and he was told he is in an executive committee meeting. and they are not to be disturbed. rosenbach scribbled something on a piece of paper and said please handed this to mr. folger. [laughter] so a few minutes later, he came out and said you bought a more sedentary collection will you sell it to me? this time, rosenbach didn't say actually i was just on my way to san marino california. he said you have it. >> was awasn't a 100,000 powerb? for >> it was purported to be in the press a 100,000 powerbook.

the >> [inaudible] >> could you comdid you come toe microphone please. >> did the checks that you examine to tell him all the prices they paid for the collection x. >> as you can imagine some of them are for the individual books and others were for groups of the books and other times you could tell he and other times you couldn't. he bought 82 of them. i think the least he paid was maybe $300 is the most was $53,000. in the book i use a formula to tell the reader how much that is in today's dollars.

it's important to go through with the invoices and some's folger himself got mixed up and what he had paid. some of it was in dollars and some of it was in pounds. since he was paying for them and once he compared the description with the entity he said i don't want it. that's why he was so valuable at the standard oil. he could look at a sheet of paper giving the oil refineries over the country and memorize it. he inherited a love for mathematical skills from his mother.

but he rarely admitted i've lost track whether iou money or you will be money. >> i was just thinking what a massive enterprise that seems to be. and was there any point at which you have got other things to work with them and support them? >> if you compare huntington and folger, he had a huge staff. emily worked full-time on this. so you had a couple in 1910 a personal assistant at the standard oil paid for by standard oil started doing

secretarial work. i wouldn't be surprised if he spent more time on the books rather than petroleum. and i was always hoping to get a hold of his diary or his nodes. he was a man of integrity who would go to the bank and do a lot of errands. i can say that the whole collection that we are talking about going through the catalogs, the card catalog and even when he went on vacation they would take a modified card catalog and they went to virginia. they went to the homestead in hot springs. they would still send the tables

to the booksellers. [applause] if you could please pull up your chair. there were plenty of copies of the register. >> you're watching book tv on c-span2. flush

charles lewis talks about the subject of his latest book at the way people in positions of power control information and manipulate the truth to achieve their goals. from the national press club in washington, d.c., this is just over an hour. >> i'm the executive director of the pulitzer prize-winning center for public integrity. [cheering]