[inaudible conversations] >> this is booktv live coverage of the eighth annual set and a book festival in savannah, georgia. you have been listening to carl hoffman talking about his new book "savage harvest," a tale of cannibals colonialism and michael rockefeller's tragic quest for primitive art. in a few minutes our next author will be talking about the elephant company. >> ladies and gentlemen. very pleased to be here. she had a lot of money and at

that time, she is sold in the book tends, she won't be here to speak and she will not be here to sign her book. that is why i announce that we are going to have lynn share here. .. i think she is actually here. >> i'm going to stand up.

>> you're watching booktv on c-span2 with top non-fiction books and authors every weekend. booktv television for serious readers. >> from my father i inherited my confidence my resilience, my my passion and my audacity. looking back although was never explained to me he taught me the spirit which is the greek idea of honor and doing the right thing even when one's interest for one's own life is in peril.

growing up what i never felt anything but a study in there were two stories about the second world war and grief that i kept close to my heart. the first, was when benito mussolini battalions prime minister asked the greek foreign minister for free passage through greece and on the spot at 3:00 in the morning without hesitation he said nine. it was a spirited defiance and quite incredible and considering just how vastly outnumbered the greeks were by the italians. winston churchill the greatest figure of the 20th century in my mind said it is not the greeks that fight like heroes, but heroes fought like greeks. and then again in 1943 the

german military commander ordered the bishop and the mayor to prepare him a list of the jewish community on the island. his plan was to deport the entire jewish command -- community to concentration camps in poland. the word had gone out that any greek caught hiding a jewish person would be executed on the spot. instead of preparing his list the bishop and the mayor went to the jewish community on the island and they sent them into hiding in the mountains or with christian friends in the countryside. but returned to the german military commander and provided him with the list that the german military commander was after. there were two names on that a

piece of paper, the bishop and the mayor. they told the military commander that he was being -- the entire jewish community. it was a spirit that was behind both of those acts and it is that precise spirit that has encouraged me to answer what i consider the greatest moral calling of our time the defense of the united states of america. they look now at the current best selling nonfiction books according to "the new york times."

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> on your screen is a live picture from inside trinity united methodist church, home of the annual savannah book festival in georgia and we will be back in just a few minutes with more live coverage. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] here's a look at some of the upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country.

>> a familiar face to c-span booktv viewers pedals and the former solicitor general and co-author of this book redeeming the dream the case for marriage equality. mr. olson did you surprise a lot of people with your position on marriage? >> apparently i did. i didn't surprise me and it didn't surprise people who knew me because i grew up in california. i feel it's wrong and i have always felt it's wrong to discriminate against people. when i was first asked to take this case i thought it was something i could do and that i wanted to do. so i was a little surprised that people were surprised because i

am a conservative and a lot of people were and i felt it was my mission to try to convince as many of them as i could that this was the right place to be. >> host: what's the conservative case for marriage? >> guest: the conservative case is easy. these are two loving people who want to come together in an enduring relationship and form a part of the community and have a family and be a part of our society and to live together. what could be more conservative than that? we as conservatives should want people to love one another. to want to get married. marriage is a conservative value and when people want to get married it should be the same thing. they have the same aspirations in the same fears and hopes that the rest of us do. we should support that. >> host: for those who may not know what is the long relationship of you and your

co-author alex how did you first me? >> guest: david boys and i knew one another before the bush versus gore case. most people know us as opposite sides. he represented vice president gore and i represented governor bush in the bush versus gore case that decided the 2000 election. after the election we found we had a great respect for one another. our wives are both lawyers. we started to get together and enjoy evenings together over dinner and the more time we spend with one another the more re-realized we should work together on something. with this case came along i call that david and i thought it was important to represented the american people that it was not a conservative or liberal issue. it was an american issue and to lawyers who are well-known on opposite sides of the political spectrum could come together. people could see it as an american issue not a or

heterosexual issue are conservative or liberal issue but an issue about american values and american rights and freedom. we tried to convey that point of view. >> host: this book is written by two lawyers. can laymen understand the? >> guest: we hope. we thought it was exceedingly important to express the case that we took from the very beginning all the way to the supreme court in terms of lawyers would learn as a lesson but also as people would value as a journey of individuals and freedom in people and we tried very hard to make sure that we could communicate with people who are not lawyers. the worst thing in the world this for a lawyer to talk about a lawyer lawyer. they'll understand and they do want to hear. it's important for lawyers to understand that you have to speak english. you have to speak in language that people understand and we

tried to convey our emotions our feelings and our strategy in terms that all americans could understand especially young people who might aspire to be lawyers or people who are studying political science. we try to reach out to that wide audience. >> host: what is your sense of how quickly marriages being accepted and spread across the country? >> i'm glad you asked that question. we started this case in three states in which individuals could marry the person they love it that happened to be a person of the same sex. today, five years later, 33 states recognize marriage equality. can you imagine? the american public was against marriage equality by a factor of 17 points or something like that. now it's maybe 10 or 12% on the other side. young americans, people under 30

30, 75 to 80% believe in marriage equality and respect the rights of and to get married. that took place in the course of five or six years. it's a remarkable transformation of american public opinion. all in favor of people who love one another. it's just very encouraging thing. >> host: what about the republican party? >> guest: the republican party is getting there. when they file their briefs in the supreme court we had a brief filed by 30 prominent members of the republican party who supported our case including tim melman former chairman of the republican national committee rob portman and an important senator who is a republican and more and more republicans are understanding that marriage between people who love one another is a value that republicans have to support or they are not going to ever win an election. this is important not just to and people but people across the political spectrum who believe

in american rights. republicans will not be accepted as a majority party if they wish to achieve the majority status in this country unless they recognize the rights of human beings to have that freedom and liberty. >> host: are there any marriages she's coming back before the supreme court and if so are you involve? >> guest: i'm not involved but we had several cases including the virginia case that the supreme court decided not to take this year but there's another case involving kentucky tennessee and a couple of other states that the supreme court is considering right now. i believe the supreme court will take that case. i'm hoping the supreme court will hear that case before the end of next june when they decide their cases for this term. i'm not involved in it now but i'm rooting for those lawyers who are handling this case and if they want any help from me they will have to it. >> host: titles and david boys

redeeming to drain the case for marriage equality. this is booktv on c-span. [inaudible conversations] booktv is live at the savannah book festival. our live coverage will continue shortly. [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations]

>> i had an experience five years ago that i think really captured the way we are taught to think about fossil fuels and actually what's wrong with maybe not just the way the left thinks of fossil fuels but often the writer thinks of fossil fuels. i am from southern california. i grew up in the area but the climate out there is just amazing. so i moved there 10 years ago for work and i haven't been able to leave. five years ago i was in irvine county orange county at a farmers market for lunch.

as sometimes happens there was a greenpeace movement outside at the farmers market. this girl comes up to me and i'm 34 so i must have been 28, 29 at the time. she said you are an environmentalist, right? don't you want to help us get off of our addiction to fossil fuels and transition to clean renewable energy? i'm just thinking she really does not know what's going to happen in terms of what my view is. i said no actually i really like fossil fuels but i think what with the fossil fuel industry does is great overall and i think the world would be better if we use more fossil fuels. think to yourself what is she thinking? or what is she going to say? that is what i was wondering in the reason i raise it that way and that is my view -- we should use more fossil fuels is i wanted to see i wanted her to bring up one of the common objections. for example catastrophic climate

change catastrophic pollution, catastrophic resource depletion and i want to show her their different ways of thinking about these things. the fact that something is the challenge doesn't mean that it's a catastrophe and if you look at the big picture and the full context these things insofar as they are challenges are far outweighed by the benefits that human beings get. unfortunately she didn't ask about any of those things and she didn't even get mad at me. she did something that at the time took me aback and that was she looked at me almost in awe and i thought what is going to happen? she can't really be an off and she looked to me like she was talking to an alien creature. she goes wow you must make a lot of money.

[inaudible conversations] >> lynn sherr is next on booktv live from the savannah book festival pay she tells the story of sally ride america's first woman in space. [inaudible conversations] >> good morning. happy valentine's day. book lovers, my name is ann gardner and i'm delighted to welcome new to the eighth annual savannah book festival and to thank the festivals 2015% things

sponsors georgia power and bob and james faircloth. we are blessed once again to host such celebrated authors at trinity united methodist church a beautiful historic venue made possible by the generosity of ann and jim higby, the international paper foundation the savannah morning news and savannah magazine. we would also like to thank c-span for coming to the festival and filming live here today which is why you are in the limelight. you may be on television so who knows? we would also like to send a special thanks to our literati members and individuals who make this saturday's free festival a possibility. we will be providing you with yellow and purple buckets at the

door as you exit if you would like to give us extra support. it is important if we can possibly maintain this place saturday for the festival free. please take a moment to make sure you tele-- turn off your telephones. we also ask that you do not take flash photography. if you are going to come tomorrow remember it is at 3:00. it was printed incorrectly on a mat information on the web site. immediately following this presentation lynn sherr will be signing copies of her book. you possibly anticipated meeting vicki this morning. unfortunately she does live in boston and i believe that they have had an ice pack on the

rest. there were two stories, one is that the ref came down and the other was that the water was pouring inside. we are very lucky today that lynn sherr is going to do two talks. she whisked going to do the wanniski scheduled this afternoon and this one as well. i also want to thank jean and sherry sure for sponsoring lan. lynn sherr spends more than 30 years with abc news and is best known for her reported check abcs new magazine 2020. as a journalist she covers the nasa space program from 1981 to 1986 including the landmark barrier breaking moments when her friend sally ride became the first american woman in space in

1983. lynn sherr's new book covers intensely personal private life in unprecedented detail thanks to entice provided by the right family colleague's former husband friends and an unknown by most a longtime partner. lynn sherr has won an emmy to american women and television accommodations, a gracie award in george foster peabody award. this outspoken feminist has twice received planned parenthood's margaret sanger award for journalists. she has written numerous other books including outside the box, mmr, that her life on and off television including her husband's death from cancer as well as her own fight with colon cancer. a statuesque blonde in her own

right lynn sherr has written about another group of lofty tow heads, tall blondes, a book about -- she is a founding patron of the giraffe conservation foundation. welcome lynn sherr. [applause] >> thank you ann very much and thanks to all of you. i want to say welcome to this beautiful place and also thank you for having me here. i love being among book lovers and for those of you who came to hear vicki talk about her wonderful book about elephants i'm sorry about that but if it helps that did write a book about giraffes. [laughter]

truly magnificent creatures. i will take a little detour here. i will tell you that i consider giraffes not only the most gorgeous creatures on the planet but also the most politically correct. they never attack unless they are attacked. they are very peaceable. they are vegetarian and no giraffe discriminates against another giraffe on the base of skin patterns. they also have the longest eyelashes in captivity. they are great preachers and i more than happy to talk about them and that book another time. for now i wish you a happy valentine's day and i suggest that you sometime today hug someone or something you love and if it only happens to be a book that's okay too mad. we love books. i also want to point out that tomorrow february 15 is the birthday of one of my heroes susan b. anthony who of course that the great campaign in the

19th century to get us women not only the right to vote but every other single right as well well. [applause] yes, thank you very much. so happy birthday to susan b. anthony. susan b. anthony shares that birthday with the galileo. susan was revealing that men are not. [applause] both of these things are the sort of revolutionary thoughts that have guided most of my professional life. i matter is a reporter on television or in writing books and yes i have witnessed a lot of revolutions in my career. consider for example "the new yorker" cartoon 20 years ago.

a fellow walks into a bookstore, walks up to the bespectacled clerk and she says to him nodding wisely yes she says books by men are in the basement. [laughter] nothing personal. the truth of course is that women's books and everything women do and women's place is everywhere right now. whether it's books or television or in real life i have actually learned about my place on the planet from a series of experiences that i had while i was working in television news. one of them was when i was back at abc news where i enjoyed a long and wonderful career and one day my piece was done early for world news. it was probably than the 6:30 news. i got to leave early and i went to my husband to visit my mother-in-law.

i loved her and she had watched me on television a lot. she had never seen me in the same room so that one point he said mother then has a piece on the news tonight. he turned on the news and diana was sitting in her chair watching. here is what happened. the tv came on in my piece came up and diana looked at the tv and then she looked at me and then she lifted the tv and then she looked at me back and forth the entire minute and 10 seconds. i don't think she absorbed a word of what i was saying. the poor woman who was so smart had escaped from a revolutionary guard of russia under a load of hay cama came to new york ran a business ran her whole life life brilliantly race to establish them. this woman could not understand how i could be on television and in her room at the same time. [laughter]

which me was the genuine article? i think it's the kind of confusion that results when you do step outside of the box. i know because that is a position or mindset that i adopted regularly. it's a kind of reality check on that very strong medium. the story began during the first space shuttle liftoff so i'm down at the cape for abc news and i'm out in the so-called vip area in front. you probably remember her wonderful reporter frank was up in the booth. he turned meany said now they go to lynn sherr to see what's happening at bp area. it's pitch black predawn and we have all these folks around us waiting for the shuttle liftoff which you may work call didn't happen two weeks later. nonetheless there we aren't while i was doing the whole thing there was a black-and-white tv monitor about this big sitting on the ground in front of me so that i could

no and of course i had an earpiece on. frank throws it to me and my producer stands there with her arms out like a bird keeping the crowds away. i'm talking into the camera and i'm kind of looking at the monitor and no doubt saying something terribly important. i noticed the crowd was very hushed which was good for my ego and then i realized that even though i was standing there all 5 feet 8 inches of me the crowd was looking at the tv monitor. tv was reality like a mere bystander. this is the sort of thing that went on for much of my television life. as a local television news reporter in new york i got a call early one morning that there had been there was a

story i had to cover. there had been one of these miracle microsurgery operations when a man's hand had been reattached to his arm. i was supposed to go to brooklyn to cover the story. i threw on some clothes ran downstairs and we got to brooklyn walk across the parking lot. i'm carrying a tripod. we walk across the hospital lobby of the little old man came up to me and he said say you were on television aren't you? he said you are are are lynn sherr aren't you? i said yes thank you for recognizing me. you look closely and he said you look better on television. [laughter] so i ran to the ladies room and put on some makeup. after i left that job and had been off the air for several weeks i was walking on lexington avenue near bloomingdale's in new york. somebody saw me and said didn't

you used to be lynn sherr? [laughter] how does one respond? it's confusing and then one morning back at abc as i was done at the cape getting ready to anchor 11 of their early-morning launches in your member of most of the launches were really early in the morning great if you are anchoring them you have to be in position early in the morning or late at night. mike husband had come out to join me and it was 4:00 in the morning. he had brought me to our new site to the anchor site and i'm in the other seat going over some last-minute he turns to me with his eyes barely open and he said thank you for sharing the glamorous part of your life. the truth, of course is that it has been very glamorous. reporting television news was i can't say so much for now but it was a wonderful and exciting and

important way to live my life on critically important things. i had an awful lot of fun doing it. i will say that while i love covering politics and all the pieces i did about social change and all sorts of things one of the most exuberant stories i got to cover was covering the space program creates a writing this new book "sally ride" america's first woman in space has been a combination of a labor of love bittersweet because sally was my good friend and also a way of reliving and retelling some of the most important moment in our country's history. in terms of the book let me start with a cartoon. the scene is a teenage girl's bedroom a surprisingly neat and teenage girls bedroom i might add and it's bursting with

science textbooks and posters of the space shuttle and astronomy books and globes and all sorts of wonderful things about this young woman. the teenager is sitting in her t-shirt at her desk at her computer staring at the monitor and on the monitor is the very sad news that sally ride america's first woman in space has died and she is looking at the headline sally ride 1951-2012 and there's a familiar picture of sally. a teenage girl is looking on in utter shock not so much as what she sees on the screen but the back story. behind her standing her mom and the mom is saying something to the girl at the caption is the teenage girl. with a teenage girl was hanged her mom is played, are you saying there was a time when there weren't any women astronauts?

yes exactly. back then the job was simply not available. when she was born in may of 1951 the united states space program is a men's club, a white man's club restricted to fighter pilots and military men. the few women who did apply keep in mind we have a lot of very qualified women pilots in those days and early 50's, middle 50's out of world war ii and the work they had done. but all of these talented women were summarily rejected. women were considered too weak too unscientific, too womanly to fly the space program. one newspaper editorialized that a female in the cockpit would be and i quote and nagging backseat rocket driver. thank you very much. another newspaper columnist ridiculed the prospect of women

by calling them nets great sally ride love science as a kid but her interest in nasa was simply as a spectator. like most kids from that era and certainly some of you should watch those early space with stuffs when the teacher will then black-and-white tv set with rabbit ears into the classroom and watched john glenn and everybody else take off. as a child sally ride also learned how to play tennis and she was so accomplished, so good on the junior women's circuit that she considered turning pro. she dropped out of college for a few months to give it a try but when she realized she was never going to be one of the elite and that's all that sally ride would have settled for she decided that was not the play she needed to be. years later when she would be asked what was that it stopped for her from a tennis career sally always successfully my forehand. but it never stopped her forward progress.

when tennis did work as she pivoted into science went to stanford university for her undergraduate and her masters and her doctorate in astrophysics. i should also point out well let's say she was not an underachiever. she was a double anguish in astrophysics. january 1977 she wake ups -- wakes up the morning goes to the stanford should mean to get a coffee and a sweet world to wake up before class. she picks up the stanford daily and never gets beyond the front page. the headline was just above the fold and it read nasa to recruit women. sally's future had just dropped into her lap. nasa was finally reaching out in january of 1977 for women and minorities for the upcoming new

space shuttle program. unlike the tools and the direction of the original space program which was to get us to the moon and which meant those little tiny spacecraft to mercury the gemini and apollo. john glenn used to joke that he didn't so much climb into the mercury capsule as you put it on on. unlike these little tiny spacecraft the shuttle was now the size of an airplane. they could have larger crews. it was a whole different ballgame plus because we were now not just going to one other place them in the space shuttle was going to liftoff, circled the earth many times and return to earth there was a chance to view science and space. there was a chance to do experiments. we were going to watch the hubble space telescope and build the space station. nasa figured out that in order

to get this done and they were by the way bowing to social pressure and i will add legal cases that we will leave that aside right now. people would conduct experiments in space and do all of these things. they pulled -- called the new category mission specialist and thanks to the pressures and their own awakening they wanted different genders and races so they put out the call for women and minorities and actively work for them starting in 1976. sally finally got the news via the article in the stanford union and the stanford daily in january of 1977. so she is sitting there drinking her coffee reading this article look at the job description of the new kind of astronaut called the mission specialist and said to herself i can do that. she puts down the paper, goes

off in search of stationery, at 10 and envelope and a stamp it was that long ago and immediately sent off to nasa to request an application. sally was one of more than 25,000 people who wrote in for that application. a thousand people including 1500 women. after long process of interviews and screenings and anxious moments sally was one of 35 individuals chosen as the first class of shuttle astronauts. of them six were women, three african-americans men, and one hawaiian man. nasa was suddenly look like the poster child for multiculturalism and sally was over the moon in her own way. when she got it telling her to jump was her sally by your own definition was very shy very

much an introvert. when she got the call she said she went jumping up and down in her bedroom screaming and yelling, pick up the phone called her best friend from high school and said hi there at this is your friendly local astronaut calling. that is the way she identified herself to that friend for the rest of her life. her parents share the glory in their own idiosyncratic way. sally joked that her father who taught political science at community college in santa monica never understood science and didn't have a scientific bone in his body. when sally was growing up studying astrophysics her father could not explain to anybody what she did. sally's mother theodore percival joyce ride when she got the news told a reporter that the sally going into space and her sister studying to be a minister one of them would get to heaven.

[laughter] before she got there however sandy learned becoming an astronaut in 1978 meant a lot or a little to press corps with very little imagination. keep in mind january 19781 woman has flown in space. the russian woman who flew in 1963 but because the soviet union was a cold war enemy there was very little news no transparency. we knew almost nothing about this woman or what happened in space happened in spaceflight. the united states space program for all of its wonderful glory and i take nothing away from it january 1978 nasa had flown three females in space, to spiders and one monkey. so sally and academic, graduate student, gets to her first press

conference and she is stunned by the stupidity of questions like are you afraid of being in orbit with all those ben? and do you expect to run into any ufos? valley, answered no to the latter and ushered the former that the former that her academic career as is an astrophysicist had made her comfortable around males. i first met sally in 1981 when abc asked me to join her then terrific team to cover the upcoming space shuttle program. as i mentioned frank reynolds our sound correspondent was a terrific guy named jules bergman who practically invented the field and they want to add a third person for a variety of reasons. i have been describing myself as the guy in the baseball booth. because of a number of things becoming the lead reporter and anchoring the space shuttles

through the explosion. my first assignment in houston in april of 1981 and the first shuttle was about to launch. excuse me january 1981 to prepare for the launch and my first assignment was to do a story on the so-called new breed of astronauts. these were the women the minorities, the mission specialist on the scientist, the people who were not the jet fighter pilots of old. so we went to nasa has representatives in sally was one that nasa offered at. i loved her at first because she spoke english not techno-talk and because of her direct manner and her determination. i said to her why do you want to go into space? i really expected a supportive response you got from the dominant astronaut culture. she said to me i don't know she said i discovered cap that

people would love to go into space and there's no need to explain it to them. the other half can understand and i could explain to them. if someone doesn't know why i can't explain it. i thought that was just wonderful. she was a breath of fresh feminism readily acknowledge invented one for the women -- women's movement shall not have her job which acknowledge that nasa with this 20 year heritage had finally done the right thing. we became friends immediately. as a program developed sally and i continue to spend time together. we bonded over cold shrimp and a cold beer. we both shared a healthy disregard for the overblown egos and conservative intransigence of both of our professions and beneath her unemotional demeanor that a lot of people found icy i found a caring friend.

when she married fellow astronaut steve holy there home became my place to hang out during other shuttle missions. sally got her chance five years later. she was the first of the six women chosen to fly and she immediately became our newest american hero, a smart and funny and caring optimist who trained endlessly and answer questions tirelessly. the public attention was flattering and frustrating to her. still reflecting the difficulty that somehow with accepting the entrance of women into this previously male only club including the one i would nominate as the dumbest question ever asked at a press conference anywhere and i have been to a

lot of press conferences. we are now in may of 1983. sally and her crew were up there for their preflight press conference so sally and the four men and her crew sitting with her. questions went along pretty well. a reporter from "time" magazine asked a question. dr. wright he said i know that you've been through an entire year of training. i know it's been an intense ear pain no things sometimes go wrong in a simulator. when something does go wrong when there is a glitch like the shuttle crashes in simulation, when something really bad happens how do you handle it he said? do you weep? this is 1983. we are in a room half the size of this and most of the press corps including all the women i might add rolled their eyes and went oh my goodness. sally and this moment exists on

tape and you can watch this. you can dial it up. sally gets the question and you see this look on her face like who is this person? she rolls her eyes and then she starts to laugh and she smiles. she turns to brick who was the pilot of permission sitting to her right and she says why doesn't anyone ever ask rick these questions? sally ride was the perfect choice for the first american woman in space. i would have clawed the guys eyes out. sally laughed it off diffuse the bomb and went on from there. it was totally totally brilliant. but this is what she faced. it wasn't just the press. there was another reporter who said to her did you ever wish you were a boy i? salley gritted her teeth and said no i never thought about it. within nasa there were a number

of other hurdles. sally as the first american woman to fly was asked to make a number of decisions. everything that flies on the space shuttle or any american spacecraft with human beings on it has to be checked for offgassing, for flammability for all sorts of reasons so everything in her personal kit or toiletries kit if you will have to be checked by nasa. since the woman had ever flown there were a number of questions they have. sally very wisely called and five other women anytime she had to make one of these decisions. she understood whatever decision she made was going to devolve on every woman that ever flew. she wanted them and on it which was great. the six women together managed to get some of the items in the personal kit they took. for instance exchanging old spice after shave lotion and british sterling deodorant for

some more female friendly lotions and potions. they also got to add that early nasa could call hair restraint. we called them rubber bands. it wasn't just mass and it wasn't just the press. when the original launch day was shifted to accommodate the schedule johnny carson joke on the tonight show that the shuttle was going to be delayed so that sally ride could find a purse to match her shoes. that was the funniest of all the jokes he told over the course of an entire year. i have watched them all on tape and i must tell you my faith in the american people has been totally renewed. johnny carson's jokes really went downhill, totally lame mostly frat house gags and they started out with a little ticker of laughter from the audience and then the next time he told a joke that was awful that kind is dashed on the next time they

were silent by the end they actually booed him. on the air. in just over a year nasa selection in sally's conduct had transformed female astronauts from a punchline to a matter of national pride. the entire mission was riding with her. when i had my one-on-one interview with sally before she flew i said to her look do you feel under any pressure as the first american woman to go up and she said yes i do feel pressure not to mess up. it's all sally said that i knew just what she meant. she didn't want to mess up for the crew. she didn't want to mess up for the mission, for nasa, for the united states or for the future of human spaceflight. all of these things were terribly important to her. mostly i think she didn't want to mess up for other women. she understood that if she messed up it would be interpreted that no woman could ever fly as an astronaut but that if she did well that door would be wide open for

everybody. listen to what another astronaut from another generation pamela melroy and three-time shuttle veteran one of only two women to have commanded the shuttle flight said about sally's flight and i quote. it wasn't until after become an astronaut that they discover the most important get the sally gave me which is that she was tremendously competent. the reputation of everyone who comes after you depends on how well you do. sally opened those doors and smooth the path for all women because she was so good at what she did. she was really good and she was really really fun. the day before she flew all astronauts before they fly are in quarantine so they don't get contaminated by us was some kind of germ that would jeopardize the flight. sally was not only in quarantines like all the astronaut she was the most famous person on the planet. her face was on the cover of these magazines. everybody wanted a piece of her.

she was off-limits and nobody could talk to her. i'm sitting in our abc workspace which of course was a trailer at the quay. the day before her launch i'm preparing my script for that night's evening news. i hear a phone ring and someone picks it up and says it's for you. i pick up the phone and the boy says hi they're what you doing 10 minutes from now? i said i don't know sally what am i doing 10 minutes from now? she said turn left good on the gravel path and stopped. i did that. 25 yards away from me with sally ride in shorts off shorts t-shirt flip-flop standing by a car smiling and waving at me and grinning. she knew i wouldn't come any closer and i wouldn't jeopardize her flight. she knew i wasn't going to ask her questions because she wasn't going to answer any but what she was saying to me was i am fine,

i'm happy and i'm really excited about this. you can tell the world america's first woman in space is ready to go. it was a gift to me and it was also the way i remember her most of all. that's his sally ride was. june 18, 1983 was soft bright morning at kennedy space center occasional puffs of white dotting the pure blue sky. at 7:33 a.m. the space shuttle challenger officially missions sts seven space shuttle transportation system the seventh flight powering its crew of five. some half a million people lined the roads of the beaches and rivers at cape canaveral to share the moment. many of them held up their tiny daughters up to the sky by way of saying that what you can do when you grow up. as the anchor of abcs coverage that sunny saturday i unabashedly cheered her on on later in the week including one of my pieces by saying

technologically nasa is pushing towards this 21st century but in human terms it is finally into the 20th. i should tell you i had trouble getting that particular line pass my bosses but i did. i also brought my mother to the launch lunch. my mother was approaching 80. she told me afterwards i saw the horse and buggy, saw the airplane and now this and since it was a woman that made it even better. president ronald reagan telephoned his congratulations to the crew. when he got to sally he said somebody said sometimes the best man for the job as a woman. you were there because you are the best person for the job. millions of other women agreed. the mystery of the universe with his infinite horizons unlimited access to the fiery risk of writing to giant roman kimmel skit that magnifies sally's entry into what had long been an all-male cowboy culture into

potent can do simple. many women especially young women translated for bold journey into their own tickets to success. if she can do that they said we can do anything. every single doors open. later when sally came home she was peppered with all sorts of questions and this introvert answer them all. she particularly liked that question should god from kids because she said kids have no filters and they would ask the questions that adults want to ask but were embarrassed to ask. for example how do you go to the bathroom in space? sally had a simple explanation. easy she's said it's like sitting on a vacuum cleaner. [laughter] she also taught about the extraordinary view at how the shuttle's window not only the coral reefs off the coast of alaska that glaciers in the himalayas deforestation in the amazon but something else that changed the trajectory of her

life once again. for the first time she saw the thin blue line encircling our planet. as if someone had taken a royal blue crayon she said and drawn it recognizing their fragility of earth's atmosphere. sometimes you change the metaphor. the ribbon of atmosphere was earth space suit or it was as slim as the flows on a tennis ball but that is all there was she realized. the only thing protecting our planet our lives us our lakes are trees are seized everything that is here from the harshness of outer space and seeing that thin blue line is what would later become her motivating impulse for the rest of her life, protecting planet earth.

panel, the disintegration of the columbia as it reentered atmosphere in 2003. on that commission too she was a key player, getting real story about thats is a's behavior out to the public. once the bright new face of nasa sally had become its conscience. she convinced nasa to put a camera in space so, that students could control it remotely from their desks in their classrooms and take pictures of home planet to study impact environment. she called that earth cam. she teamed up with camera to fly cameras on twin satellites orbiting the moon, once again to let students snap pictures of various parts of moon so they could study them and print them out and hang them on their refrigerator doors and she called that one moon cam. she always wanted to give back to kids. she was by then long gone from the says space agency.

. . beyond the stereotypes. she also wanted to make it a business that would make money. because that would attract the talents to make it work. she said over and over again to make science school again. the company was end is sally

ride science and share down the barriers in society between the nation's of the world. like all astronaut sally new looking down at planet birth from space there are no borders dividing countries or anything else. that is the sally ride i knew. smart and witty and could come to new york and put her feet on the coffee table and watch the dumbest television programs that never were. she was superb at compromising. her college roommate used to say sally could study through whistling tea kettle but then sally said i can be intense and come home and, quote flip-flops which marked oblivion. that made her such a terrific friend. there with things i did not know about sally ride.

i did not appreciate the psychic price she paid for her celebrity. this introvert who made thousands, tens of thousands of >>, signed autographs, did all of that, set herself up for every single public occasion. i did not know she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in march of 2011 which would take her life 16 months later at the age of 69. i did know until i wrote her obituary she was in a loving relationship with another woman for 27 years. sally ride is very good at keeping secrets. i am sorry she felt she was not able to the public about her long partnership but is also part of her story because ours is also the story of a particular time and place and a woman who had the brains and agility to seize the moment. when sally was born in 1951 outer space was science fiction

and women's rights were marginal. the social advances and lucky timing that would enable the gifted young scientists to intersect to makers an inspiring lesson in modern history, she took full good vantage of the ever widening definition of women's place and made sure was everywhere but she could not would not openly identify herself as a gay woman reflects not only her intense need for privacy but the shame and fear and intolerance society can inflict even on its heroes. tremendously is secure. in the course of writing her biography i found an extraordinary woman. california girl who wanted to save the planet an introvert whose radiant spirit pulled her into public service, an academic who could explain rich got to college students and the wonders of weightlessness to a roomful of little girls lasalle in never planned her life five or 20 years the ten years down the road but when opportunity

knocked she was able to open the door and sail right through it. look at her life she thought she wanted to be a tennis player, pivoted back into science and that didn't work out. she wanted to be an academic, pivoted right into space history when that opportunity presented itself. she knew how to seize the moment and to be ready for it when it appeared. i used to tell her that that moment when she read the article in the stafford newspaper and saw that nasa was recruiting women i said how prescient of you, alex gordon terry, what a life lanes in finkel won game changer. sally told a different moral from it, i guess the message is she told a lot it -- college audiences read your college newspaper. she did it all with a smile. years after her flighty she shared the thought that one day, three times the size of this one, filled with 1,000

youngsters, imagine this room in space, she said to them, you could do 35 somersaults and wrote. my favorite thing about space is being weightless. there is not even a close second. every eye in the room would be wide. a great recruiting techniques. sally was an icon to kids and grown-ups like. at 5-1/2 sheet and anticipate the best of them. as one colleague put it it was only after you left her presence you realize she was really short. it was that ability to be bigger than you actually are. flying in space was neither her childhood goal nor her adult commitment. but having done it twice she cherished the inventor. the things i've learned from sally, flying lessons. i think her ability to pay that, to focus, the magnificent optimism that allowed her to ignore adversely and carry on. all of that teaches me and everyone else how to fly high

without ever leaving earth. perlite reminds us that whenever our own personal limits there is something out their way granters and we can measure more models than we can imagine something waiting to be explored. she proved you don't need to have right planning to have the right stuff. after bravely smashing through the celestial glass ceiling without messing up she brought back the ultimate flying lesson. she was asked over and over what did you see out there? si tell us what you saw out there? sally ride translated the dazzling reality she saw from space into a beam of encouragement for the rest of us on earth. what did she see out there? the stars don't look bigger, she said, but they do look brighter. sally ride at 61 years on this planet-343 hours and 47 minutes and 42 seconds in space,

definitely made our lives and writer. i mourn her death two-years ago but i read police in her life. was the perfect first and erica woman in space and a terrific friend. thank you very much. [applause] >> time for a few questions. if anyone would like to ask the question would they come up the aisle and use this microphone? >> no questions? >> [inaudible question] >> the woman she was, to not fit

into society. i think she didn't talk about it much but the answer is she had an amazingly open minded -- her father was an eisenhower republican, purple heart winner from world war ii, her mother was a reconstructed lefty, she canceled out her husband every single time. sally grew up in a family that talked about everything deeply believe in education, education was the way forward. she was a baby boomer. of baby boomer who went and did what she wanted to do, and there are never any barriers, this was a socially open-minded family that let their girls do what they want to do not what they thought, not what parents thought they ought to do. choice ride, it alive and kicking in her 90s and the

wonderful woman, husband died some years ago. benign neglect. our style of parenting was benign neglect. we let the girls be who they were which i think is understating their influence on her. it was a combination of having wonderful parents. salad was the beneficiary of exquisite timing. when she came of age and the nasa recruitment started, she already had the advantage of laws being changed, minds being changed more importantly and she fit right into that. she had a couple of very gifted teachers and she talks about a science professor she had in high school who really changed the trajectory of her life. she wanted science and this science teacher helped her understand the elegance of science and helped her appreciate what a beautiful

thing it was. sally thought science was fun, science is cool, it was not about a guy with funny einstein hair in a white lab coat living in the basement working by himself. science was about working together. science was team work. this is why she was a great crew member she loved team work. cheaper for double to singles in her tennis. all of these things, in making her a great team player and an individual who broke through as many barriers as she could. >> a wonderful person. >> thank you. >> where were you back then? >> what date in june of '83 that she set off? >> it was june 17th. i will say seventeenth. i have it written down here. >> i will look it up.

>> i think it the eighteenth june 18th, 1973. how many of you remember sally's lunch? did it mean something to you? yes? no? yes? i think it really did. i think it was one of those seminal moments in america when a lot of people stopped and watched and it made such a huge difference which was great. i am leaving through this for the exact date because i don't want to have said the wrong date and have 1200 people writing the. any more questions? yes? june 18th definitely. >> did sally ever talk to you -- you mentioned the pressure she was under as the first female in space, did she talk to you subsequent about the pressure that she was larger than life, she was larger to the public than she was as a person so as

she went out all the things she did after being the first woman, she understood the impact. >> keep in mind this was not a woman, we could sit and gossiped about people about certain things, she didn't talk about her own feelings. this is not the way she functioned, i knew the way she conducted herself. how much she hated the attention. you know what our celebrity culture is like now. it wasn't that bad in 1983 and subsequently but it was bad. people want to touch you. people want to get in your space. this is so antithetical to who sally ride was. when she would come to new york, the first time she came when she

was really famous the nypd have a bodyguard service for her and she dismissed them all. sheep provide on her husband to body block everywhere which was fine. but she knew that other than what i needed for my job i was not going to blow her cover and we would slip in and out of places and i would protect her on occasion as everybody did when asked. to was very troubling to her. the only way i got into her soul a little bit and it is all in the book, during the time of her flight and right after she did keep a journal, never again the rest of her life and she talks about the impact on her soul and talked to me about it but talk to her diary about it and it turns out she consulted a psychotherapist as well. all of those early speeches drove her -- i don't mean that in a negative way, send her to seek help from up professionals so she could try to understand,

i don't remember the exact phrase diary talks about the advice she got was she was trying to understand how or why talking about it so much in public took the experience away from her. she wanted to keep it as her private experience and had to share it with the public. this was troubling to her. i wish she had talked more about herself her soul, her deepest wishes and she just didn't. it was the way she was. >> great work on tv. knowing this is a time of great change i wonder if you have any insight into how the other astronauts on the shuttle flight accepted her. they were certainly openly accepting but how did they really -- >> i have spoken to all of them and they're very good friends of mine, four men and sally's first

flight. there are a number of answers to that question. one is on the one hand they were all thrilled to be flying. the goal when you become an astronaut is to fly. they could have said 14 monkeys and four spiders were going and they would be fine with that. also, all four of them were military guys and with military backgrounds and their hold training was it is not about me. it is about the admission. they were thrilled on one level but sally was the one getting all the attention. they didn't have to do the dreaded press interviews with people like me who say how do you feel about that flight and what will you be doing? they loved that it was sally. they liked the fact that because of sally they were invited to the white house for the first time ever they had lunch with president reagan.

they liked all of the extra attention they got. they were happy to give it to her. they really liked working with sally. there is no other way to put it. i talked to them all. it is not fake, it is not funny, they became quite good friends and enjoyed working with her, she proved herself not only proved equal weight but surpassed a lot of them in certain ways. commander bob crippen enjoyed having her on his next flight, he was the commander of% and last mission. they liked it just fine. yes? >> why are you broadcasting? >> i left abc, i should probably have the exact date somewhere but i don't, six years ago. was time. i have a wonderful career in journalism before it that. the business was changing in a way that i didn't love and i

thought it was time for me to answer to my own bells as opposed to a desk telling me what to do. i didn't like the direction things were. serious challenges that it can't figure out how to cope with, though my generalization of the audience and if rationalization of the audience, and competing for everyone's attention. i was lucky enough every time i complained about something peter jennings who was one of my closest friends would say we lived through the golden years, and i lived through a great time. i lived through a time in television news when getting the story was the only thing that mattered when the story more mattered more than the correspondents when news was a public service, when the bottom line was less important than getting the truth. a lot of that has changed

unfortunately. [applause] there are a challenges they are trying to face right now. i don't like the way they are facing all of them. i think people are trying. there are still terrific reporters out there. with the budget cutbacks, i hate to start this way but when i was a correspondent, when i was in television, we had editors. not tape editors, film editors, word editors and i could turn into a script and somebody perhaps with more experience and wiser than i would say you can't say that. what is the source of this? and i would go back and find the source and fix it and i would make it right and learn. with pressures of 247 news right now with the budget cutbacks there are not these editors, there is not time stuff is being thrown on the air and to say this is right or wrong

there's almost no accountability and it is sad. the public is not as well served as we all should be. one part of 24/7 news is it takes away the methodology that the reporter knows what is going on but by the same token we are trained to ask questions and figure out what is true and not true and the public is not being served many times. i don't mean to be screaming do and gloom but we have a lot of lessons and i love writing books. thank you. thank you. >> challenging -- >> thank you. sally was very close for a while and i could tell by her manner

how she felt. challenger exploded. you may recall there was a memorial service at the johnson space center where president reagan spoke very eloquently and i was there. my husband was in california and met me there and we went to dinner with sally and steve and steve's father was the minister and spoke of the public service that was televised. the next day we were at their house and sally got a phone call and was the phone call asking her to be on the rogers commission. i could tell from the grim look on her face how she felt. i knew how she felt. this is something i have to do. sally was horrified she lost seven friends, crisp and the gulf --christa mcauliffe was not a friend but she knew her, dick scobee was a close friend,

keep in mind this was challenger that exploded during that accident sally had flown on challenger twice. both times she flew she sat in the flight engineer seat. in the cockpit is the commander and pilot and the flight engineer sit right behind them. sally's job on lift off and reentry was she had all but check sheets, checklists opening front of her and if something went wrong, she was the one who called out the sequence of events, nothing ever went wrong judy resnik was sitting in that seat when challenger exploded. sally said i often thought about judy sitting there because that was my seat. as she got on the commission and learned what happened she was particularly incensed by nasa's behavior. not everyone at nasa, managers,

the guys at the marshall space flight center and the people of martin thiokol who built the rocket sally said over and over she would shake her head she just was astounded that anybody could do it so badly. i had the only interview with sallied during the rogers commission hearings and i said to her given the way things are now would you fly again? she said i am not ready to fly now. exhibiting the fact she had lost faith at that moment. what is important to know about sally is she didn't say a pox on you, you did badly i never want to talk to you again. her job was to fix it so she was part of that commission that recommended a set of things they should do ensure enough they did and they did fix it and it did get better and there were many

successful launches until columbia in 2003 when she famously said at one of the hearings i am beginning to hear a kind of echo here. said the same trend to bad management the lesson had been learned but not well enough. once again they fixed it. nasa had 133 out of 135 successful shuttle launches. that is a pretty good record that there is no reason those lives had to be lost ever and sally would be the first person to say to you that was wrong and i guess she would say that nasa and messed up. so she was very angry, but such an optimist that she would never have said disband nasa. she said fix it and let's move on. that was her hope. thank you all. one more as we do one more. do i have time or not? >> sally was a friend with a great relationship it was a

real marriage, sally was probably trying to decide when she was doing with her life. i talk about her relationships with men and women and she wound up the way she wanted to go. it makes me sad that she couldn't talk about it publicly. this was her choice and it gave her a little of the kind of privacy that she needed. one more time, thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> remind you at 11:40 wheat will have edward larson.

and and christopher rice will be talking tomorrow at 11:00. [inaudible conversations] rogan bracket inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> booktv is live today from savannah, georgia. starting surely, edward larson 11 on george washington.

>> a look at the current best-selling nonfiction books according to the new york times. >> up next

>> the best of this list continues. >> that is a look at this weekend's list of nonfiction bestsellers according to the new york times. >> the great twelfth david carr media columnist for new york times passed away at the age of 58. mr car appeared on booktv in 2008 to talk about his memoir the night of the gun. >> i would have liked as a parent--as a person to go back and find out that i was actually just a jolly kid from the suburbs who had a problem.

that is not what i found. in the course of the interviews i found out i'd put a lot of people at risk around me and even when i did recover it was going to and responsible primarily for the love and attention other people hold me, a whole tribe of people came, lifting and pooling r&d so my arabic narrative really did not fit with what i had learned. part of what got me started on but book was my daughters were going to college in tuition tends to focus the mind, it tends to beckoned the news. at the same time they were writing their essays for college and their essays about our life growing together and what it was like to have been born two months premature, to drug-addicted parents and then

have your dad raise you mostly by himself was fundamentally different in my own and after i read their essays what other people would say. in my day job i work at the new york times and never will be met a story that didn't get better when you applied the leverage of reporting to it. so i said go back and interview a bunch of different people. it is all on a website, you can check out the interviews and i did. what i found was different from what i remembered and i realize overtime you will find this true in your own life, it is not -- if you think of the stories your family tells to explain itself to each other how many of those stories are exactly

precisely true? is it is a way of understanding our past and coming to publish a version of ourselves not all of these stories are bad. there is the point in the book where edison -- presumptive custodial parent of my twins so i went and saw the family law attorney who made it happen and i was pretty much like baby jesus when you saw me. i was sober, it was an open and shut case. and nice lady named barbara, you can see her on the video tape trying to figure out how to say what she is about to say to me which is you were released huge. you didn't smell very good. you dress like a homeless person

and we wondered about the ethics of placing children in your hands, whether you fully understood the implications of that and not baby jesus, no more like an unholy mess actually and the thing about that is if i had known how i stand at the time and how unfit i was to be a parent of these baby girls i would have found that paralyzing. diss lie or fable i told myself allowed me to hang in to get the parent and some of these stories end up helping us on our way.

[inaudible conversations] >> in about ten minutes live coverage of edward larson 11 talking about his book on george washington from the savannah book festival. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2 with top nonfiction books and doctors every weekend. booktv television for serious readers. >> joining us now on booktv is former health and human services secretary louis sullivan. dr. louis sullivan. dr. sullivan, when did you decide you were going to become

a medical doctor? >> at age 5. my father was a funeral director in southwest george and among other things, ambulance services to people transported as a doctor. my father would ask me to go with him to help because at age 5 i was curious and had a role model, in southwest georgia in bainbridge south of blakely where we live so from age 5 i wanted to be like dr. griffin. he is very successful, highly respected in the community. people thought he was a great citizen but to me he was the magician. he could make people well. i decided that was what i wanted to do. i decided at age 5, love science love working with people being a doctor combines

both of those very well. >> southwest georgia in the year at that you grew up what were the race considerations you had to face? >> they were very difficult. my father was an activist. restarted a chapter for the naacp 1937. my mother was a schoolteacher. as a result of my father's activism, in 20 years my mother never got a job in blakely teaching school she had to drive 20 or 30 miles to other towns where she worked as a teacher but in addition to founding the naacp chapter she worked to really work against the white primary that excluded blacks from participating, establish an annual emancipation day celebration january 1st of every year. my parents sent me and my brother back to atlanta to attend school because schools were segregated in the 30s and

40s, not very good. all of that was a great imprint on the because my parents were committed to my brother and myself getting a good education so i finished high school in atlanta, went to morehouse college in atlanta and university medical school, the year i graduated in 1954 was the same year brown vs. board of education came out from the supreme court. when i graduated from college i could not go to medical school, did very well, my first experience in 1954. when i went to boston as a non segregated society. i wonder how my classmates would accept me. bottom-line is i was accepted without any problems whatsoever. i became class president and finished third in my class and

went on to cornell and harvard for postgraduate training and ended up on the faculty. in 1975 morehouse college recruited me back to atlanta from boston. that has led to my meeting with to vice president bush to help dedication of the various building reconstructed in july of '82. i was lobbying him in 1988 for one of my trustees i thought would be a great secondary. he turned the tables and asked me to serve as secretary so that is how i became secretary of health and human services. >> what do you consider your biggest accomplishment? >> waging the war against tobacco use. tobacco use fan ends today is the number one preventable cause

of death. i had nothing against executives in the tobacco industry except their product kills people. as a physician and as a nation's health secretary my responsibility is to do everything i can to protect, preserve and enhance the health of the american people. we were very successful, we waged efforts against r.j. reynolds when they were going in january of 1990 to introduce a new cigarette in philadelphia called uptown. it so happens at the time i was thinking in pennsylvania so my speech included an attack against r.j. reynolds, producing this unfiltered and collated cigarette. i was in for a fight over many months. they surprised me because we 2 weeks later they announced they were not proceeding because of new cigarettes they were going to test. other things i am proud of introducing a new food label,

what are the foods they are eating, the impact they may have. thirdly introducing more diversity in to the process, the first woman to head to the national institutes of health, the only woman was dr. bernadine healy that i recommended for appointment, the first black to head social security, gwendolyn king. i wanted to change the culture of the department. >> a few more minutes with former hhs secretary louis sullivan, breaking ground is his autobiography, my life in medicine, forward by andrew young. you are watching the tv on c-span2. >> here is a look at books being published this week new york times reporter mary pilon.

>> look for these titles in bookstores in coming weekend watch for your favorite authors on booktv.org. [inaudible conversations] >> booktv is back live in savannah at trinity united methodist church. up next, historian at the 11

discusses his newest book "the return of george washington" 1783-1789. [inaudible conversations] >> good morning and happy valentine's day, book lovers. i am delighted to welcome you to the 8 havana book festival and to thank the festival's 2015 sponsors bob and jean fairclock. we are pleased to watch such celebrated authors at trinity united methodist church made possible by the generosity of

jim and and haiti, international paper foundation, savannah morning news and savannah magazine. we would also like to thank c-span for coming to the festival today and filming live here. you will notice the lights, we are sorry about the lights but this is what happens to us. i would like to thank peter who refuse to give his last name just now and i didn't remember it from when we were introduced but he has been fantastic. he has been careful and looked after all of us. we would like to extend special thanks to our individual donors who make saturday's festival events possible. if you would like to learn your support, we welcome your donation and provide buckets at the door as you exit. take on moment to turn off your

telephones. we would like to ask you not to use flash photography. the question and answer portion we ask the you line up down the aisle in the center and use the microphone so that everybody can hear your questions. immediately following the presentation, edward larson will sell copies of his books. edward larson is the author of nine books and 100 published articles. in his recent book "the return of george washington," mr. larsen recovers a critically important yet almost always overlooked chapter of george washington's life were revealing how washington saved the united states by coming out of retirement to lead the constitutional convention and serve as our first president. he teaches lectures and writes

about issues of law politics, science, medicine from a historical perspective. he received the 1998 pulitzer prize in history for his book summer for the gods. the scopes trial and america's continuing debate on science and religion. his articles have appeared in american history nature, atlantic monthly, scientific american isis, the nation, the wall street journal, most importantly the georgia review and over a dozen different law reviews. please welcome edward larson. [applause] >> first of all i want to thank you for having me here. savannah is one of my favorite

places and being here on valentine's day, how better could be? we are having a wonderful time. the organizers have been fabulous how they organize this event. they deserve the applause you can give them. the way they pull people together, the level of contact they made with me in organizing this event, i wish to thank my only possible criticism is that they scheduled me right up against mr. gwyn next door. i used to teach civil war history. lots of books come out on the civil war but not many of them are as good as his book rebel yell. of all of possible people to be scheduled up against i find that a little daunting coin. thank you for being here. is event must be full. second i thank my host j. ford was my host last night, took me to a wonderful dinner, the only

possible qualm i have with that is took me after the author's reception, it was very late and was the pink house. they brought me a piece of fish that is bigger than a plate, the tailstock out on one end and there was so much food that i am stuff and i figure i have to speak. the only wise than i did was liquor too. i turned down the wine and liquor and dime stuff from that food. i was not so lucky at lunch. i had a wonderful pleasure of -- you probably know him. a wonderful daughter and couldn't restrain on of liquor, not being there with sunny. after it that i was in the afternoon, there was some more drinking and tried to look up in any way. second, i would say i try to be somewhat brief i am not the

only one standing between you and lunch. we're and savannah, one of the greatest places to eat. so i talk about my riding but i tried to get to questions for two reasons, if you are asking questions, i am talking about things you want to hear about rather than what i guess you want to hear about and second if i keep you on it is because you keep asking questions and therefore is the questionnaire's fault you are held from lunge in savannah. what i thought i would do, i thought i would begin by just -- the very beginning and of the preface, never read anything from the preface but it will introduce what i want to say about myself in the book. a very short beginning here. on a chilly spring morning in april of 2013 i sat on mount vernon's broad front the odds

the, over the potomac river, the window from the of stairs bed room was over my right shoulder. the east facing door to his first floor office directly behind me, washington would have seen much the same view 225 years ago knowing it might be a long time before he observed it again. the american people call him to the presidency and he was preparing to leave his beloved mount vernon plantation of seat of government in new york on april 16, 1789. due to private preservation efforts and public land use restrictions is this the over the potomac the one washington most loved and built his the odds of to frame survives virtually unchanged in the midst of northern virginia's urban sprawl. as an inaugural fellow at the national library for the study of george washington with the residency on the ground of mount

vernon i was able to enjoy this and other scenes on washington's plantation many times over the course of the year. the view from this be out the became my favorite too especially at sunrise in the spring and flowering trees and give off a warm glow in early-morning light. it was obvious why washington was reluctant to leave mount vernon for public-service image of the neither sought nor wanted. and six months earlier follow fellow virginian james madison, urging him to solve in the federal government applied equally to himself however. supporters of the new constitution and the union it created he implored madison, for getting personal combine their collective efforts through service and the new government to avert the great national calamities that attended without it. by 1787 four years since america secure its independence

washington came to believe the country face as great a threat from internal forces of diss union in the mid 1780s as it had from external ones in the 1770s. when he accepted leadership of the patriot army at the outset of the revolutionary war, now his country again called his service, this time as the elected leader of the world's first extended republic. that is the opening of my preface. if you know what a preface is it is not an introduction and not an acknowledgment. usually book start with a preface. they may have also an introduction, they may begin with an acknowledgement. i have used all three in my books. this time i chose a preface. it tells you something about the author in a book but it is not essential if you are a reader, you don't need to read the

preface. the book begins after the preface either with the introduction or with the first chapter. if you are a reader you shall always read the introduction. the introduction sets up the book. you cannot understand a book without the introduction. i begin my book on the scope trial, the pulitzer prize was an introduction. you can't read the book if you start with chapter 1 or you are missing something and it is a strong introduction that stars with the famous famous amis' cross-examination of william jennings bryan on the stand and you get that up front and the idea of an introduction is to hook the reader and that introduction, my book is often using graduate history classes, structure of books and that is one thing people look for, you start with that hook to connect you. some people don't have an introduction. they begin with chapter 1. i would be curious how many of

you read the prefaces. it is -- to most of you start with the practice usually? the introduction i hope you will remember you are really missing something, acknowledgements, how many people read the acknowledge on? authors do. when i am reading a book i always read the acknowledgements. practices you don't need to read it. my book really begins with chapter 1. it begins with chapter 1. that sets the stage but the preface again tells you something about the author and the book. this is the book festival and i was given instructions, you want to hear about the writing process and the book as well as myself i thought it would be good to pull out front there. what does this particular preface tell you about me and about the book? i am in a church, i am in a

methodist church, i was told you are supposed to have three topics in a sermon so i will take three things that deals with. first it tells a little bit from what you heard and if you hear more of it, how i research. you will see i started talking about placing me in mount fern in. important to me as the historian to be on site to actually know the place and to know the ground as well as the historical record. i am an academic historian. i do have a day job. i am not only a writer but i live to write. the way i write, the way i research is not going to make a historian. i have to read all the records. i read so many records about washington, so many letters, so many articles, so many diaries

but also wanted to be on site and that was the advantage of mount vernon they enabled me to have a scholarship where i could live on the ground and have an apartment on the ground. if you ever visited mount vernon it opened during the day and there are hordes of tourists. they're cute student groups with students marginally interested garage groups from overseas, seems like it is well known, washington is well known around the world and you can't get a feel for the place. since i was on the grounds i could walk around will for the place opened after it closed so i could go sit on the great front porch and sit there and i would be the only one there and go over my notes in the morning and watched the sun rise over the potomac and in the evening walk around on the grounds. they still try to preserve the original pipes the early types

of cattle. it is a wonderful place but it gives you a unique field because what i was writing about washington was when he was there. it was not when he was fighting the revolutionary war or when he was president. was when he was back home and being there, going around whiskey distillery and seeing where he farmed, going to different areas where his farms were. he was a hands-on manager of his farm. people to get a five farms in the area. a lot of money where he married well and was able to buy the farm nearby and would force an everyday and inspect the works so i could experience with the experience and that gave me a closer feel for what he was like and also there were so many documents defy had any questions i could pull up the original document to look at the original

false teeth which gives you a unique -- or what i was talking about in the book i talk about his brown suit, he famously war and american maid suit for his inauguration as president. very few gentlemen war american made cloth. he never wore it before but he thought when he was being inaugurated president he should wear an american suit and there was only one place in america that made fine cloth which it had just opened in connecticut so he sent a note to good friend of his, number 2 man in the revolutionary war, henry knox. some of the main know of him. of massachusetts bookseller before the revolution and he was quite large but he was head of artillery and became secretary of war. so he heard about this place that made fine cloth and washington was close and tried to pick the best, i trust you.

the color is not too good. pick one that looks the best. that is what the wind up with. he wore a brown suit for his inauguration. i could see the suit itself. putin out of the box the very one he wore. it is a wonderful thing to be, to do on-site research in mount vernon. indeed, that may explain some of the book. the first book of mind that got a lot of attention, the first two, i got a book about scopes trial that ended up winning and after that i could write about anything i wanted to so i started thinking about on site what should i write about next? i just wrote about the scopes trial and led to many trips to dayton, tennessee.

it was in tennessee. my second was on the galapagos islands that led to 17 trips to the galapagos islands when i could be with scientists working whistle i picked that in part because of 5 wanted to do hands-on research i would do it on the galapagos rather than tennessee, no offense today in. i wrote a later book about antarctica and went to the south pole and go down to all the places and in fact i came back from antarctic a because i came here from antarctic aware i was last week. it may be colder here. i am not quite sure. i didn't expect that. i thought i would warm up finally but that help inform my top picks in being able to be at mount vernon for a historian is a real street, it is like at mecca. the introduction suggests that. it puts me in mount vernon. i don't talk about any place in the book, i talked-about

washington after that. it talks about my style. i try to embarrass myself in both the place and the document. i read all the documents but if you are walking around dayton tennessee in the courtroom, staying in the room john scopes lived in, if you are in the place where william jennings bryan lived, if you are there, at mount vernon you can't learn things you can never get out of the documents, it deepens your understanding it is not just mount vernon there are other places, i read about the newburg conspiracy, and it was very important in american history, it covers the liberation of new york city, came down from living for a long time in the valley, the hudson valley where he was