. the question is whether or not eugene o'neil wants to bring his girlfriend to france where he is with his third wife. why did this letter get your attention? >> because i thought it was such an unusual piece of advice. you often have parents who want their child to bring them in on their love affairs. if this is serious, let me meet this person, let this person become a part of our lives. and here eugene o'neil, who did not have much success with marriage and love is telling his son if you want this to work with this woman, forget it. don't bring her near us or you'll have trouble with your

love or your family or both. and he also is concerned that if the son brings the girlfriend to viss hit that he and the -- visit, that he and the son might have some trouble. he doesn't want to risk that. they have -- it has been a distant relationship, but it has been working well for some years, and it seems that eugene o'neil the father isn't willing to risk that by having the girlfriend visit. >> go to page 60 where it says keep your love affairs free. >> keep your love affairs free from all relatives and their homes if you want to avoid complications with your love or relatives or both? why run the risk of your relationship with your love? for example, how do you know betty would like me or carlotta or that we would like her. you may say you know, but that is only because you feel affection for all concerned. if one dislike crept into this

combination then all of the prejudices would awake and the complications would start and spread. >> he writes family contact as risk a, one. i respect your love for betty and she sounds like a brick to me, and i would like to meet her if i come to new york. and understand that carlotta doesn't even know that i'm writing this. these writers would say things like that, the other person in their lives knew nothing about it. >> right. and i think that they're showing the confidence of the letter. this is coming from them, they're not writing on behalf of somebody else's wishes. eugene o'neil, his first wife, this boy's mother, he felt -- and it really was true, that the two of them were together and they were torn apart by their two families.

they may or may not have lasted, but he had experienced that firsthand with the boy's mother. >> so what was your practice when you were growing up with your boyfriends and family? did you keep them included? >> i kept them away until i got rally good one. i did keep them -- a really good one. i did keep them away. and my brothers were older and very, very protective and would answer the phones, and if ever it was a boy, they would say, are you an upstanding young man? and no one would want já5u9 i kept them away. >> where did you meet your husband? >> i met my husband on a blind date in wiping. >> how many years ago? >> 11. >> so when did you introduce him to the family? >> well, that was kind of an old-fashion and unusual thing. i was on a blind date and my parts happened to be there, too. we all met at the same time. and i could see they liked him and i liked him and it worked out. >> is he a writer, does he write letters? >> he's not.

he's a painter. >> do you write letters? >> i don't. >> you don't at all? >> i don. i'm a product of this time. i write some letters, but i'm not -- i think we all write letters but some people are letter writers. i'm not a letter writer. >> you made a decision not to include letters written through email. >> yes. >> why? >> because i think that it's different. we all kind of sit and type emails. i don't think it's as thoughtful as letter writing. and i just think they are two different things and i wanted this to be a book of letters. >> charles w. elliott to charles elliott jr., page 76. he was harvard president for 40 years, from 1869 to 1909. there's one little thing i want to ask you about. he's writing this letter to his son who is 26 years old, and this is something else i noticed that came out, the ego.

he writes -- i wish you were tough and strong like me. >> yes. he does, but i think at -- when i first read that letter that is what jumped out at me. at the beginning of each entry in the book, i pull a quote that i feel is the most important piece in that letter that i want to highlight. and at first the line that you mention about tough and strong like me, that was the line that i pulled because that's what jumped out at me. i thought, wow, this is something. but then as i got to know the letter more, i realized that he does wish that the son is tough and strong like him, yet he's so tolerant of the way that the son is. they're different people and he respects that the son is different. and he suggests that the -- that his son -- he says i can work all the time, but you'll probably only be able to work five hours a day just because of the way you're made up, but you

might have a better life than i do. and he says, if you feel the blues coming on, get a book and a glass of wine. i thought it was a really -- a very understanding and encouraging letter after all when at first it jumped out at me as an egotistical slam. >> your father writes the forward to this book. >> yes. >> and he mentions, and i think you mention -- yeah, you did too, cherwin anderson. who was sherwin anderson and where did you both mention his letters? >> sherwin anderson was a writer and his most well known book is "wyansberg, ohio" and my dad mentioned him because he liked what he said about painting and work. sherwin anderson writes to his son who is studying painting,

and gives him -- and anderson also painted, too, so he knew about paymenting. but he's giving his son ideas about the way that one should paint and that it should really come from your heart. you shouldn't be doing it to -- you shouldn't be painting for the end result. and he says, be humble, smartness kills everything. he's telling his son how to paint but really it's about how to live. that's the letter that dad chooses. the line that i pulled out that i think is something -- really ha the whole book is about is sherwin has a line in his letter and it's just one little phrase but it jumped off the page at me. he says, "my heart is set on you." and i think that that's the essence of what this is. no matter what your relationship is with your parents or with your child, if you're a good

mother or father or a wonderful -- or a terrible mother or father or a child that's troubled or a successful child, your heart is set on that person in a way that it isn't on anybody else. and when he says, "my heart is set on you," i think that that's what it is. >> sherwin anderson also wrote in one oh of the letters -- clear what is he getting at? >> he's getting at if you're a business person just aiming at getting money, it doesn't mean much. you're not going to have the fulfillment that you will if you love your work, and are working from the heart. >> now, you said that you were going to be a doctor at one

point. did you really want to be a doctor or was it easy to abandon that to do what you're doing? >> i did want to be a doctor, but i didn't have -- and i wanted to be a doctor enough to get to that point that i was headed that way and was going to be in medical school. but i wasn't -- i didn't feel it in my gut that that's the only thing i wanted to do, that i knew that that's what i wanted to do. and i had a lot of things i wanted to do and i felt it might not be the right thing for me to do, but it seemed pretty safe in a way an easier thing for me to do because there was a track. i knew how to do it. i think at that age, 2002 1, that track looked pretty appealing. >> do you think you might still do it some day? >> maybe. i'm still very interested in it. i doubt it. >> what is the toughest thing about being an agent for speakers? >> oh, the toughest thing is --

there really isn't that much that's tough because i love the people that i work with. so there's very little that's tough. the toughest thing probably is middle of the winter, a snowstorm comes, somebody is supposed to be on a flight, may or may not make it and you get the call at 5:00 in the morning, how are we going to rearrange all this? but that's not very tough. >> what is the worst thing that happens on the other -- when your authors arrive, what is the worst thing that happens at the venue, people that have hired these folks to come in? >> probably one of the hard things that happens, which is just a matter of logistics, if ever somebody is not in the place that they say they will be, time is lost because usually it's quite orchestrated and tight. solo gist call kinds of things, because these people who are going to speak, they're professional and know what

they're going to do, but they get butterflies and nerves and all of the in and outs of cars and when is my flight, all of that needs to be seamless so that they can concentrate on what they need to do. >> you are focusing here on the written word and of the eight speakers that you have, how many of them speak from a written text? >> some of them have a written text but they have it as i think something just to have, but most of them just speak. >> and how do you decide, you've got eight, how do you decide what kind of speakers you're going to represent. i assume you won't represent anybody that knocks on your door. >> no, they won't. they have to be a terrific speaker and i have to respect their work very, very much. and that's really, that's it. >> page 119, woody guthrie to arlow guthrie. and by the way, i want to ask you any time in this process,

there are letters that you love that you want to get into we'll just do that. >> ok. >> woody guthrie who wrote "this land is your land," in your deck you say, strike within a horrific disease in the nervous system, on a visit home from the hospital he took his young son arlow into the backyard alone. what was he doing then? >> he wanted to be sure "this land is your land" had become popular, but he wanted to be sure that his son knew what the original intent of the song was and knew the full verses, because he realized that his time of being coherent was limited and the lines that he wanted to be sure that he knew were -- >> the timing on all this was the date 1956. you say woody guthrie was 44,

arlow was 9 and he had huntingtons disease? >> it's a horrific disease of the nervous system, hereditary. >> you say he had lived in poverty, three times failed at marriage and suffered the death of his 4-year-old daughter cathy. and he writes what so his son? he says, deary arol -- arlow davey. >> this is a letter i wish everyone can see. >> we'll show it on the screen if you want to read it. >> it's a -- it's a difficult letter to read because there's no punctuation and it's almost -- as i read it, i see it almost as a -- like a song. i mean, it's a strange letter. but he's telling his son not to complain because human frailty is our condition.

and don't complain about any troubles you have. everybody has problems.

>> is that his way of writing or speaking? i mean -- >> it's the way that most of his letters are like this. and i -- apparently and it seems as his disease got worse, they became more like this. and you do see the handwriting that's jerky and jagged. but it's also the way that he was. it's more of a -- it became almost a caricature as this became more and more with this faithyful, joyedful. >> did you ever find letters back to the father or mother in these situations? >> yes. >> but you didn't include those? >> i didn't. >> why not? >> because the problem was, there was so much material, so it was really a question always

of limiting what the book was going to be. there was so, so much. so if i got into that, it would be a different book. so i had certain rules from the beginning and i stuck to thehem. >> what were some of the other rules? i went through and counted some 104 chapters, but also counted in a number of cases you had multiple letters, john adams you had three, and the adams' played a big role, john quincy had one, any impact from your father's john adams book? >> oh, sure, but even more so their letters are amazing. some of my goals in the book were that i wanted to see what these parents told their children, how they told them, and also what the letters told -- tell us about the times in which they lived. so the adams' letters cover a lot of those sides. but the rules that you asked about the rules that i had,

they're really very simple. i had two rules. the person who had written the letter had to make a substantial and worthwhile contribution to our country. and then the letter itself had to reveal something of value. >> you said that theodore roosevelt wrote 150,000 letters? >> yes. >> are they all catalogged somewhere? >> the theodore roosevelt association has many of them, the library of congress has many of them. they have been edited, i mean, they're accessible. it's amazing. and his letters to his children are just -- the letters while he's in the white house and his children are young are just incredible to see this man who is the president of the united states writing very funny letters to little children. and then as his children get older, they become much more serious and there's a letter in the book to his son quinnton, where he says -- quinnton is in the first world war and his

father, thoordor roosevelt, feels he's not writing enough letters to his girlfriend. so he sends quinnton a letter in which he says, write all the time, write if you're smashed up in the hospital, write when your work is most disheartening and write all the time, wright enough to allow half being lost. and i just -- i think that's just terrific. they all wrote and it was part of life. it was a way of life and a way of working your thoughts out on paper. >> either you or your father quotes you as saying when you got into this project, think how much i'm going to learn. and what did you learn decides what people said about -- to their kids, what else did you learn? >> i found that many of these great americans were names that i knew, and people that i knew i should know much more about than i did. and what surprised me was how through the letters to the

children, some aspect of their personality or the time in which they lived or their experience became immediately accessible. something about the unedited words, their candor made them so accessible. i think something else that i learned was the importance of work and loving your work and doing your work for the right reasons. again and again they say that to their children. your work is who you are. your work is part of you. don't work for the end result. it's the process. and you see that coming from writers and artists and soldiers and all across the board that theme comes up again and again. >> where did you learn your work ethic? >> from my parents, i guess. >> what would you consider that to be? what kind of a -- do you work all the time? >> i do. >> how do you raise three kids and do all that? >> there are a lot of things i

don't do. i do three things, i have my family, my business and while i was working on the book, i worked on the book. and i don't do much else. we ate a lot of spaghetti and butter and i didn't go to too many parties. >> how much time a day would you spend on the book and how much time on your job? >> well, it depended on -- during the course of the work that changed a little bit, but for the first two years i would work in my office a full week. and then i'd work on the book after the children went to bed for 2 1/2 to three hours and work on the book on saturdays. and for the last year, i was able to take a couple of hours a day during the regular office time and also work on the book. but i kept up with the evidencings and weekends, too. >> is there another book automatically because of all the ones i couldn't get into this one? >> not for me. there's another book for someone else. because another person would pick, i think, very different

letters. there's so many and so many wonderful letters that a different person would find different poin yen si in different letters. but i started out thinking that i would have a pile of letters that were the first cut and a pile of letters that were the second cut and at the end i would probably go back to the second cut and include those -- some of those in the book, but none of them, i didn't need to. there were plenty all from the first cut. >> you have a different sections of the book and one is called "strength of character" and you lead it off from a letter from jonathan edwards, 1749, to mary edwards, who was 15 at the time. who was jonathan edwards? >> he was a theologian and one of our prominent thinkers in new england and he's writing to his daughter, who is far away from home. this is -- this letter i chose for the book for to give a sense of time and time and place and

he's telling his daughter that her faith is the most important thing that there is. >> i under line -- i found this part unusual but he says --

>> well, he's part of the great awakening and his belief and his faith is the most important thing to him and his daughter is far away from him and he wants to be sure she doesn't forget her religious grounding while she's gone. >> john o'hara, to wylie o'hara, the year 1959. daughter was 14 and she's in her first year at saint timothy school -- >> she is. >> at maryland. the point of that letter? >> the point of that letter is to tell wylie o'hara that her childhood has ended, she's now going forward as an adult. she's reached the time of her life that she's been looking forward to all along growing up and she has to do things -- he tells her life is tough and you

need a little bit of toughening. and in order to become tougher, you have to do it yourself. you have to do things you don't want to do. you have to make yourself be with other people, both he and she are shy people. so he tells her that he is making himself go out and be with other people and she needs to do the same, because the only real discipline is self-discipline. >> did you find yourself ever changing your mind about something because of a letter you read, about how to raise your kids or things that you -- philosophy that you -- >> i have. i found that with my kids i guess that i would be -- i hope to be very clear with them. there's so many letters here where parts set forth exactly what their expectations are and they let them know clearly what they want. i think that that's something that i will do differently. there are many times where the parent will say, take yourself in hand, rule yourself with an

iron fist. or john o'hara, make yourself do things you don't want to do. and i do live in the woods in maine and one thing i didn't really want to do was -- for me to come out with this book when it came out. so when the time came for me to go on the road and do some of the promoting of the book and talking about the book, i went back to some of those letters and read them and it said, do things you don't want to do, do the right thing. >> why didn't you want to do it? >> i just didn't. i'm not a really public person. i never have been. it wasn't a lot of times i think people are so excited for the book to come out that they can go and talk about it. i was thrilled that the book was out but wasn't on the promoting side of it. >> as part of your deal with doubleday, did you have the do so many book appearances? >> i don't know. i had to do some. i didn't get to that point.

i just took myself in hand and said, ok, you're going to do it. >> so how much have you done? >> i've done a few weeks. probably three weeks or so, different places. not a lot. and i've enjoyed it. i thought that i would once i made myself do it that i would probably enjoy talking about the book and i do. >> what is it like, or maybe what's the downside of working so close with your own father as his agent? >> a downside, i suppose the only downside is sometimes when i'm working with other groups if they find out i'm his daughter, they don't realize i have a bigger business and that they think that i'm just working with him. it's really the only downside. as a daughter working with a father, it's terrific. i love it. and i can -- i can tell him much more than i can my other clients, ok, this is what you need to do or make decisions, this is what time he'll leave,

he'll do this or he won't. and that saves a lot of time. >> what does he not like to do when he's on tour? >> he likes to do everything. that's the problem. he likes to do -- he'll -- he loves to do everything and then he gets tired out from it or it takes too long and he's frustrated afterwards. but when he's out, he likes to do everything. so it's trying to limit what he'll do before he gets there. >> now that you've had this experience, would you be interested at all in writing more? >> yes. >> a different kind of a book? >> i would. and i was not interested -- people asked me often if i always wanted to be a writer because my father was a writer and i work with writers, and no, i didn't want to be a writer. it always seemed so hard to me. and dad would talk about how he would pay to do what he does. and i would say, oh, that can't really be true. but now i see why. i would do -- hope to do another book and it was really one of the most enjoyable things i've

done. >> so what would you do? >> i don't know. i'm fishing around for ideas at the moment and i have a few but i'm not ready to say yet. >> did david mccullough pick up the phone at any time and say, dorie, you have got to include this letter? >> no. he helped me -- when i was compiling the initial list, he helped me -- often we'd talk on the phone and i would say, try to give me more and more, people i wouldn't think of. i spoke with a number of people that way. and he helped me with the list of names. but other than that, he really wasn't involved much. he gave me confidence in one telephone conversation, he gave me confidence to know that if i didn't think a letter was terrific, don't include it. don't include someone because you think they should be included. but if the letter isn't up to

standards, your standards, don't do it. and that was really probably one of the best pieces of advice that gave me the confidence to just keep going with my instinct. >> if i count it right, george herbert walker bush's letter is the longest letter in the book. >> it probably is. >> he had it in his own book. what drew you to this one? it was when he was 74 years old. >> it's a letter about aging, and what drew me to the letter is how candid he is. i think it's a person i had not seen before in george bush. it's very long and that was one of the -- one of my decisions too is i wouldn't cut any of the letters. i wanted people to see exactly how they were written and intended, and sometimes the parent will repeat themselves or they'll hammer on a point too many times or they'll go on too long. and i think the george bush

letter, he goes on and on and on. i don't think that he went back and edited much of that at all. and i like that. i think you see him. you see who he is. >> it's on page 273, i'll start it off and you can pick up a paragraph or two if you want. this letter is about aging. what would you like to include in this letter? >> let me just see here.

i love that, that he's acknowledges that he's aging, he's acknowledging he can't do things as well as he could. but he's so optimistic and eager to keep living and keep going, and not in a phony way. >> he says --

>> he's -- he's having fun writing this letter, too. he's really enjoying himself. and that is something -- there are many letters in the book where you can see the fun side of people and that they're having a ball writing a letter. >> now, benjamin rush, who we just did on this program, a biography of him, he has an unusual letter where he lays out all kinds of advice to john rush, i believe it's his son that went insane? >> yes, it. >> and he wrote this in 1796. who was he? >> he was a doctor in philadelphia, and he was a signer of the declaration of independence and served in the

revolutionary war. his son was studying to be a doctor and it was during that time of his life that this letter was written. the son later becomes insane after he is in a duel with a friend and he kills the friend and he's institutionalized. but this letter is written before there were any signs of the trouble ahead. and i like this letter because it's from the two parents, from bengmib -- benjamin and julia rush before he goes off to india. and i like how they just lay it out, here's what you need to be worried about, here's what you need to do. and i love the line --

what a scene to imagine this young kid -- >> now, you've got your father writing the forward on here. i noticed another father-son connection that luke janklow is your agent and luke janklow is son to who? >> mort janklow, my father's agent. when i decided to do the book, i asked dad what i -- what should i do next? he said i should take you in to meet mort and talk to my agent about your idea. so we went to new york and went into see mort and there was talk that mort's son might be in on the meeting, too. and i'm sure he had the same feeling, but i had a little bit of, oh, brother, the son and daughter and this is too much and expecting, no, i'm not going to like this guy. and he came in and immediately we just hit it off and he's terrific and i'm thrilled he's my agent and it was one of those

wonderful moments of the two fathers and the two, the daughter and son all together. >> what's the difference of age between you two, luke and you. >> we're about the same age and i think our fathers are about the same age. >> this is the cover of the book, called "posterity,