criticisms. tim naftali said i'm not changing anything, you know, i'll quit. and so, again, i thought it was a very good, i thought it was a very good exhibit. but right now they're still going through that, and they're planning to put some exhibits together. they don't have a director. i don't think they want a director. [laughter] >> was it as much fun as it seems to be now in the retelling? >> yeah. i was nervous the very first day because i had read many of -- i'd read books where people do these trips, and on the first day they always talk about how great they feel, and they're thumbing their noses at everyone outside their car because they're going to work, and they're taking this trip. i kept thinking i can hardly wait to start this trip, and then i started the trip, and i felt nervous. what happened? i was supposed to feel this. it's like how women are supposed to get that instinct to clean the house before they have their baby. i thought i would have this

come. and then it occurred to me, um, they all got advances, you know? so that's probably the difference. [laughter] yes, sir. >> the new george washington library at mount vernon -- [inaudible] in accumulating these papers, would you now consider that to be a presidential library? >> well, i consider it a presidential library. it's not considered an official presidential library simply because it's not, that has to do with a designation with the national archives. that doesn't mean it's any worse or better or anything like that, all right? it's not part of that federal system. but i haven't been there since they've refurbished it, but my understanding is it is an incredible library. and so that isn't pejorative in any way, that it's not part of the official. i mean, if i hadn't just stuck to those 13 libraries, i'd still be taking this trip, and my wife would have divorced me. [laughter]

>> so, um, now that you've finished this one, what do you think you're going to write next? [laughter] >> well, i'm not going to say what it is specifically, but i'm going to say it's going to have an outline. i'm so excited to have an outline to work off of. [laughter] thank you for your question. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> let's thank david cross for a great presentation. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> you're watching booktv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. booktv, television for serious readers. >> here are some programs to

watch on booktv this weekend. today we bring you the 2014 brooklyn book festival from new york. coverage includes panels on city planning, politics, nelson mandela, voting rights and public education. on "after words," matt ricket el tells the story of a tragic car accident due to texting and the effect technological distractions have on society. steve almond and gregg easterbrook take a critical look at football. also books about political power of the super rich, women in the civil war, the drafting of the emancipation proclamation and intelligent machines. for more information on this weekend's schedule, visit us online at booktv.org. >> here's a look at some of the best selling nonfiction books according to "the washington post":

>> that's this week's list of nonfiction bestsellers according to the washington post. >> host: and as booktv continues its tour of the new york public library, we are now joined by the curator of the library. how did you get to that position? >> guest: well, i worked in the library, the new york public library, in the past. i've been in the rare book division, was later a curator at southern methodist university and downtown at the general theological seminary, st. marks library. and got a doctorate in renaissance history at columbia and all that led to my being here. >> host: and how long have you been with the new york public library? >> guest: as a curator, i've been here since september 2000. >> host: well, you've brought some things out to show us that you have in the collection. >> guest: i have. well, the berg is an enormous

collection, about 2,000 linear feet of archives and manuscripts, 400 authors. but this is what i like to call the tip of the berg, so to peek. here -- so to speak. here we have the only surviving manuscript of john dunn's satires and paradoxes, that was done in his own lifetime. it's not in his hand, but it's in the hand of his secretary and personal assistant. and this has the highest authority deriving directly from dunn's own manuscripts, and you can see changes in or differences between the text as represented here and mistakes in transcriptions that were made in the first edition and perpetuated throughout the centuries. for instance, in this sonnet all who wore dearth age, tyrannies,

all those who have been destroyed by this will be resurrected on the day of judgment. and this word, dearth, was mistranscribed as death. and it was only in the 20th century that it was read correctly and corrected -- >> host: who was john dunn? >> >> guest: john dunn was great poet, among a group now called the metaphysical poets of the 17th century, who used wit, philosophical inquiry in order to create highly formal and complex sonnets and other forms of poetry. >> host: what else do you want to show us? >> guest: we have a wonderful dickens collection, over 550 letters. all of this first editions, but what is really remarkable of his that we have are 13 of his performance copies, copies he used to give public readings.

and this is the first one he ever did. the first reading he ever gave was a public reading in 1853, and this is the prompt copy or the performance copy for "a christmas carol." he first read it in birmingham in 1853, and this was not yet in complips. in existence. and he set about creating a text that could be short enough that people could listen to for over a period of an hour, ten minutes or so. and so he had a binder tear out the leaves of the 1849 edition, put them in these blank leaves, and then he went through it over the period of a couple of years. and you can see that he sometimes rewrote passages because if he would have deleted something in which a character was mentioned or a scene was described and then it was referred to later, he had to somehow introduce it freshly. so that's what you see here.

you also find bits of wax where pages were pasted together that he wasn't going to read at all. you can see postage stamps. these have broken off. he used these to turn to pages quickly, and so the protruding ends have been broken over much use. and here we have a photo of him taken in new york. this is the last group of photos, from the last group of photos that were ever taken in new york, 1867, the winter of 1867-'48 was his great -- '48 was his great final reading tour of the united states. >> host: doctor, how did the library get dickens' materials? >> guest: well, the dickens -- the performance copies cape to the berg -- came to the berg collection through the purchase of two, the two greatest collections of english and

american literature in private hands in the 20th century. this was back in 1940, '41. one was w.t.h. howe who was a great book publishing magnate from cincinnati and a friend of the irish literary renaissance. not someone who just collected for the status of it, but a real friend of hitture. and owen d. young, the other great collector, who was "time" man of the year, 1929. founder of general electric -- rca, rather. so these performance copies came from their collections. this particular one, i believe, came from howe. i believe it's the howe collection. >> host: one more. >> guest: but i do want to mention one thing. this belonged to dickens too. here is his pen, which you may want to hold, and that's his ink well. and this is his ivory letter opener which was given to him by his sister, georgina hogarth,

and she had it inscribed or engraved, c.d., he always put that in everything, in memory of bob, 1862. and this was one of the forepaws of his recently-deceased cat, bob. and the story has it that dickens had trained bob to put out his night candle with his paw. >> host: not to be terribly accuracy, but how much is this all worth? >> guest: we don't like to discuss prices. in one sense, it's invaluable. i don't like to think of this in terms of value because these are priceless objects. certainly the manuscripts, i suppose, one could find another letter opener, although not one with dickens' cat's paw on it. >> host: all insured, i take it? >> guest: the library has insurance policy for its holdings, yes. >> host: one more man you

vicinity -- manuscript, sir. >> guest: this is the first volume of three manuscript volumes of zoo wolf -- virginia wolf's to the white house. >> host: and who was virginia we'll? >> guest: one of the great pioneers of the novel along with james joyce. this novel was published in 1927. this is in her own binding, by the way. she bound her own books. it's not a pretty binding, it's not meant to be. she could do that kind of thing, she did in her private press with her husband. and here you can see names to be used. so she has names of characters, some of which don't appear in the published version. and she always wrote, she always drew a blue crayon line on the left-hand margin so she could write little notes to herself as she went along. now, in this particular case she has a couple of diary entries,

and down here for march 9th, 1926, she writes: i observed today that i am writing exactly oppositely from my other books, very loosely at first, not tight at first and shall have to tighten finally instead of loosening as always before. also at perhaps three times speed. most of her drafts are grammatical sentences complete, they're very tight, formal productions. in this case, it was a cathartic experience for her. she was writing about her childhood, her adolescence, her relationship with her parents. >> host: we want to see one more thing here, here in the berg collection. but, doctor, is this available for everyone to see, or are we getting a special toursome. >> guest: you're getting a special tour. the collection is here for

researchers who need to study the papers, the manuscripts, the rare books. >> host: would one have to apply to see that zoo wo to ol -- virginia woolf man you vicinity? >> guest: well, actually, we don't even bring them out for researchers because of their fragility. we have it on microfilm. we use the bound manuscripts for presentations and exhibitions, and i do many presentations for reading groups, for the public, for display, and that's how the general public gets access to these materials, through those kinds of special presentations. >> host: would you like to see these manuscripts, what we just saw, would you like to see those online so everybody could see them? >> guest: yes, and there actually is a very stamm, robust -- substantial, robust virginia woolf web site which does can contain those digital images, the ding tased images of those manuscripts and other

manuscripts available at present. and here is one of charles dickens' desks, his chair, his lamp which has been retrofitted for electricity, and his calendar set to the day he died. june 9th. the story goes that when the berg collection opened in october of 1940, it was a big event, and mayor laguardia was invited. that's all fact. but we have it through oral tradition that the mayor, being rather robust gentleman, sat in this chair and burst through the caning. so -- and then it was recaned. so supposedly, that's the only non-original part of this chair. >> host: but that's not a documented story? >> guest: i have not seen it documented in in any way, but that's what was passed to me in oral tradition.

>> host: thank you for showing us part of your collection. >> guest: my pleasure. thank you for being here. >> here's a look at -- >> next booktv is live with steve almond, author of "against football -- >> top of the list is syndicated radio host steve harvey:

>> that's this week's list of nonfiction bestsellers according to the washington post. >> next, booktv is live with steve almond, author of "against football," and gregg easter brook, the author of "the king of sports." they discuss the impact of football on american society and why it must change by examining the brutality of the sports. from the use of taxpayer money to fund nfl stadiums to the large amounts of college budgets earmarked for college football programs. this is about an hour.