it was refreshing. >> and -- everything wonderful perception that so many of us think of her as mysterious but you made her seem as normal as blueberry pie and many aspects. >> getting a sense of them in that town where they grew up, one of the great pleasures for me is there was a story for of them, on a drive to every property we drove by, the story of a family that lived there and a feud that had started three generations earlier and the way it had been patched over and all the stories that lurked in that landscape and i also would just try to get a sense of what it

was like for them growing up their end being the one listening to those stories they had and alice, their mother's sister who sounded like quite a character. whenever there was an and dallas story didn't take long before i heard most of those that time or two. it was welcome hearing about them more and they grew up as a lot of people of their generation did here, hearing stories that were not just information but it was the pleasure in telling the story and appreciating these characters a lot of times in the town and in the family and having a bit of a sense of humor about human foibles, they can be a source of great consternation for all of us but also tumor, and there is something human about that that they appreciated. >> that word is human for those items.

i thought one of the most powerful parts of the book was at that time when there was a confluence of three major events in harper lee's life, the movie capote was just coming out. the movie, infamous, was just coming out with sandra bullock playing harper lee. and at the same time, charles shields's biography was coming out and you write and we read the influence and how that affected harper lee's feelings and in the book, you will all see this, where she got a copy of the tape of capote.

of bootleg copy. and playing it at the lee residents, and they have a little trouble, both of them at that time hearing, so you, i love this, saying the words that now said i did not say. would use at that scene? >> this is yet another modest house in that neighborhood that belonged to a friend of theirs who had become a friend of mine, a fellow methodist in their congregations with whom they took a lot of things and in this crowd if you are as technologically unsophisticated as i am, but you want to feel like a rock star in the tech world, hang out with people who are impressed if you can press fast-forward and rewind.

i kind of call from my grey haired posse, not only harper and alice but a lot of their friends were quite a bit older and someone who knew how to work, in this case it was not even a dvd player, a was a vcr, came in handy and so one evening, harper, as anybody would, not knowing how they would be portrayed in something like that and wondering about this experience, you actually had seen, brought to the screen through the imagination and research of film makers, so she wanted to see it and we went to a friend's house who had a vcr, she had hearing difficulties at that time as alice lee, so the first remote button i was pushing was the volume and that was i pressed play and we were going to watch the beginning of this movie she knew was about to be seen by all kinds of people

around the country and i said just tell me when it is loud enough. it went up and up and up and a lot of you can relate to how difficult that is particularly, she got a close as she could but it was hard to hear all the dialogue and it fell into a routine where i would pause after a line or two of dialogue and tell her, i was sure that evening whether i should be saying and then you said or, and then she said, and so i settled on and then you said and it was so interesting, every couple of lines of dialogue to pause and repeat it and she often had commentary on that and to go to the movies that way and i couldn't help thinking that evening as she was going home after what ended up being a really great special evening at

a friend's house, if that was odd for me, can you imagine what it was like for her? and donna sad note, she had been so complementary of philip seymour hoffman's performance of truman capote, he was quite a big man in real life and somehow managed to inhabit this very petite figure, very particular mannerisms of truman capote who has all of you know had been her childhood playmate for a time in monroeville and adult friends although not without bumps as adults, and she predicted that evening well before he was to win the oscars that he would do so and said it was uncanny the way he had been able to capture something essential about truman capote and i remember making a note to myself that when the book did come out that it would be wonderful to share a little bit more about that with him and

i was driving to the airport here when i got the news that he had passed away and felt a sadness i think everyone would who admire as his work and then a little extra because the lost opportunity to share with him her appreciation that evening of the movie. she also told me that she wrote the film maker of the other movie, as they probably don't like to be known, but i believe it came out second, where sandra bullock plays now, she had spotted in a photograph about the filming of that movie of sandra bullock wearing white socks with black pumps. no is not someone who's spent a lot of time worrying about fashion but that was all little more than she could take and i

remember her saying i never. told me that after the movie came out, she did drop a note to the film maker and said you have created a creature of such sweetness and light and called her harper lee, that i forgive the sox. >> i asked the staff while i am finishing up these questions, if staff will bring me the audience questions and the stubs so we will get to the drawing eventually but if you bring those up on stage we would appreciate it. what took so long to? okay, we can bring the mall around. can we have a time out? great. thank you. thank you very much.

i really want to ask this question. i am sure many of the audience knows. >> host: >> guest: i am ready to reread chapter. you started to ask about kathryn pepper windham and spending this much time with an older generation of alabama storytellers, not only them but their friends he will have to forgive me if i take some side trips. i have been tutored by the school of storytelling, but you asked me how it was, some of the case of catherine tucker windham telling those marvelous stories of hers and that was thanks to nell. not terribly long after i'm moved next door and was settling into this house with unfamiliar flanks of this old furnace and getting faeroese spooked at times. there was taxidermy on the walls that didn't match my decor at home and it took some getting

used to. i considered the first night i was there hanging towels over the deer head and a couple other creatures of wasn't entirely sure what they were because it felt like those marble eyes were following me as i was unpacking my books but it would be creepier than having the marbleize following me so i learned to live with my roommates but it was lonely sometimes. i had lupus which is an autoimmune disorder that can be viewed quite tired. i spent a fair amount of time in chicago and monroe ville in bed and resting at home and it could be lonely and i missed having a voice in a room, there was damage to the antenna for television so there wasn't much television which broke me of that habit for the most part which was kind of a side benefit i would say of my time there and

i couldn't get npr which i will admit as the great chicago i was used to my npr. the reception would fade as you got closer to monroeville and i just wanted -- to hear from people and made that drive maybe, i wanted a friendly voice in the room with me to keep me company and harper came up with the perfect three words, what remedy, kathryn tucker windham and came over one day, she would come through my kitchen door and a good alabama neighborly fashion and say these are for you and they were the first few of as many as i could find of kathryn tucker windham's tapes talking about growing up as she did and i think there was some real parallels to the way harper grew up and they were a delight. can you imagine a better voice to have in the room with you

especially to play at cape three times, four times, five times. i always remember her saying she paused often in her stories and friends asked her why and she realized the explanation might be that her father would pause, to light a polite. so perhaps that was a habit she had picked up. she was also somebody who was admired for the way she captured a particular way of life when she was growing up and nell was able to do a good job of that herself. i would say that was a good recommendation. >> host: you have given me two great lead ins. i can't introduce everybody we have so many celebrities in the audience but kathryn tucker windham's children and ben windham sitting over here.

so glad to see them. [applause] and they have written a new afterword, catherine's original book, 13 alabama ghosts, jeffrey, is approaching its 52 anniversary, univ. of alabama press has reprinted and the children ever written, a perfect book. i know where you can get a copy. >> guest: barnes and noble. >> host: no more vodka. >> guest: you are not going to town. my impression was they had such admiration for their father and the roles he played in their small town and that seemed to be one of the things. >> certainly true. >> was true there too. >> host: you gave me another great introduction.

those of you who have read lori and brent, two of the greatest books of all time, sea biscuit and unbroken, many of you knows that for most of the time she wrote those books, she never left her room. she had chronic fatigue syndrome, and road literally most of those books in her bed. health has been a factor with you in the time you spend in monroeville and writing this book like laura ellen brand, you spend the majority of your time writing this book in bed. tell us how in the world that was. >> i would be there. i did write most of the book in bed with lupus frequent rest is a help so i would work in what ever chunks i could but a lot of

times in my apartment in chicago in bed, to me it was the power of books to transport you to another time, to another place. when i first read "to kill a mockingbird" i was in ninth grade at madison west high school in my home town of madison, wisconsin, snowy day but feeling transported sitting our old creaky overheated library to the streets, and there was an element of that in writing the book. it is frustrating particularly as a journalist, one of the things that was appealing to me about journalism was a chance to be out and about travelling and meeting people and it was frustrating when i was having to spend large chunks of time in bed and alone moseley. i had wonderfully supportive family and friends and my mom, carla, traveling with me and

making all the difference as usual, so i had good company and had kathryn tucker windham in a room with me on those tapes but it was a chance at a time when it was frustrating to be having to be at home so much, to travel by way of written word, reading and writing and in the writing of this i was reliving a lot of the experiences i had had in monroeville and so quite often i was sort of as i wrote of julia monroe, a remarkable woman in her own right, who was there helper when i was living next door. it was like i was resurfacing sometimes in that bedroom at the end of the day after spending time in my imagination, research and notes in monroeville and that was true of julia monroe who spent a lot of time with me

telling me about her life as an african-american woman who grew up at the time she did and was a nurse and a midwife for many years and would tell those tales and that spell that she knew how to cast that i would say they were masters of the art where you almost forget where you are for a minute and resurface and remember. for me it was a way to be out in the world and even when i really wasn't and there is still little bit of faith and hope involved in such a solitary process that the time will come when you are sharing those stories with other people, how remarkable it is to be here doing that with you tonight. it is such a gift they both shared with me and i want to be

just able to share that gift with all of you. stories that they didn't want to share and as i mentioned in the book a lot of times to share the feelings of a friend or relative who was part of a story that they shared but not for the book and yet there were so many that they delighted in telling and were ready to share and such a gift they gave me that i was so glad to be sharing with all of you now. [applause] >> thank you very much, very thoughtful. a wonderful moment, mome--one of the most wonderful moments of the many wonderful moments that fascinated me was the road trip you and knelt took to new jersey. would you tell us all little bit

about that long road trip? >> with pleasure. when i was living in monroeville i had a car that their good friend thomas lane bus used to call allegedly semi retired methodist minister. he had gone with me to buy a car that he doubled. because of congress in that part of the world need a nick name if they can possibly have one so that became old blue. i was going to be driving old blue from monroeville to princeton junction, new jersey. not terribly far from new york where now would be returning before long. i was going to visit friends and then went on to chicago so she came along as my passenger. she didn't fly and the train which used to go to evergreen, alabama, no longer went as close and so we decided she decided

she would join me on this trip. i decided i needed to be prepared for any contingency so i got water bottles. i got orange crescent cones, i joined aaa. i wandered if i should get a sign to put on my car like taxis in new york have been this one would say please drive carefully, national treasurer on boards and didn't want to have to answer to the nation if anything happened on that drive but we had other than me hitting a rat in their driveway before we were two minutes on the road i think her comments was -- trying to remember exactly -- way to get off to a good start, something along those lines.

we actually did end up having a smooth trip, and can you imagine a better person to be drinking more coffee with and talking about the country going by our windows as we drove, i remember thinking all those years she took the train that the country had not seen much of harper lee but harper lee had seen a lot of the country. she did like the travel, took the train to los angeles when i was living in monroeville for a library fund raisers and i believe that that point gregory peck's widow was involved, that support of libraries was one of the reasons i first got to know them and her friend shipped was reason enough to take the train from new york to los angeles and go from there to eventually make

her way to alabama. >> when nell asked you to talk or when she wanted to talk off the record, she mentioned the town's biggest gossip or other areas that might be extremely sensitive, what was your reaction as a reporter when nell said this is off the record, don't write that? >> that is absolutely what i would respect. there may be people here who have had the privilege of spending time with her and know that she has a gesture with index finger when she is making a point. one of is spending time with her she would sometimes say that is off the record, don't include that in the book will would say you put that in there, since dorr is she especially hoped i

would share. my feeling was of course that that i wanted to respect her wishes and made note of those things but i would say again there's more than i might have predicted but did have a sense that the burden of fame which clearly harper lee and alice lee as well as someone who was involved with her affairs all those years felt personally and didn't feel it needed to extend to friends and relatives who hadn't signed up for that any more than necessary. a lot of times these were stories that the appreciation of human foible, the excesses of people of the characters in a small town but that they didn't want to be a source of hurt feelings. those were ones that i didn't share. >> i knew that. i wanted you to share that with the audience.

before we get to these questions, holy mackerel, this is a smart bunch of folks, i am embarrassed, these are a lot better than mine. before we did in to these, the doubters and naysayers, i will take personal privilege. there was a witness to one of the dinner is that you write about, sheet is a close friend of nell's, a former neighbor for much longer than you were a neighbor and we had several conversations about you and your book and she shared with me and i got her permission to mention this, that you were just the smartest person, the greatest sense of humor and you had cut up like old friends and julie said i could tell that.

>> hello. i haven't seen you since that night many years ago. great to see you. >> i was thinking one thing about spending time with harper and alice is they were so we. it raised the game of everybody at the table in the sense that you wanted to have good stories to share yourself. there was a lot of laughter at those tables. there was quite a bit that night and i believe her phrase was i have but yankee for you. there was someone from out of town north of the new mason-dixon line who was also with us that evening. she was concerned most of my friends were in their 80s and 90s, some in their 70s which is sounding younger and younger to

me all the time but there were not as many young people for me to spend time with and so that night was a chance to do that as well. >> that was great fun. nice to see. >> thank you for coming. last request for you before we get into this, it would be at daydream for the audience. you mentioned in the book the possibilities of what it would be like to have on our bookshelves if nell harper lee had written of few more books, and some of the locations you were with her that it seemed like she ought to have written a book about race, about community, about the minister who murdered for insurance money and i would like you to touch on that if you would end the

evening across the east asian immigrants, and nell's thought so that is a lot of things for you to cover before we get into the if you would. >> guest: you can bring me back if i take a side trip for two. you are referring to a dinner at a mexican restaurant in monroeville. the dining options are somewhat limited. there are some wonderful places but is ends up being a matter of do we go to david's house or bradley's, and so we had decided on a lark to try a mexican restaurant on the outskirts of town and when we were in third there were not too many people at the restaurant but there was a long table of people of indian origin or east asian origin who

now was so fascinated by. it was generations of this extended family and more, i think. they were people primarily to ran motels in that larger area. 5 some had come more recently, some had been in that part of the state a long time. so interested in that as a subculture and how did it work and how did those families interact and how did it work when people were starting with nothing that they were able to get a foothold economically and socially, and i have very few practical skills i would say. i had a terrible sense of direction. i am not off cook but i do speak spanish. that was an evening when i was able to help with something practical which was she wanted to ask the waitress who was still learning english more about those families. so there i was asking the

waitress from mexico about the families from india and translating for know who was so interested and animated and captivated by house social classes work and how people interact and what changes and what doesn't and full of questions, kept apologizing and kept on asking the waitress more questions about how that work and i would love to read the book that she could write about that part of the experience in that part of alabama or conversely there was a possible death penalty case in monroe ville after the murder of a physician and his wife, terribly sad case where their son killed his parents and ended up committing suicide before this goes to trial.

it looks like a death penalty case so we spent time talking about that issue. there were times i couldn't help thinking about how much people would like to know what she thought of that. how much she came to like a lot of times about those kinds of things and those stories that tell you more about issues than anything else. of course that was her decision, only she knew what was the right thing to do and why. i have to say there are times, small or large but some volumes that might have been written had she chosen to continue publishing.

>> host: those were thought-provoking and we can all daydream what if. >> guest: i remember harper telling me not long after moving there, she talked about being in law school, the dry technicalities were her words of law school and law practice didn't interest her but the human stories did and the drama of the child and one reason it was so interesting, in that context, alice was a master of detail and the cumin stories and were very patient in dealing with all the methodical aspects of doing that job. >> host: we will not be able to

get to the several hundred we will get through as many as we can. >> guest: it is a side trip. >> host: can't wait to hear answers which i thought of this, someone didn't sign their name but said i think a book about alice would be interesting. would she be open to that and are you interested in pursuing that? >> guest: alice is as worthy of as many books as you could think. people who don't know and sisters don't believe us that alice is known around town, every bit as remarkable in her own way and a regional. and before the start, i don't know the answer to this specific

question, just as an al harper had a singular perspective on what it meant to write the book she did and have the response that she did all these years, obviously too was a net singular position in a lot of ways and was keeper of the family history and one of the things we wanted to do was preserve as many of those stories as she was able to share and had time to share. ginger in the beginning about the question of all their friends were priests, that she was willing to to record a lot of family stories that probably -- she had a memory and now is 102. that nobody else had. there was a sense of urgency not

only on her part. but on other people who are encouraged to speak with me. they were much more matter-of-fact about it. alice used to say to me, they gave me a signed quince regular the, one to visit a lot of different churches in that area to visit white churches and black churches and baptist and methodist and pentecostal and the breakaway version of all of those that develop over time and all the denominations but they wanted me to speak about all the people who had -- all little less prone to embellishment and some of the people who publish stories about obama we family over the years. talk to so and so. do that early on while he still has his marbles. just a matter of fact.

there's a wonderful photograph of her that ran as the lead photograph where you csn intensity and her eyes and the same case saying you talk to so and so when they're still above-ground and of the chance to preserve those stories was one of the most meaningful for me. >> host: a tough question. i can't wait to hear your answer. the question is if you had to describe harbor lee in just one word, what would it be? >> guest: oh my goodness. a regional.

one reason those characters captivated so many people in some many countries is original, something universal, and each of them. and the same as now. the phrase in "to kill a mockingbird" about the spark of fresh adventure in someone's eyes, it was referenced at leaving someone's eyes but there was so much true of her and of alice lee. part of something predictable in the good sense of the word about a lot of what they shared with me as i got to know them better. and spent so much time with them but always something original.

and that made for such fun. >> host: this next question says you won a pulitzer prize for journalism and miss lee won for literature. are there any traits you believe most pulitzer prize winners share? >> guest: i make the large distinction that of course she won the pulitzer prize for that beautiful novel, and worked on a series of gateway did gridlock. this is the team effort. i would make that distinction. i was one of many, fascinating projects to work on.

others i have met including a woman i describe in the book, there was a feeling of doing something that mattered to you, simply the need to make a living although certainly that is always a consideration in any profession but sense of purpose that gave meaning to the lives of the people i know who have done that work and to their projects. a sense of it being about more. i will mention briefly a friend of mine from the chicago tribune, won a pulitzer prize in 2005 for us serious about the randomness of fate. it recreated a tornado that swept through illinois and the randomness of fate was that this

is one of those tornadoes we know too well in the midwest, very little warning and in this town, people who somewhat randomly turned right on one side of a main street and went to a cavern on one side survived, those who happened to turn left and went in to the other didn't. just seemed so random. it beautifully recreating what it was like to be in that town when that happened but also how people came to terms with that part of that experience and she was awarded the pulitzer prize in 2005 for teacher writing and that was one that i was living in monroeville at that time, was in chicago for doctors' appointments, when that was announced in april, we have a party for her, i lived in not

too far for the chicago tribune but now that nick kick out of the story that i told about ordering a cake to celebrate this achievement, ordered a cake and delivered it to the door. i didn't know that was a concept until -- julia keller, would often get julie at times and so i told -- i was recounting this to nell when i returned to monroe ville, at another kitchen table, that of a fringe, i told the people, on the top of the cake, i would like to say congratulations, julia, pulitzer prize 2005. but i said julia sometimes gets

julie. could you please spell it with an a. i don't mean to be a pain in the nick but could you read it back to meet? it was quite a heavy accent. i couldn't place it. he was understanding me better than i was able to understand him during that conversation on the phone. he said was an honor that is marvelous, julia, we haven't, no worries. right before a bunch of people from the chicago tribune came over to celebrate. the cake was delivered and picked up the lid. my heart sank because it did say congratulations, julia. pulitzer prize 2005. [applause] >> guest: which is something we still call her all these years

later and she is quite lyrical so it is inappropriate name. but the kick out of that story at the home of another mutual friend, one of the things i so respected about both of them is they were talking about their experience, the real respect for achievements, as opposed to simply celebrity for its own sake and i think the pulitzer was meaningful, naturally, for her, and something that was clearly about achievement and not about fame. that was something there father lived to see her received. that gave it an extra level of meaning as well. he died unfortunately before the movie came out but lived to see that achievement and that was something all those years later,

there was still a little spark of pride. in that achievement, when we spoke about it and when we spoke about the pulitzer prize. >> host: you need to create a pulitzer prize it would be worth the. i don't know if you will answer but are you -- >> guest: i choose to say no comment. >> host: will you attend your college reunion? lee 18 the short answers i would love to. i was in the hospital in monroe bill dealing with lupus problems and so heard about it from of friend by phone and would love to and also i would add that my

older friends in monroeville rolled their eyes at the thought that i know what it is like to be getting older and 51 now. my classmates -- patrick ewing lee with the class of '85. i would love to return. >> host: i hope that answers the question. we discussed this earlier in the afternoon. tell us the tale you didn't tell in the book. >> guest: do you have one in mind? >> host: all of these are from these folks out here. >> host: i tried to select

stories typical of my experience. >> guest: that were in that category of pull up a chair and listen to their stories, one thing i touched on in the book but didn't write as much about as i would have liked to was this and alice that i've mentioned, perimeter and sister, who liked harper lee and alice finch lee, had a playful sense of language that was fun and the way of looking at the world and so they would have aunt alicei m aliceisms the would bring up every now and then. one of my favorite was the term that having been through some of the weather, having a bit of weather today was another expression i remember when trees were ready to blow down.

she had created this term for the weather that was a cross between us cyclone and a typhoon. there was some amusement on both sisters's parts that she had gotten a digital clock, also familiar with heart medication perhaps. and never could quite gets to rate that this was not a digitalis clock. showing the time. they had such affection for her and some of the relatives, mr. nash, harper would say i am driving like mr. nash. mr. nash was married to there and's kitty who herself referred to him as mr. nash. a bit of a more formal generation and mr. nash would say money by driving rather slowly and conserving gas. so if someone including el

harper herself was driving a little bit slow lee that day they were driving like mr. nash. i don't have a car, one thing i love about living in downtown chicago is not needing a car. if i am home in wisconsin and driving a car some place and going slowly, i am driving like mr. nash, makes me think of harper itself as the name and some of you would be familiar with this but not most. whenever i hear in england, a daughter, a little girl named harper, others named harper, i think of how that name came to be and was an otherwise

forgotten i believe pediatrician who was able to come up with a formula that the third of the sisters, louise, she was unable to digest formula. this pediatrician finally after they made the rounds and word desperately worried that louise as an infant wouldn't survive if she couldn't begin digesting formula, they came across a pediatrician named dr. william harper. ten years later louise was 10 years older than now harper, when nell harper lee came into the world in an upstairs bedroom on alabama avenue. that was thanks to a pediatrician who i am sure could not imagine would know that his name was in the streets of

london and all kinds of places that he couldn't imagine being a part of. >> host: another nugget that was wonderful to reading your book, another one that i don't think we knew, we will take a couple more and the old clock on the wall is ticking. to be there in el or alice address the truman capote issues concerning the probability that he wrote "to kill a mockingbird"? >> just a bit. that wonderful thing i just saw for the first time, what a treasure and still captured the now harper and alice in a couple of those stories that i spent all that time with.

tell me -- >> host: el or alice addressing erin a1ms be any credence to

that i don't know about the writing of the book but i know how helpful was to put people at these in that small town. he was such a character. it was helpful to have someone who people felt they knew talking to her for all that long and really was quite a help in the researching of in cold blood. incidentally that was already at that point in his career there was a sense that maybe he was floundering a bit and she felt this was a good day and sirius project that he could pursue and she wanted to help him and certainly it was, and shared as well fascination for criminal justice or the stories of a

crime like that and what happens, the crime and criminals and in cold blood really became one of the early examples of what he called a nonfiction novel, and narrative he was attempting to tell in a novelistic fashion but ideally speaking to what they learned in their research of what happened in that case. >> host: what things did you find inspired harper lee? >> guest: such an appreciation for how hard people work, as someone who knew the depression and captured it in such an

iconic way, was always impressed when somebody's background or their family history with people who had the perseverance to work hard. a lot of times for not very much pay, provide for families. there were values from their father is a both talked about that you see in that book, in the way they lived and that was one of the ones that was most striking in my conversations with them, appreciation for how hard it was for a lot of families not only in the depression but at the time i was living in monroeville and the respect for the people who found a way if they had the opportunity to provide for family and to persevere overtime

ended appreciations of like a lot of families in the depression they certainly knew hardship. they knew people who live so close to the margins, how much a family can get by in a year and an appreciation of how many people manage to do that in such difficult circumstances and some feeling they are both discussed with me. in their own ways, but there was a commonality of concerns that what a lot of us now would consider what you need to get by is inflated. the necessities, there is the difference between need and want and it is a problem of an affluent and technologically

advanced country that one can begin to seem like need and that puts pressure on people that maybe they don't have to have. >> host: as we are about to run out of time before -- we have this little piece of business about this little book, do you have any parting remarks for these folks in alabama? all the ones that have come from kansas city and florida and tennessee? >> guest: in the interests of being able to leave the theater physically intact, i did write roll tide in public in washington a few days ago but only because if i see any orange

and blue it was because of a nice gentleman who had written that, looked at me and said this is a guest and i had to mention to him in monroeville, have a son who is my honor lori brother introduced me as his sister, a man in his 40s with down's syndrome, a special friendship with nell harper lee, who didn't want a thing. other than her friendship one of playful sense of fun which had in spades and kenny might be, he is a ham so he won't mind me mentioning his name, he might be the world's truly, no hyperbole, biggest offer. he has a collection of

memorabilia, every teacher, up mug, etc. known to man as a christmas tree, auburn ornaments on it that he has collected so to balance my roll tide in the book in washington i will also say from my hotel room in new york all over is the line. [applause] >> host: we probably best leave that, on the half, before we are joy and -- most of the audience is in a good mood, we'd appreciate your taking time out to get to alabama. many of us did not have a

preconceived notion of you or the book or writing about harper lee. you did it in a marvelous manner and a respectful manner. feel much better having read it and thank you for your gift to the literary world thanks to penguin press. thank you for coming. before drawing the name and before everybody -- let's tell this young lady how much we appreciate it. [applause]

>> guest: the george town person when the drawing it will be mighty suspect. >> host: i want you to pick his seat because jesus strictly by see number so i am sorry. >> guest: i will not look and i will pull from the middle. >> host: note day. put your glasses on but first, first, read the row. >> guest: we will do this with some drama appropriate to the theater. >> host: the winner is -- >> guest: the roll with the jays. >> host: and seat number. >> guest: are you ready? seat 26. yea! >> host: this is for you, rowe j

c 26. [applause] >> host: your name is? >> pam. >> host: enjoy your book. pam from pell city. [applause] >> host: as soon as we say good night would you kill the mics the won't hear us talking? thank you so much for coming. we appreciate it. we are going to get her back for that second book. >> guest: thank you so much, everybody. it was up pleasure. [inaudible conversations] >> c-span2 providing live coverage of the u.s. senate floor proceedings and keep public policy events and every weekend booktv, for 15 years the

only television network devoted to nonfiction books and authors. c-span2 created by the cable-tv industry and brought to you as a public service by your local cable or satellite provider. ..