own spiritualism on anyone else, but if you are a religious person, genesis, chapter one the first chap of the bible verse 29 cents you shall have all of the plans and see to you not unless someone named richard nixon comes along and says there's a couple that we don't like. thank you all. [applause] >> we would be happy to sign copies of the book. in audible conversations

booktv is in jackson with the help of cable partner comcast. we sit with the director of the wealthy house museum bridget edwards and her niece mary alice to discuss the inspiration and pulitzer prize-winning book the optimist's daughter. >> i think that it was essential because i take what i know for granted so when i feel i am a judge because my eye has been trained in that experience, so i know where i am and i have a base to see people moving.

we are in jackson mississippi at the home. it's a and mark. a writer born in 1809 and died in 2001 she was a writer that one just about every literary prize there was to receive other than the nobel. she is studied throughout the world from publishing in many languages and she wrote some short novels and is best known for her short stories. >> that is the form she most valued so she had four collections of short stories some of which are not that short totaling just under 50 stories in those collections.

>> there is one writer's beginning which is a short -- it is actually from the time she was born coming up in jackson to the time of her publication from her story, and it very entertaining. of course i personally love that one but also the optimist's daughter is th the novel that wn the pulitzer prize. >> most of the writing she did here and she would find whom it. >> this was designated as a landmark in 2004 and it opened up to the public for the tourists in 2006. i can tell you how many times people have said to me in a tour how they would come down here to hear me typing away and they did. they often did to see how that opened and it wasn't all manual typewriters.

but she did quite a bit of work. she had her typewriter and she would make notes on anything. a back of a book, scraps of paper. the address book she would jot down names. she could be in the beauty parlor or the grocery store or she would think of a name or hear a name and she would jot them down and some of them are real so she would know not to use the whole name in the story because it's a real person. she lost jackson and felt like she could write anywhere but she knew the people and i think she liked writing here because they respected her and gave her privacy. she could go to the grocery store and they wouldn't author

her -- bother her. you would go into a restaurant and see their heads turned as she walked to the table everybody would be punching each other there she is. if you read her stories you see how well she was with people's trades and the way they said things. she never wrote about anyone in jackson but she knew the people of mississippi. she really didn't like it and there were a lot of writers there but as she said they expect you to go to the room and write a.

a. she hears a whistle in the middle of the night to let the farmers but to cover their crops so she just every day happening shthe story would develop. >> when she wrote she would've typed it out and then she would read it and she would decide to edit it and she would read it and much like a seamstress she would cut out a strip and think it goes better here and then she would change a few words and it was easier to move around by

pinning it. she saved everything she ever wrote so we have every district which is wonderful for researchers they can go back intback andsee why did she chank to this word in her thought process. but what is a nightmare in the history of [inaudible] but unlike today when they did it on the computer these are copies of just a sampling. >> i can't say what the legacy is but just to me her mastery of the short story form particularly as it relates to dealing with the internal life that people often don't talk about, but it's there her power

of description are amazing not only the physical description of nature but also the interior drama that is going on within the individuals and also between the close individuals. it's extraordinary. >> she's a talker by nature and that does something to the narrative style of think. >> for more information on the recent visit to jackson mississippi and the many other cities visited by the local content vehicles to go to c-span.org/local content.

>> she wanted to be a scientist and then she thought she would be a tennis player and then it was right back to science. she was totally committed to being a scientist and was quite sure she would be an academic all of her life and do research and one day she went to stanford and she got her undergraduate and her asters and phd at stanford and insisted us and astrophysics and in january of 1977, she is about -- she is finishing the last year of her phd thesis and she goes to the student union in order she gets a cup of coffee and a doughnut before she goes to class and she sits down and picks up a copy of the stanford daily and above the fold is an article with a big headline that says nasa to recruit women. .. qñi

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