it's about 45 minutes. [applause] >> hello. think you so much for coming tonight. such a huge honor for me to introduce cristin o'keefe aptowicz, not only my best friend but one of my oldest in the world. we met 18 years ago last month that the old alamo draft house that got demolished when she was running urbana in the basement as heebie-jeebies. she was 18, 19 years old. and she has been working on this

book almost that entire time she is -- we have known each other. she started screenwriting at nyu and discovered this story. root this amazing screenplay about it that get made into a short film as one of the awards for the contest which she won which you can you on my youtube page. i think it is amazing and a hint of what an amazing movie. but after she won the screenplay award she did not give up on the story. it is one of the longest times i've ever known any of my friends to work on a project, and the culmination of it is so amazing. so far it has won several awards and people are just raving about it. i am so proud of her. cristin o'keefe aptowicz, everyone. [applause] >> thanks, everybody. so welcome to the dr. mutter

event here at polk people buried am so thrilled to be here. i move toward a finish writing this book because i got a grant to support writing this book. live in new york city, and $25,000 does not pay anything in new york city, but it does in austin. thank you for your cheap breakfast tacos. they're affordable public transportation. so today i will do something a little unusual. i will give you talk about what i love about dr. thomas dent mutter and have local poets read excerpts from the book so that you get a taste of what the book is like. we will try to do this as quickly as possible because i am excited about the subject matter. so i can take a long time. there are some glory images, as i apologize in advance if you anything that was read for dinner. the book is about dr. thomas dent mutter. some of you may know. it is an nicole destination, a

museum for medical oddities. they would say unusual pathological specimens. but i grew up in philadelphia and went to the museum in the fourth grade, sixth grade, eight great, and all throughout my school never knowing the story of why it was founded. that is what got me interested in a story that i wrote in "dr. mutter's marvels." so dr. thomas dent mutter was born in 1811 to these beautiful people. they were very well-off virginians, very successful merchants. his wife was very well read and they had two sons. tom and then james. but within seven years the entire family except for tom died which was not any of a neat -- not unusual. you would have infectious diseases that would ravage of families, towns, and cities. the grandmother passed away ." the judge to find a home forum, but eventually found a home here

in sabine all which is, of a cane carter family of the south, if any of you remember that. and robert carter with his guardian. he supported his education but not what he considered to be incredibly important which was his clothing. even as an orphan he wanted to look really great. emblematic of the person he would later become. he realized what he could perform, charges closing bell captain of his school and then aren't scholarships to pay off. so he began just charging all this money. he got a velvet vests and cigars and like what hats and just kept turning academic scholarships to pay off. it did not work for very long. a stop giving him money, and he got a lot of trouble. he struggled with illnesses entire life. they did not have antibiotics back then. germ theory would not be present

and to later. infectious diseases could hit you again and again. he was in college when he decided he wanted to be more ambitious and go to yale. he had never experienced the northern winter then was just constantly coughing up blood. he came back south to get a diagnosis and met with doctors on like any he had never known before. back then in the 19th century you did not need a medical degree to practice medicine. you could or could not apprentice under another doctor. essentially you just put a placard out and that was it. common treatments were approaching, leaching, drinking mercury was also very popular. and sometimes the treatments may do even sicker than if he had never done anything at all, but he met these doctors who were empathetic to him and treated him like an individual, not as a disease to be cured but a person who's suffering needs to be alleviated. that became is calling. he knew that he wanted to be a doctor.

and if you were to study medicine earlier in america he was steady it here in philadelphia, the place where i was born. it does not look like this anymore, but it did during his time. the home of the first-ever medical school. the university of pennsylvania founded by benjamin franklin and later would become home to a second vanguard medical school edges jefferson, and we will talk about that later. but to give you an idea of what philadelphia looked like during this time, i will bring a political poet who has been on the scene for 11 years here. he will read a little bit about what 19th century was like. welcome up to the stage jet night. [applause] >> i started reading the book and i was struck with this dashing, handsome, charming figure. and then christian asked me if i would come rita and i thought, well, of course.

then i looked at the passage she sent. chapter 11, the root of the problem. crushing poverty had become an everyday fixture of philadelphia life. one neighborhood, the relatively small area between fifth and eighth streets had become so cramped with the city's most degraded glasses that he earned the nickname the infected district. a reporter from the evening bulletin invest deeded that neighborhood and found conditions among the people live there so wretched that he felt incapable of reporting their followers to his readers. this area of the city less than 1 mile from where jefferson medical college of glasses, seemed like a different world from the rarefied circles in which the doctors of the city drink imported french wine while dining and oysters and ice-cream and in the infected district it

was common practice for shops to charge a penny for a meal that was made up entirely of scraps -- excuse me, entirely of the scraps back at the back doors of the wealthy. unable to afford rent at even the lowliest of flophouses of it was a common custom for one enterprising individual to secure a room at a boarding have swelled in assets a day and then sublet as many sleeping spaces as good fit at the bargain price of $0.2 ahead. the police and fire department at the time were of little help. the police were known as watchmen because the uniformed men could and often did lock themselves in specially constructed watch boxes to protect themselves from the same criminals from which there were supposed to be protecting the community. watch box method would be abandoned, however, rioting mobs realize that they could simply destroy the watch boxes and kill

the police officers. the fire department was equally troubled. the all volunteer companies were neighborhood based, and just like the neighborhoods they had sworn to protect, some are very respectable, while others were the reverse as one doctor later observed to be the more humble and gentle the name of the firefighting company the more apt it was to be pugnacious, he recalled. for instance, the goodwill except would fight anything at any time. foundries, factories, and mills of all kinds to be found within the borders. factories that build locomotives, fire engines. the factory produced nearly one-fourth of the nation's steel and this city's 12th sugar refineries made it the country's largest single supplier of commercial share. to keep this extraordinary conference of business is going these factories, mills, and foundry's needed workers.

but this city's exploding population always seemed to contain more eager workers than were needed. philadelphia's were often forced by circumstance to accept abysmal wages for what invariably proved to be long hours of relentless the grueling work rita unskilled factory operatives, cold ivars, shipyard workers and carpenters were paid less than a dollar a day to work 14 hours a day six days a week. most factories recognized only the fourth of july as a holiday and vacation and sick time were, of course, nonexistent. a man had to compete not only with each other for these backbreaking jobs but with children as well. at a time before laws permitted child labor they were happy to put even the youngest children to work. one dramatic case, the glassworks employed 300 people in its industrial plan. of those 300 employees 225 for

boys, some not yet eight years of age. young girls were not exempt from the furious factory work. the match stick factories south and not paying a wage of $2.50 per week. happy to -- they happily took to work. no idea that they were being slowly poisoned by the factories dangerous chemicals. the girls worked long hours and poorly ventilated rooms licking their own chemical coating figures often to help in processing so many small slivers of wood so difficult to see and keep track of in the dark factory setting. and what would start out as simply a toothache and painful, stolen guns would swiftly evolve into rodding tissue. soon the girls jaws were covered with large, weeping abscesses so deep that the bone could be seen and the wound would unremittingly bleak a foul smelling discharge. the condition became so, and it would eventually earn a nickname

, fosse giacomo fact -- phosphorus being the active ingredients. and if the slow disfigurement with accompanying brain damage and inevitable organ failure were not terrific enough, the chemicals that the workers in just a daily cost the exposed jawbones of these now deformed girls to glow greenish white in the dark. despite all the advancement of the time the medical profession it simply could not keep up with the increasing deadly health challenges that this newly industrialized city presented. [applause] >> the father of two daughters. i'm sorry. i grew up working class in philadelphia. and i knew that that would be what my family did back then. back to the medical world.

so dr. mutter into this chaotic city filled with disease, deformity, and troublemakers and studied medicine at the university of pennsylvania but he understood what it meant -- what it looked like. i will give you an example. this is what it will be to teach people about the human body in a time before cadavers. so this is one of four images you would typically see. the man with this can on, next skin off, holding his own skin in his hand. the muscles removed and you could see the organs. the last one would be the skeleton. this is what you would use in order to understand the human body back in the medical field at that time. jefferson medical college introduced a new concept for medical studies of that time which was the clinic. to bring live patients in and show the students how to treat them in real time and real

situations. here is an example of a photo of the anatomy course at jefferson medical college. the man in the middle, william henry was a student. and this is -- but this gives you an example of the difference between learning, what was previously learned and what this new one would be like. particularly obsessed with people with severe deformity. he studied and got a medical degree at the university of pennsylvania and immediately went to wear a the best surgeries' are happening which was paris, france. paris, france, all of its citizens got free health care and because of that possible system was founded and very specialized. one of my favorite facts about the parisian medical system was that if you have hospitals just belaboring women.

one was for women. you had to be whipped pump -- publicly as punishment for contracting syphilis. you enter the hospital. go through several months of treatment and as soon as you were perfectly healthy you would be whipped publicly again to so that you knew you lender lesson. but among the things i were happening that were bare -- brand new was a burgeoning new field called operation plastique or as we know plastic surgery. we think about it in modern times. but plastic surgery and literally means use your own body to heal any kind of deformities or defects that happened by birth or by accident. this was an absolutely knew field because as you might not know caught all the surgery's

were done prior to the discovery of amnesty ship. of the people going through these surgeries were absolutely wide awake. men were in charge of just holding the persons down as they struggle and crashed against a certain. usually you did not agree to a surgery unless it was like for death. so elective surgery which a lot of blacks -- plastic surgery would be was very rare. if you were lucky enough to survive having surgery done on you while awake it was common for you to die of infection. to give you an example of how bad it was, for every one soldier died of a civil war on the battlefield, to die in the hospital from infection. that is how tremendous infections or. so to have men who could perform and heal people was absolutely revolutionary and was not happening in america. he wanted to bring it back. so the one in the center, a woman in france who grew order

from the center of their fire and hit it from increasingly. a surgeon found around and it was successfully removed. you will read about that in the first chapter of the book. this is an example of a surge in which we can talk about before. accidence, and then this one we will talk about more, woman with severe burns which was surprisingly common during his time. so he had two things going for him. he was an extremely talented and ambitious in terms of surgery. he was ambidextrous, quick, and apparently about cleanliness at a time before adjournment -- germ theory was proven probably because he was a patient himself and the the difference between an dirty doctor and a clean doctor and how that would affect him. and he was also when there was

this emotional detachment between doctors and patients. i know we still struggle to deal with that, but back then you have to imagine, when we think about someone falling off alleged wife is still awake, our instinct is be the person his leg is being sought off. but imagine being the person who spent years of their lives studying to help heal people knowing that he would have to cause this pain in order to do what needed to be done? you had to have emotional detachment. but he did not have that quality he trusted people and wanted to be clear, have been joined him on that journey which made him so popular. he came back to philadelphia to try to make a name firms often become a professor and clashed a lot with another doctor who is the main antagonist of the story . this guy. this is jefferson medical college. this is charles de make. now, they both -- jefferson medical college, a vanguard

medical institution bringing new things to the forefront such as surgical and patient clinics. they also brought some of the most brilliant minds in surgery and medicine at that time to one faculty. the problem is, they were all crazy geniuses he did not -- did not want to work with each other. in my research i found tales of fist fights and faculty meetings. it would go to each other surgery's and heckle each other. jefferson fired the entire faculty and decided to bring back one more aligned with the vision and unity. just so happened that dr. mutter was selected as the chair of surgery, the youngest person there at age 31. if that his medical degree at 21, and the oldest member of the faculty would be charles de needed to cover as chair of the obstetrics, be they had clashed before and there would be much to come. to give you an idea of how he was different i will bring up another local poet

who was in new york city. he is going to read a selection from the chapter that introduces him. please welcome up austin's own, whole foods own eric great. [applause] >> yes. when cresson asked me to do this she introduced this piece as terrifically misogynistic excerpt from a medical lecture from this gentleman to my doctor makes and i was a little taken back. what made you think would be so perfect with this particular excerpt? so -- the woman grimmest,

open to the classroom full of young men. see this an obvious apparently via a lump of animal texture? he as his collection of his gesturing to the women's units else. here in the inner court of the temple of the body how can you studied the subject sufficiently? women possess a peculiar traits that is modesty. he continued as he walked and he firmly placed another pillow between the woman's legs. it is one of her most charming attributes. the scan her position and civilization and it is easy to perceive that her intellectual force is different from that of her master and lord. nsa her master and large, and it is true to say so, he

continued, as he casually repositioned the woman for maximum exposure moving her buttocks to the edge of the table, pushing her thighs at right angles to her quaking truck. the great administrative faculties are not hers, he continued. she plans no sublime campaigns nor leads armies to battle or sleeps to victory. in society she is still in bonds, medical by custom and politics. she composes no eleatic, no ennead. to you think that a woman could have developed in that tender soil of her intellect the strong idea of a hamlet or of on the press? no. [laughter] he walks to the table which display the tools of his trade, speculums and scalpel's, tinctures and powders, aztec of

handkerchiefs and a large jar of properly starred leeches. he dipped his fingers in a bowl of olive oil and rubber them slowly together as he looked back at the woman. such is not a woman's province, nature, power, nor mission. she wins in the heart, her seat in thrown are but the hard stone. the household altar is our pleasure of -- place of worship and service walking toward her. staring at the wall in front of her, her hands balled on the thin cotton sheet. she has a head to small for intellect stroking her hair but looking to his audience. but it is just big enough for love. [applause] >> that is an actual speech

that he made to the students here. i remember when he got to the part, conceive of hamlet or macbeth. nope. if you only knew who was writing your story. you would be so mad. some bad pitches again, hoff there was actually an incredibly common mind set. he was one of the most prominent voices in obstetrics and he had to look at it through the 19th century. immodesty really prevented woman -- women from seeking treatment for their conditions generally age. they believe that only there has been should see their bodies. even when they went to the doctors, they often would be shy about even showing them anything. the title of the chapter reverences and exchange she had with one of his patients. he was like, well, i have to look and see your body in order to assess what is wrong with you.

she says, i would rather die than let you see my body. he said, well, what a woman once of a guy wants to. and it was very different from how he treated his students. so this is the faculty of 41. this was jefferson's new faculty. at the top. and they vote would rain for 15 years of unbroken and really influence some of the most transformative types of medicine that we know. this is the surgical clinic that he had access to. it was known as the plate. this was taken in the last half of the 19th century, and you can tell that because there is a woman in the room. women were not allowed in the college except as patients for the duration of his reign. but he was able to have access to some of the most amazing, innovative materials during his time and was able to do surgery's that pushed the boundaries of anything that anybody inexperienced. he also thought -- five

really are for two things that he thought were important, pre operative care and postoperative care which are revolutionary thoughts back and. a recovery room which he was at first turned down for, but he could not believe what they would do these patients that he had which was essentially no matter how dramatic or delicate surgery they would immediately be put into an unwashed, and sanitized wagon and then written over to philadelphia's cobblestones all the way home and drop off. he thought this was ridiculous and refuse to let it happen. when they refuse to let him build recovery room he rented out rooms of other nearby restaurants and did it himself until he really -- until they relented. some of the surgeries he was able to create revolution as impact -- plastic surgery, with some variation of this woman before. you have to imagine the 19th century, when interest and very restrictive clothing, very many layers and flammable material and cook in front

of an open fire. did not take a lot for them to have out foote's, and the bound body creating almost the chamber, a chimney. these women were unable to escape the tower of flames and would have severe burns on the neck and face. now, this is a time when women were completely dependent on men. they were not allowed to own property. they could get livelihoods', but it would not be enough to support a family and frequently the family would be so embarrassed and horrified that they would hide the women from the doctors and would not seek treatment and all. this was a very common problem for which there was no solution and tell dr. mutter came up with one. we know today skin grafting is a concept to heal these sorts of things. in the earliest days, and he chided, and it did not work. he did not have cleanliness. you're going to just move a piece of skin over without washing your hands or tools or the person's face it would likely get infected

and falloff in that person would die out. and he did not have the technology to keep the skin healthy. he realized something very important. if you kept a little flap of skin and attached to the body and then just turned it around, that little flap of skin would help combat keep that part of the skin of life. he created something called the dr. mutter flap that is still used in surgery today. he would take the clean, and damaged skin from the shoulder or back, cut out the damaged skin of the woman's throat, face, or cheek and then swing it around and reattach it with early sutures. he would then bandaging up and keep it meticulously clean at a time when that was not really considered to be par for the course. in fact, this was spoken out against because he said that to make doctors do that would be to imply that doctors are not gentleman because of gentleman a clean man. then again, compaq, have

stockholm syndrome with that guy. he is such a bastard. but these are also the minds of the 19th century. this kind of helped me understand why people would put up with this. the prouder the busy surgeon when you went to a surgeon you expected them to be covered in the viscera of their former patients as proof that they are trustworthy. not however do it today. my dentist is your command that would not even like that for him. so this would be done. wash these women religiously and transform them back into human beings. monster back then was a medical term, just like 88. they literally and made monsters with the surgery. again, you have to remember, all of this was done while the patients were awake. he did not have the influence he thought he should hand was very

arrogant and very -- were very flashy closing. but in quaker philadelphia that was not the way to do it ottawa and. one of the wives would comment how he would always matches sothos worst in his carriage. so he watch what makes it. it published a lot of text books. so he decided to publish a textbook. he put it out with the fastest knife of the west end. he was famous for saying time me before signing off legs. and one of my favorite stories was that he performed a leg amputation at the head that actually killed three people. he had a person holding the man down. he was cutting off the leg and accidently get the assistance fingers off. the assistant, shocked, swung back and knocked over a tray full of tools that flew through the air and hit a spectator if in the

audience. thought that he had been head and died at home of fright. later infection but kill both the patient and the assistant. he to the state, this is the only surgery in history with a 300 percent mortality rate together they put out a book that was an extraordinarily detailed about the quickest, cleanest, best ways to perform the surgery is. he focused a lot in the preoperative care, preparing human bodies for these events, being transparent and clear and getting your patient on your side. little did he know within a few months of publishing this book it would become almost obsolete in his mind because of the invention and discovery of amnesty's year which was a game changer. and one month after anesthesia was discovered he performed the first surgery in philadelphia at jefferson medical college removing a tumor of the cheek. but within a few months of that happening, a successful

operation, ether was banned at hospitals throughout philadelphia because they thought it was a satanic influence robbing men of their reason, and he had to be a huge proponent moving people. i know we all would prefer. again, you have to imagine the 19th century mind set. all doctors are used to being the top performing on patients who were awake. you don't want them to bleed out. how will they perform? number two, madison was not regulated. you had no idea if you were using too little or too much. each jar was going to be different. the person waking up or killing the person. number three, a germ theory. without clean hands and tools just as many people died of infection after the surgery than they did.

so doctors did not want to take the risk. as you might imagine, there was an opinion on this. he was anti ether anesthesia while he was gearing wonderful lectures instructing students have to do it properly, cleanly, and safety he would bring in sheep and kill them with ether to prove the dangers of it. he also used to heckle other surgeons asking them, will you perform any through surgery today. if they said yes then he said, i hope the patient dies. one of the surgeons, the famous painting, the growth clinic, so upset. when he finally came up to him and said, you perform either has teaches surgery and he said yes. and a patient dies. well, i hope you're mad at the gates of heaven by a flock of sheep. [laughter] which was a good one. so again, at that point he was like forget this. one focus on publication of

my generation. i will focus on my students, this new generation. it was a golden time, but one that would be way too short. he was a mailman and realized he could not fight his illness forever. of the biggest problems he had was hereditary get out. some of you might have on poles or grandfathers with out fear. it is actually a specimen from the museum of hands affected. imagine your surgeon. these are very important. he went back to paris to see if anything could be done for his condition. it told him it was not a matter of getting better but how much longer he had to live. they begged him to stay so that they could take care of him, but he wanted to make sure that the population of people largely ignored by madison had generations of doctors that would continue to help them. he went back to philadelphia and spent the last years of his life doing two things to my teaching these generations of doctors that they can do everything he could which was in conflict.

he loved the idea of being seen as a singular genius, one person who could help these people, but he realized that damaging that would be to the population. he began to say, you don't have to be a genius. you just have to be hard worker and listen to people. and there are many beautiful lectures that illustrate that. the book also has over 80 illustrations and it, and every single would cut the you see is an actual patient he unfortunately died young at the age of 47. he wanted to make sure his collection of unusual medical specimens would be collected. now, you have to think of the 19th century. we did not have photographs or film camera. the only time he would be able to see something unusual that might only happen two or three times in your career was if you collected it in a jar or model for strange illustration. he had thousands of these unusual specimens. he found a home in the

museum in philadelphia which we all now know. this is what it looks like today. his portrait in the corner. right next to it is with a dedicated to my research, which i'm happy about. this thing right here i thought was a live model. so the 19th century for disease. add died doing what i love. i don't know, touching dirty feet. i will close out this talk and read the last section of the book. it is a quote from one of my favorite speeches of dr. thomas dent mutter. as at thank you for coming out. you are so beautiful. death is love is a place of rest. it is no place of rest. steady continuous and and deviated effort, 106 years after his death his legacy

does not rest. lives on in the surgical techniques he created which are still being used today in the innovations and institutions created by the young men who learned from him that was what it meant to be a good physician. and the museum in philadelphia. they're for the modest price of admission you can stand in front of a giant skeleton or marvel at a : the size of a small account extracted from a man known only as the human balloon or, of course, peer into the face of mud and a mosque, the french would go when they grew horns from her forehead. he carried with him across the notion. you will find a woman dubbed the supplely car body having turned into a waxy sub-like substance after death freezing air face and what looks like a perpetual scream. over the past century and a half, the museum's collection has grown to include tuber's cut from president, the charred

brains of a madman and geniuses, deform skeletons displayed in delicate glass cases, civil war surgical tools, dried blood and even the death cast of the famous sideshow act, a pair of conjoined brothers who inspired the term siamese twins. all of this and more can be found under one roof, and all of it is watched over by the 1-and portrait of dr. thomas dent mutter. his old friend would say at the museum, he has left up precious heritage to the profession. what started out as a public call for his ambitious private collection has now evolved into one of the most popular science museums in the united states where tens of thousands of people flock every year to be intrigued and odd and provoked by its fantastic collection of artifacts. and like the man himself, the museum challenges its visitors to see past their own shock initial revulsion

and instead find the humanity of the peoples whose remains are on display. while these bodies may be ugly, the inlaid curator one stroke their is a terrifying deities in the spirit of those forced to endure these inflexions. every week fresh groups of scientists and doctors come to the museum and its library and to help the founder to finish his mission to alleviate human suffering. it was a goal he believed was possible and one that he believed all people should strive toward regardless of background, birth, skill, or any talent. place no dependence on your genius, even if you possess it. your great talents, industry will improve them. moderate talent and the industry will supply the deficiency. nothing is denied to well directed labor, and nothing is obtained without it. he believed it applied to

everyone, including and especially himself. this was no place of rest. our work should never be done, and it is the daydream of finance to look for to that is a happy time. we shall wish for nothing more and have nothing more to accomplish. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you. going to drink more water. so i think we're having a q&a. >> we are. >> if anyone has anything they want me to look at, 19th century medical advice, i have leeches in the back. yes. >> zillow. >> hello. hello. >> i am curious if your research, you're working on the spot for so long, if any of the facts or imagery ever

sort of found its way into your poetry. >> well, i did write six books of poetry. and some of the images did work their way in there, but i found the influence of poetry in this project to be greater. culture really teaches you to take one sort of situation for action or event and @booktv larger meaning of how it would have a greater value which is helpful and research because your able to see something and go, wow, this is such a metaphor for what would happen later. also, i am not part of the poetry community would just as that for a long time. if you don't know, you perform your work live in front of people were looking at you. at think that made me really aware of telling a more complete story set to make sure that all the voices i could find could be represented in his book. stores a working-class,

women, people of color to make sure that it is not just all about these pretty privileged to doctors. he obviously had his troubles, but people had a lot worse. so it made me -- my background made me realize how other voices needed to be captured in the story. a great question. [laughter] can any other questions? this fantastic looking gentleman in the back. >> a. >> hi. so at what point did surgeons become really elite in terms of their income? at that time was surgery or surgeons and medicine still really highly sort of regarded and paid? >> that is a great question and i want to acknowledge. please give a big round of applause to the man who did the amazing cover of my

book, the incredible dan winters. [applause] and he has a fantastic appeared that is very civil war ask. i am a big fan of beards. in terms of surgery and will say this about the 19th century. nineteenth century medicine in general, where you came and and your station in life help you in every area except for surgery. if you wanted to be a family doctor, obstetrician, it would be helpful to be a wealthy person to attract other wealthy people. but surgery, especially before amnesty's your, you just wanted whoever was quick, clean, and could get the job done and it did not matter where they came from. your rich body doing a slow amputation is not what you want. that was one of the reasons that dr. mutter was attracted. it was the one field in madison where you could be judged on skill and not who

you were born into. and he did make a very good living, but he did not really take time and other than his fantastic closing, to enjoy it. one of the things that he set up was a hospital, jefferson medical college. and then to have it be open year round and not just when school was opened. that took up most of his life and most of his years. he did make a good living. they did pay well even back then. all right. >> writing something for every ten years is an incredible milestone. what was your motivation? >> that's a great question. i walked into the archive 15 years ago this december. but i will say this, the reason it took so long was in large part because of my own insecurities as a writer

no was largely self-taught. i never flooded -- steadied nonfiction writing. and i came across a story which i thought was so fascinating. i love doing the research for it. and have the background. and so the years i would tinker with it and look at it. someone is going to write this book and is going to be so good. and then i put out my first nonfiction book which was a 20 year history of the new york city poetry slam @booktv, does a figure in, all of these disparate narratives and a one story, i said, if i can do this one not. one not. no one is telling the story, an incredible man whose story should be told in no one else was doing it. and, went to the museum and talked to the director of the museum.

if you have ever seen the youtube channel, they have medicinal leeches that need to be fed human blood. so every six months he does a video of him feeding these leeches his own blood. that is one devoted museum director. and he welcomed me in. i have worked with the previous director who passed away in 2004. anything you need from us we will do. together we put out a grant applications. a year-long residency in order to write and research his book. i was lucky to get a residency after that and the national endowment for the our which brought me to austin. it is a matter of putting yourself out there and saying this is something i feel passionate about and want to do it. if i had done that earlier the book would have been written quicker. i am so grateful for the support. and i am proud of the end product. again, a lot of it has to do

with your own insecurity. you can do this. no one will read it. and i had my moments. in between residencies. sleeping on my friend's couch. my friend was like my you feeling okay? it's going to be great. it's not going to work out. somebody publishes. it's all cool. and she was like, you're not doing great. it all worked out. so even a year low moments keep moving forward and keep doing this stuff that is valuable to you. a strange story. and a strange person to tell it, but it all happens the way that had to be. it's a great question. thank you so much. [applause] over here. >> we can start the signing

now. if you have purchased a book you can start lining up this way toward the elevator. >> book tv is on facebook. like us to get publishing news, scheduling updates combined the scenes pictures and video, author information and to talk directly with authors during airline program. facebook.com/booktv. >> pulitzer prize-winning author, lawrence wright recounts the camp david accords were president jimmy carter brokered a peace treaty between the israeli prime minister and egyptian president. the author profiles their respective war leaders and reports on their daily meetings over 13 days. this is about an hour and ten minutes. >> good evening. the carter presidential library and museum. and please you holler