c-span: david mccullough author of the greater journey of all the people you write about in this book who would you really not want to meet and talk with because of what you learned about them? >> guest: i can't think of one. i will tell you why. this book was different for me inform then anything i have ever done because if you are writing a biography or writing the history of an event or an accomplishment, there is a certain obvious track, a certain structure that is built into the

subject. and you are obligated to respect that and cover it, write about it in all fairness to your reader. the cast of characters is already ordained. with this book, i can cast the book myself. i would take the people that i wanted to write about. probably 12 major characters in this book, probably 20 some people overall who are americans but that's a fraction of the number that went to paris during the 70 year. not that i am covering. so when organizing the book, organizing my approach to the subject i was in many ways like

a casting director. they would come in, show me what they could do, tell me their story and i would say don't call me, i will call you. in effect. so, i am picking the people that i want to keep company with for four years and i didn't pick any one but i wasn't interested in or that i would be an interested and so there were none of them that i wanted to talk to. c-span: of the characters in the book which one has the most to see in the united states, in other words a home or a museum where you can see their work or their life? >> guest: augustus saint gardens the sculptor. c-span: what did he do? >> guest: he in my opinion and

the opinion of numbers of others is the greatest american sculptor certainly of the 19th century, maybe ever. his most famous work is the shaul memorial in boston which is about colonel shah and the 54th massachusetts regiment, the first all-black regiment in the union army, which most of them were killed including colonel shah in charleston. it is the first piece of american art to portray black americans, african-americans as he rose. it's spectacular and there's a copy of it in the national gallery, a duplicate. c-span: here? >> guest: yes. his famous adams memorial which is in book creek cemetery which

was for the wife of henry adams very mysterious cultural work which remains constantly -- because of its mystery and then there's the sherman statue which is a new york city and equestrian statue of general sherman with the goddess of victory leaving him. it's the on 59th street and fifth avenue, a magnificent piece. i think the greatest equestrian statue in the country and then there's the farragut memorial for admiral ferrick at which is in madison square in new york city. again a superb piece and done in paris as was the sherman statue. and then there is his home which is a national park site at cornish new hampshire where you can see just about everything he

did. he did coins, he did all kinds of things. john singer sergeant's paper -- paintings are in almost every museum as were his paintings. i would say james fenimore cooper's novels are everywhere in america. they are still read in school and still popular and still important. c-span: is cooperstown new york named after him? >> guest: and no, named after his father. his father founded the town he grew up there. c-span: go back to john singer sergeant because you talk a lot about him in here. >> guest: there he is. c-span: what was his age? >> guest: john singer sergeant was an american prodigy. he was a gifted notably astonishingly gifted painter when he was still 18, yet 18. he painted several of his major masterpieces when he was still in his 20s. as madam x., his daughters of

edward boyd, his l. valeo which is about a spanish dancer in paris and all done still in his 20s. there is madam x. she was madam littrell, a also an american. most people didn't realize that living in paris and this painting was at the time considered scandalous because of her pose or her low-cut evening attire. there he is, sergeant as a young man standing in his studio with the portrait of madam x behind him. c-span: who was mary cassette? >> guest: mary cassette was a young woman from pennsylvania who decided that she wasn't just going to be a woman who pains that she was going to be a

painter. that is her self-portrait, a beautiful watercolor self-portrait and she became the only american artist who was accepted and taken in by the impressionists as one of them in paris. and her paintings, this is a painting of her mother called reading with figaro the newspaper. this was the first of her impressionist paintings and her paintings are almost entirely about women. women seen in private life and the security of the home or the garden doing private things, knitting, reading, having tea and their hold on the viewer has been consistent for well over 100 years. her importance as a master and

as a genius of american hearts only increases with time. she was a brave woman. she went to europe pursuing a career seriously as no woman ever had, no american woman and bound to xl. and she certainly did. having too much of her life to look after her parents with whom she lived in paris most of her adult life. c-span: not which one but two were the ones that have the most interesting personal story, their relationship with their wives, their children and all that when they were in paris? >> guest: i think in many ways he was the most interesting.

he was an immigrant shoemaker son when he was put to work when he was 13 years old cutting cameos which was an art form our craft form of real consequence than. wearing cameos with popular with women and men. he learned the art of cameo cutting and also demonstrated he had an ability as an artist and the sculptor beyond that. this shoemaker father helped me for him to take some art courses at cooper union in new york, one of the first high schools. this was after the civil war when things had changed in the united states as far as availability will -- availability of training in art and he went off to paris at age 19 to become a sculpture. he was the first american admitted to boze arts. it would be like getting into one of the greatest of our universities today.

c-span: what is the boze arts? >> guest: the boze arts is the school of art, architecture and sculpture in paris, still there. the same place that he went and he was admitted as a student and sculpture and he studied in paris up to the time of the outbreak of the franco prussian war when he went to italy to continue his studies there. he was three years in paris as a student. he came back in the 1870s for another three years at which point he was married and his wife was a painter. she was studying painting in italy. her story and the story of their marriage is extraordinary. i was able to tell that story because her letters which number more than 200 have all survived and they are all in the library at dartmouth college which is very near cornish home they

finally established on the connecticut river in new hampshire. c-span: did you go there? >> guest: oh yes indeed and both of the letters at dartmouth and to the site in cornish. c-span: i know you say you used information from over 30 different cetaceans -- institutions but how many places did you physically go? >> guest: just about all of them. harvard, yale, collections in boston, places in new york, collections here in washington. c-span: in chicago? >> guest: chicago. i love that. i love that part of it. c-span: how many times did you go to paris in the middle of writing's? >> guest: we would go at least once a year or so we would stay about two weeks or so. the research was almost all here

because the letters are here. the diaries are here. the letters are written to people.com. the diaries were brought home so the diaries are accessible in this country and as is of utmost importance a newspaper which was published in paris in english. the library of congress has a complete set of all those newspapers and they are invaluable. gallic nonny's is still a bookshop. c-span: isn't he an italian? >> guest: he was a italian from england who started the newspaper. it wasn't an american paper. it was an english language initially for england that every american read it and it was filled with news of americans that pass. c-span: how much of that did you read? >> guest: well an enormous amount. i would guess that what goes

into a book is one 20th of what has been read, so that i read, i don't know i quantified hundreds of pages of typewritten pages. c-span: did you do it here in town or did you go to the library of congress to do at? >> guest: i did it at the library of congress or make transcriptions of it from the library of congress particularly transcriptions of letters because he is much better at reading handwriting than i am an very fast on the computer typing it out. so he will often spend days at the library of congress with the archives transcribing these newspaper accounts where the letters. but then i have to go through them and decide if i want bad

that or if i want to use that or if i need more of such and such and there were times when we would both go together to look at things. i couldn't do what i'd do without him, his help and that is to leave home to come to washington or to go to philadelphia or wherever these different collections might be time after time after time and sit and transcribe my book probably would have taken me seven years instead of four. and i'm at a stage now where if you would tell me he didn't want to do it anymore than i probably wouldn't do that kind of a book. i would write something more personal or more accessible for my own collections are my own recollections.

c-span: i'm going to ask you a question you probably don't want to answer but i'm going to ask it anyway. you have written 10 books. >> guest: nine. c-span: nine books. how well do you think this book is going to do? >> guest: i don't mind answering back at all because i don't know. i have never known how any book would turn out. c-span: what was your best? >> guest: john adams. c-span: second-best? german? >> guest: 1776 might be. i have never sat down and thought how will this sell or what do people want to read about now? you can't do that. c-span: what about your publisher go? >> guest: well they have never said no to me. whatever i wanted to do they have said fine. i may have told you this story before but we are all friends and you have to hear the stories

more than once, right? i was working on my second book and they went one night to a party with rosalie and we were introduced by the host hosts to a woman from washington, who was a somebody or at lease she thought so. i was introduced as david mccullough who is writing a book about the brooklyn bridge. she put her head back and she said who in the world would ever want to read a book about the brooklyn bridge? i was young. i was in my early 30s and i was just launching into my second book and i was really mad that she had said that. on the way home i was practically punching the dashboard when i was driving the car. before we got home it suddenly dawned on me that's a perfectly

good question. who in the world would want to read a book about the brooklyn bridge and what is your answer david mccullough? my answer is, i would. i wanted to read a book about the brooklyn bridge. the book that i want to read about the brooklyn bridge doesn't exist. i will write it so i can read it. that in many ways is what i've been doing with all the books. i want to write about joan rivers. i want to know about joan rivers and whether the great reading public does i have no idea. and i have had a publisher who has believed in what i was doing and believed in my books and i have never had a different publisher from simon & schuster and all my books are still in print. that means more to me than almost anything else about my writing life. c-span: have you had different editors at simon & schuster? >> guest: yes, i have. three.

c-span: you have someone in your family rebated. >> guest: it's like life. it depends on the personality of the actor. each has contributed substantially in his way and i'm very fond of people at my publishers. a lot of authors don't feel that way but i am. that's the reason i stay with simon & schuster is i'm so fond of the people that i work with. i have had the same copy editor since i published my first book more than 40 years ago. he's still there creates jim -- a wonderful human being as well as they terrific copy editor. c-span: well if you change the way you write and what you write on and what about this book? you said you wrote some of it in martha's vineyard and some of it in maine and some while you travel. it sounds like you are on a computer now. >> guest: no, no matter work

on a manual typewriter. c-span: still? to take it with you? >> guest: i take it with me. when i decided i was going to try to write a book in 1965 they were living in white plains new york. i was working in new york as an editor and writer at american heritage magazine and i thought well i did my writing at the office on the job. i had a portable typewriter. if i'm going to undertake a book i had better get a real typewriter. i bought a secondhand royal typewriter, high-rise black kind with a little glass coverage of the letters. i probably paid $50 for it, maybe less. i have written everything i have written since, everything on that typewriter and there's nothing wrong with it. it's a magnificent example of

superb american manufacturing. nothing wrong with it at all. it probably has 975,000 miles on it and i have to change the ribbons obviously. and my children, my friends, others say to me don't you realize how much faster you can go if you use a computer? of course i can go faster. i don't want to go faster. if anything i want to go more slowly. i don't think all that fast and i love the idea of a key coming up in printing a letter. i can understand that. i would be horrified to think as i was working and if i pressed the wrong button and it was going to zap out two months or two weeks of work. i am technologically technologically challenged i guess is the explanation. sometimes i wonder if maybe it's

writing the books, the typewriter. c-span: what you do about the information that you gather, your references and all that in the diaries. how do you do that when you travel? do you have that on a computer? >> guest: i have on file folders and i take it with me. i take whatever chapter the material for the chapter i'm working on so i put it in the car, put it in the back, put it in the trunk along with the typewriter and away we go. and i'm writing all the time. i'm writing when i'm flying in a plane. i don't mean literally writing but thinking writing. people often say to me and a pretty good question how much time do you spend writing and how much time he's do you spend doing research? a great question. no one ever says how much time have you spent thinking? that's probably the most important part of it. just thinking about it, thinking

about it. what you have read, what you need to reread, what you need to think more about, putting things literally out on the table and looking at them, putting a painting, a reproduction of the painting and looking at the painting and thinking about that painting or a setting. where things happen is very important to me. this whole book that i have just written is set in paris, where it's happening. another book i wrote was set in brooklyn. another was set in, ma. much of several books have been set here in washington and i believe the setting has great effect on the way things happen, the way things went. the setting is part of the

history just as the who is part of why. and so i really have to soak up the setting. rosalie and i went to paris. i went there to walk the walk. i went there to see it in the winter when it's awful and damp and cold and gray. in the summer, the spring and the fall. i read something that took saint-gaudens 20 minutes to walk from his apartment to his studio. i went over and made the walk from his apartment to the studio to see if that was right. i want to be out the way emma willard and others were and feel what they felt. c-span: that's a bridge. >> guest: yes, a bridge over

the harbor harbor over the continent. it's the oldest bridge in paris. 17th century. i think listening, smelling, feeling with the chair feels like, rubbing your hands on the surface of the cathedral sculpture on the exterior. all of that is part of getting closer to it. i'm always trying to get closer to those people, closer to that place and closer to that time. and asking questions. i spend a lot of time with students lecturing or visiting locations at universities and colleges.

they are so programmed, so responsible for being able to answer questions that i wonder sometimes how much experience, how much time is spent asking questions. that's how you find things out. ask a lot of people. people have a feeling that what i do and others do similar kinds of work, is solitary endeavor. not at all. i'm with people all the time, talking to people, working with librarians, working with archivists, talking to experts, and when i was writing about augusta's saint-gaudens i spent the better part of a witnessing a sculpture who does live pieces finding out how is it done, what's hard to? what's easy, what what's chancy?

what's dangerous? and the same thing with painters or politicians. i remember reading once for example that woodrow wilson when he was a historian and scholar wrote a book, a very famous bo book, and important book about congress. never set foot in congress want the whole time he was working on the book. you have got to go and watch how it's done, listen to it, get a sense of the timing and at times when people are not doing anything much, that dead time as it were in their lives and how do they handle that. i love reading about lsu washburn who got so restless sitting in congress. he couldn't stand to sit and listen to other people talk. ..

>> to the unit united states in 1824. and they were going in part to paris because they wanted to see him again while he was still alive. and that painting is by morris. it hangs in the city hall in new york. it is magnificent painting.

he adored these people. he spent a great deal of time with many of them. he was symbolic and important to them. c-span: there is a big painting there in the house of representatives. how important was he to the country? >> guest: he was very important in the symbolism of a wealthy aristocat from france coming and joining in the fight and soldiering on with our army. and he was symbolic of the part that france played in the revolutionary war. it wasn't just they sent an army over here. but they bankrolled the cost of the war and loaned the money to took to bring the war through to completion and victory on our

part. the army at the surrender at york town was larger than the army under washington. most americans don't realize that. we are sitting here today in a city designed by frenchmen. the great symbolic work and sculpture is the gateway of the statue of libty. countless rivers, universities and colleges all over the country with french names. we don't pronounce them the way they do. but the influence of france on this country is far greater than most americans appreciate. we doubled the size of the country. most than doubled the size of the country with the louisiana purchase, which of course was a

decision made by napoleon to sell that. c-span: another frenchman did this pointing and you write about that. >> guest: that is right. the rafts of the medusa was a pointing that simply froze and c captivated americans arriving at the luve. it still does. harriett beecher stowe was swept away by it. she was in paris a great deal, loved it and it had a profound e affect on her. c-span: what did she do in paris? how long was she there?

>> guest: she was there to hide from the press after uncle tom's cabin came out in print and was a best-seller. it wasn't published in french yet. so when she got to paris she could go anywhere without causing a stir. and she spent a lot of time at the museums and walking the city. wrote wonderfully about the experience. started studying french. came back again another time. it is fascinating how paris affected her. it empicized to her how much beauty had been -- emphasdenied her. and that the beauty isn't something else creates. but beauty is in you and the

love of beauty is part of being human. it is being in a place where beauty is so respected and considered such an important part of life that you suddenly discover how much of that love and that respect is in you. c-span: your book on john adams ended up as a series on hbo. any series for this book? >> guest: it hasn't been talked about yet. c-span: but is there a story in your opinion? >> guest: i think so. brian i could have written a whole book on at least 7 of the 14 chapters. c-span: which seven? >> guest: the story of the medical student which was the most exciting research for the

whole book. what the young people went through, how much they learned about medicine they could never learn here, how far behind medicine was and why it was far behind. and the marathon, the gauntlet, and the student gauntlet they had to run in order to keep pace with the doctors that they were studying with. c-span: give us a second one. >> guest: the cooper-morris story. and mor ris' painting during th gallery during the cholera epidemic in 1932 and the friendship that results as a

consequence of it. c-span: there was a lot of history about washburn. i wanted to ask you about the five republics and how many were in the middle of the seven years you wrote about. you remember? >> guest: i don't understand the question. c-span: there have been five french republics. i wrote down the dates. >> guest: i think there were two. c-span: first one is between 1793-1804 and the second one -- you get lost in the story. again, the second republic was '48-'52 third one was 1870 all the way to 1940. what happened in france in the 1800's. what was the overall story of what went on in the country.

>> guest: you went from a king who got power and then he was thrown out by an uprising and escaped with his wife and their lives and lived out the rest of his life in england. he is a very interesting man in part because he spent a good time here in the united states when he was in exile from france because of the french revolution he had an aristocratic leineage. he came to the united states, sailed down the ohio river and down the mississippi with his brothers, was in his 20's. he was a guest of washington in mount vernon. he worked as a waiter in

washington and in business at the union oyster house. when the americans showed up and the indians and paintings were there in the 1840's, those native americans were astonished to hear him say he was on the great plains and went time with the tribes and could speak some of their language. he seemed more of what was then the wild west. all but a few americans had. so from the point of view from the americans who came to paris, phillip was a wonderful king. he was the kind of king who took a walk in the artillery garden in the afternoon. it was like a republic with a monarchy but it didn't last long. about ten years. and then came in another first republic. and after that came napoleon the

iii as he called himself and he made himself the emperor and that led to the whole complete rebuilding of paris under napoleon the iii. the paris we see today is the paris napoleon iii and his chief officer in charge of the reconstruction of paris george houseman. that is the paris we know today. with the grand boulevards, opening up of avenues, planting of all of the trees, so forth was all done during the napoleon iii epic and the bell hawk as well. and then came another revolution. first the impression war and after that another regime took

charge and there was a french civil war where they slaughtered each other in the most atrocious fashion irrespective of men, woman and children. and many americans were witnesses to this. sometimes to their detriment and other times part of the adventure of that experience in their life. mary putnum was the first american woman to get a degree in medicine from the school and refused to leave during the siege of paris and the commune. very difficult time and dangerous time to be there. she was determined to get her degree and didn't leave.

she came back to be one of the leading figures in american medicine. c-span: how many americans you wrote about died in paris? >> guest: relatively few. some died because they decided to stay. mary cats died in france never coming home to live. but by and large they all went home. george heely lived a long life and was still very actively in demand as a portrait painter late in life. but he knew his days were number and he wanted to die at home and came back and settled in chicago. c-span: can you think of another book you can write off a chapter? >> guest: i could easily write a book about agustus and gagusta.

there is a chapter i would not enjoy writing but i think the chapter that is about mary cassette and singer i wouldn't mind doing a book. you have contrasting people painting in paris at the same time living in a different world within the world of paris. paris like all great cities has many worlds within the world of paris. and mary and john singer sergeant lived world aparts but were neighbors in the same city and they both were painting what

would move to be american masterpieces. they were becoming more important over time. c-span: benjamin rush's son hasn't been talked about. where did he come from? >> guest: he was the youngest signer of the declaration of independence. he was a diplomat and our minister to paris in a period early than washburn was assigned. rush is very interesting because he decided to recognize the new republic of france after the

overthrow of luey phillip. when communication between the united states and france was a month at best because they had to come by ship. he decided on his own to recognize the new government of france not waiting for ingovernment in washington to tell him that is what he should do. a very brave decision to say the least. and a verify important decision which was welcomed news and applauded not just in paris by the new government but in washington as well. c-span: how did they communicate those days? >> guest: by letter. c-span: how long did that take? >> guest: a month at best. c-span: was there a telegraph at

the end of the 1800s? >> guest: yes. c-span: what did that change? >> guest: it changed everything. instant information. the impression war, for example, people in cincinnati or here in washington, were reading reports from the front 2-3 days after the report was written. and if there was a delay it was just getting the message to the nearest telegraph center where it was put on the atlantic cable and sent here. c-span: did any of these people die coming across the ocean? >> guest: many people did die coming across the ocean. the only one who did of note was margaret fuller who was a gifted young woman and writer. an important american writer and person. and he died on the return trip.

ship went down off within view of the beaches on long island. c-span: i want to ask you and i never have before but you have a first sentence in this book -- i am going to read it. they spoke of it then as the dream of a life time and for many for all of the difficulties and setbacks encountered it was to be one of the best times every. how long did you think that senten sentence through and when did you write it? >> guest: i rewrote much of the first chapter two or three years after i wrote it the first time because you know much more by the time you bet to the end of the book than by the time you dead at the beginning. -- did -- the first page and page and a half of any book is

crucial. you are setting the direction. you are giving the audience the opening theme of your symphony or whatever it is. and i wanted to make it clear in the first pages of the book that these people were not going over to paris because it was the fashionable thing to do. or because they were on a diplomatic mission assigned to a particular task or because they were in somebody's employment and they were being sent by the remington arms company or whatever. and they were not going for power or for money. they were going out of an ambition to excel in their work.

in many ways this book is about work and the joy and test of one's purpose in life that work can pose. these medical students are really were put to the test like very few young men i have ever written about would later refer to it as the happiest time of their life and yet it was the most difficult time of their life. i think there is something very important in that truth. something important -- the ease and pleasure are not necessarily the same thing. i didn't find one example of any

of those young people, male or female, who went to study medicine under the most difficult conditions, particularly the language barrier, quit! there may have been one but i could not find them. all of them later on talked about that time in paris. the other thing i love is henry b b badage, one of the doctors, had a son who was leaving to go abroad to study medicine. and he said to the son, remember what you learn of value to your career and service as a doctor isn't just what you learn in medical school. it is what you will learn by the culture around you in paris.

i think i did more good for some of my patients by telling them stories about discoveries and how much i learned in various fields of interest beyond medicine than all of the pills and tonics i poured down their throats. it is the old business of are you treating the disease or are you treating the patient. and still a very crucial concern to the education of medical students today and among physicians today. this realization that must be essential to the outlook of the doctor and that the person you are treating is a human being. and you are not just curing tb

or a trick knee. you are attending a human being. and you have to understand human conditions and have an appreciation for the human condition as well as understanding medicine. c-span: did you read the audio book? >> guest: i read the first chapter because i didn't have time to do the whole book. the schedule i had at that juncture of when these things are done. i read the chapter and was pleased to be asked to read the first chapter because that is the chapter where the mission is stated. c-span: who read the rest? >> guest: ed herman who is great. c-span: you have a quote: she

did the talking and her mind galloped around and reinforcements of courage, life and excitement was hidden inside the frail body. why did you end the book with that? >> guest: that is what the book is about. the light spirit, that curiosity and that love of the level that sometimes can be reached in art, music, ideas, by some people if they really work at it. the quote that i feel sets the emblem for the book is the quote at the beginning from agustus saint gods.

c-span: i read it earlier at the very beginning. this book -- >> guest: he was another person who wrote great and never went to school. c-span: before we constantly deal with practical problems with molders, contractors, derricks, stonemans, trucks, plasters and what not else all while trying too soar. >> guest: painters have a canvas, pallet, easel paints and brushes. sculptures are more like a workshop. people make moulds and people bring in sacks of plaster. and he said -- i love the word rubbish and the junk around. you have all this practical kind of necessities of the fratrade

deal with. this is true in everybody's work. all the while trying to soar in the blue and reach that level and that ah, there it is, that happens in painting, music, oratory and it happens for the audience where they hear it and listen to it. to rise beyond the limitations of mortality and do something that will speak to the human heart with your fellow men and woman and also for generations to come. historians write history,

bioographers write biography and that is part it. by doing that they are participating in history. painters and sculptures are also writing history. you want to have a feeling about general sherman go look at the statue of him on horse back at the interest of central park and 59th avenue and look at his face. it is the face of a madman. sherman is the one that says all war is moonshine and hell. he has looked into the face of hell in his march from atlanta to the city. he said it. but he is saying it in form not words. three dimensional form in a way that you never forget once you know to look at that face.

he is being led by victory and that is a beautiful young goddess with wings. the model for that young woman was an african-american anderson and she is the goddess of victory. she is not glowing with joy of triumph. she looks dazed and in a trance of some kind. there is a mystery about it. that sculpture was created by a guy who was dealing with makers and rubbish and trucks coming. he doesn't mean the trucks we mean. this huge statue working with heavy steel super structures inside the statue and taking it off to the bronze boundary to

have it cost in bronze and shipping to it america and up to the studio in new hampshire where it was guilded and brought down. he had a deal with complicated and difficult practical problems and employees that numbers as many as 15 at a time all of time trying to soar in the blue. c-span: david mccullough, thank you again for your time. we are out of time. >> guest: oh, brian, thank you very much. what a joy. >> call the number on the screen for a dvd copy.

for free transcripts or your comments visit us online. they are also available as c-span podcast. >> our special booktv programming continues over the next several hours with segments from book fairs and festivals around the country. beginning a panel on feminism from the los angeles time festival of books. and then a freedom fest debate on foreign policy. and in a little more than two hours poet richard blanco discusses his book of growing up in miami. after that "finding the dragon lady" my madame.

>> here is a look at the weekend lineup. we visit a technology fair on capital hill. and then political commentator and author pat bucannon. friday at 8 eastern books on hilary clinton, obama and edward snowden. and then the weekly standards and sunday at 10:30 we tour the literary sights of casper, wyoming. let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. 202-626-3400 or comments@

cspan.org. >> now from the los angeles times festival of books a discussion on feminism. it is little more than an hour. [inaudible discussions] >> my clock says 12:30. let's get started. welcome to the los angeles times book festival. i am a