amazing someone as non brilliant as he can see through it. [applause] >> we have books behind the register, signing right here, we are going to form a line. >> you can go back. go back. >> you are watching 48 hours of nonfiction authors and books on booktv, television for serious readers. >> welcome to send the rosa, calif.. with a population of 170,000 it is located in sonoma county, the heart of wine country. with help of our comcast cable

partners we will travel around santa rose and visit local authors at learn about its history and literary life. coming up a visit to nrdc 4 state university as we look inside their special collections and some of the special letters of jack london and ernest hemingway. we will talk to two local lawyers about their book and female first responders to the 9/11 terrorist attacks but first we go inside the charles m. schulz museum to talk about the social commentary woven into his daily comic strip "peanuts". >> we are at the charles m. schulz research center, we opened in 2002 and are dedicated to preserving life and legacy of charles m. schulz "peanuts". "peanuts" began in october 2nd, 1950, and was published until february 13th, 2000. he was a master of the human

condition, and popular culture captain to "peanuts". through his comic strip, he prefers to remain neutral, certain topics that are wishy-washy like charlie brown. you see them commenting on title 9 or school prayer or integration of "peanuts" with franklin in 1968, these were part of what he was trying everyday and observing from the world around him that he brought in to the comic strip. in the case of title 9 he was a good friend on the board of the national support foundation, this is something he was passionate about still use the characters revealing statistics about equality in collegiate

sports. peppermint patty and marcie are just friends. but they did share something in common. they were both at one time or another in the history of the comic strip in love with at 18. marcie calls peppermint patty's turn out of misguided etiquette. she is a little bit what is the word? over the concerned with manners and etiquette and it is proof that the she wind up calling peppermint patty sayre. in the case of prayer, the comic strip from 1963, before the united states supreme court where sally is leading her brother around a very long comic strip, the sunday comics trip, not just the 4 panels, it is bigger than that they are mostly silent panels until she finds a secret spot behind the couch in her living room where she whispers we pray in school today, so in that case he is not necessarily saying he is for or

against school prayer but presenting it as a topic in "peanuts". but it was about drawing funny pictures. that is what he was trying to do with his comic strip on a daily basis. "peanuts" had to be funny every single day summit could not rely on a story that had begun the day before. each, expert had to stand out on its own and have its own funny joke. in some cases there are story lines. if you are a regular reader of "peanuts" you can read the story from one day to the next and some of the longest ones went on several weeks. charlie brown getting his kite stuck in the tree is a regular theme in "peanuts" so each year there would be a few comic strips that showed any team losing is kite industry and their jokes around that, the 3 professors eating a red kites or blue kite. that birds been a series hard to know if he was trying to to pull something in from what was going on in the world around him or if

he just thought it was very funny that a child character like charlie brown would be afraid of a government agency like the environmental protection agency but it is true later in his career he worked for the johnny horizon program that produced illustrations of his characters that would discourage pollution and talk about cleaning up the environment. in april of 1968 dr. martin luther king jr. was assassinated and shortly after the los angeles school teacher wrote to charles m. schulz on the subject of integrating "peanuts". she felt a popular comic strip like "peanuts" could affect american attitudes on race. so he wrote back because he was really concerned with this issue as well and took him several months but he found a way to bring a new character in to "peanuts" and it was franklin, introduced july 31, 1968, and soon after was a regular part of the comic strip and a special so

franklin in general use the him playing on the neighborhood baseball team waiting in line for sunday matinee at the movies perhaps, he is part of the classroom gaining sitting behind peppermint patty and often talks to charlie brown about his grandfather. visitors to our museum can see the comic strips for what they are which is funny cartoon this but those familiar with history and popular culture will see elements of socially attuned topics and pop culture in the cartoon as well. >> in the research center in front of me is a small example of what we have in our special collection. our collection is growing every single day. right behind the 2,000 books and all together in our collection 4,000 books, there are 48,000

individual records in our database, everything from photographs, personal effects, artwork, that continues to grow as we refine our collections. these letters are very important in our collection, basically correspondence between a former school teacher and mother of three and she wrote to schulz in 1968 and asked him to integrate the "peanuts" strip. since the death of martin luther king i have been asking myself what i can do to change conditions in our society which led to the assassination and contributed to the misunderstanding, fear, hate and violence which as a suburban housewife and mother of three and deep concern and active citizen i am well aware of the long and torturous road ahead. i believe it will be another generation before the open friendship, trust and mobility will be an accepted part of our lives. it occurs to me that today the

introduction of negro children into the group of schulz characters could have a minimum of impact, even lindsey is a perfect setting. the baseball games, even psychiatric service, would accommodate the ideas so she says lastly you should consider the suggestion. i hope the results will be more and one black child's that could be as adorable as the others so please allow them. this is dated july 1st, 1968. you will be pleased to know i have taken the first step in doing something about the isn't yet negro child in the comic strip in the week of july 29th. i have drawn an episode which i think will please you. kindest regards, charles m. schulz. he was initially hesitant about integrating both stripped because he didn't know he could write such a character. so he didn't want to be patronizing as well but what

happened was schulz and harriet exchanged correspondence and harry it had some african-american friends and neighbors right to him encouraging him and what resulted was the introduction of franklin to the strip. charles schulz was also good friends with ronald reagan when he was governor of california so we have a lot of correspondence between shultz and reagan, not only when reagan was governor but when he was president. schulz was also involved, we have some photographs of him visiting the white house and meeting president jimmy carter and there is a ceremony to talk about the easter seals. our collection is open to all sorts of researchers, we work from kids doing their history project, sixth graders or 7 traders to teach the candidate's writing their dissertations are books about shall so this collection is a large collection

that spans 48,000 records and growing. schulz is not only a prolific person in santa rosa in the sonoma area but part of u.s. history. his contact was able to shape and define the way a lot of people approach comics and art work. it is significant and important for people to study his art and his wife. >> during booktv's recent visit to santa rosa, calif. susan hagen and mary carouba shared accounts of female first responders to the attacks on the world trade center on september 11th chronicled in their bookend the 20. >> awards matter and the words people use to describe an event, described the hair was related to that event, those words did

matter. when the governor got up on the rubble of the world trade center and said can we have a round of applause for the plant to we lost and the men searching for survivorss and the president of the united states said i am here to praise all the brave men involved in rescue and recovery efforts. that means something, that says something, that left out an entire group of people we knew had to be there. we knew there had to be women rescue workers on the scene, women searching for survivors so we became very interested in going to new york shortly after 9/11 and telling their stories. after 9/11 i was investigating social workers, susan was a firefighter so we were very interested in what was happening in new york for other scenes related terrorist attacks of 9/11 and we became concerned about what was happening with rescue workers. what were they doing and we began to notice the startling

lack of coverage of women rescue workers, women firefighters, when he rose. we heard a lot of talk about firemen, police men, a brave guys, the brotherhood of the fire department and we felt women were not being represented in this story. in sonoma county be have women in law enforcement, fire fighting and as a firefighter myself, half of our firehouse is women that have is planned to sell for us it was very much a glaring omission in the news to see all of the coverage of the men, even when a reporter would interview one of the firefighters or other rescue workers it was always a man, addressed by the male gender so that really caught our attention because for us in sonoma county that seemed like something was missing and during that time, at especially on the west coast,

felt so helpless, what could we do about this national tragedy that was happening so far across the country, and we were offered the opportunity to give blood or donate money but for some many people that felt like it wasn't enough. we wanted to do something and we just attacked that idea of trying to interest, in the national conversation and the new american hero. talk about the new american hero after 9/11, women were virtually left out of that conversation. we wanted to bring them back in so we became fired up about this idea. it was ridiculous to think about doing this. we both worked full time, we didn't have a budget for something like this so we put our credit cards together, we added them all up, that became our budget. we made a commitment to go to

new york, a place we had never been, we knew no one, had no context and find these women, it was a crazy venture, when you feel passionate about something and you follow that passion to which natural conclusion of the doris open for you so we had many unusual and unique experiences on our journey to findings the women at ground zero because we were passionate about telling their stories. >> it is also important to mention the fact the we were not without fear at that time. all of us were in fear after 9/11. all the airlines, planes had been grounded and people were running out of the city, here we were in california making plans to go in, making plans to go in towards this situation that whistle so unstable and for myself i will say i have a lot of fear about it. fear about getting on complain, neither one of us had written a

book before. i was concerned if we were doing the right thing, if we could be successful and one of the things i really learned in this whole experience is you can have your fear and you can take it with you. you don't have to let it stop you. we interviewed 30 women, 30 survivors of 9/11 and the families and friends of three women rescuers who died that day. >> we went knocking on board, went to the police department, the fire department and what end ed up happening is we met a few women in the police department and new york turns out to be a very small world and the rescue and recovery community. everyone knew who was there, who did what on that they and we had people knocking on our hotel door at 2:00 in the morning in police uniforms saying this sergeant told me to come over, you are going to put me in a book or something, sending

people to us right and left once we met a few people. >> one of the stories i like to hear is of mercedes rivera, 23 years old on 9/11, and in new york city, she displayed such a tremendous amount of courage for such a young, very small boned person, who was in her ambulance with her partner at the time the towers were beginning to fall, opened the back door and many people called out and brought as many people into the ambulance and she could. imagine a big box ambulance packed with people, she is pouring water in their eyes trying to get things out of their mouth to help them leave, people are sharing oxygen and as soon as the dust cleared enough to get out they drove the ambulance out, dropped those people off to safety and turned

around and went back in time and time again and she was so full of emotion, she said i didn't know if i would make it out and all i could think about was my parents and how much they love to me and i said i just prayed and said god, please let my parents know how much i love them and this is the work i am called to do and i have to go in and save people so it was a tremendous story of courage. i was inspired by it, still learn from it. and i would love to tell the story of mercedes to is still a working e n t in new york city. and survived along with so many people she helps to rescue. >> one of the women who struck me most deeply in the bookend continues to be somebody that i hold in high regard is now deputy chief of police in new york city terry koban. at the time she was a lieutenant, one of the first

people to respond to the scene. when the first building was hit she was a block away, she ran in and began the evacuating people, she could have gone to the safety of headquarters or somewhere else to direct operations but she went like a good cop does write to the middle of it and was evaluating people from the building's. when the first building came down she had thrown the kevlar helmets on designed to take up bullet, that is how strong it is. when the first building came down she was hit so hard in the back of the head with a piece of cement with such velocity that it cracked the kevlar helmets in half and lodged in the back of her head. she also throughout this ordeal fractured her ankle, developed hairline fractures on all of her teeth, lost partial hearing in one year. even after all this should continue to try to get people out and to work with people.

when the second building came down a shard of glass moved into the middle of her back. even in this condition she struggled to help others flee the buildings and feed the scene and she had to be practically dragged out even when they brought her down to the boat to take her to the hospital she saw reporter she knew whose legs were badly main goals, didn't have room for two people on the boat and she instructed them to take him first, she would wait. you don't say no to deputy chief kerri tobin so they took the reporter first and then she went on the next boat. an amazing story of heroism and selflessness. kerri to open and all of the women telling the stories it was very wrenching. they initially told their stories only several weeks after the attacks. they were in the midst of rescue

and recovery efforts. many of them had not been home, had not slept in their own beds, the receiving in the precincts, firehouse and their cars so they were pretty run out. it was very emotional for people to tell us what they had experienced and what they had done that day. the women across the board were not seeking any sort of glory. new york city police officer before 9/11 was not a position you attained because you wanted glory or status. was the kind of thing you do because that is all you can imagine doing. when the building is coming down everyone is running out you are the type of person that runs in. >> every one of the women we interviewed said was at one point during the interview if not before why he going to talk to me? i am not a hero, i was just doing my job that day and every single woman felt that way and was almost embarrassed to put herself in front of us to be featured in the book and what we

wanted them to know is because of the way men were held up as the new american hero, new york city firemen and policemen there was no place for young girls enjoy young women to aspire to jobs in public safety because there were no role models for them within the context of 9/11. once we told them that, they were a anxious to become part of it because they wanted to give girls and young women and opportunity to see if it not only boys and men are strong and brave and courageous and heroic. >> the level of compassion among the women was shocking to me. when we have done talks further route from 9/11, ground zero we got in the country, the more we heard things like we're going to turn afghanistan into a parking lot, we are going to get those people, the rag heads but when we were in there at the heart of the disaster we didn't hear any

of that. i am middle eastern but since i don't look classically middle eastern i was released dealing myself for the terrible things people were going to be saying about middle eastern people, we never heard one word of that, not one word of hatred, of a anger, and that i think was extremely surprising to those of us. at the heart of the tragedy we found compassion and glove. the thing i dearly hope people take away from this book is a deeper sense of their own humanity. there are so many false divisions we live with every day, racial divisions, sexual orientation divisions, gender divisions and in the final analysis we are all human beings, some are brave, some are courageous, some are cowards, some are good, but underneath we are human beings and when you falsely separate in this case based on gender and believe only

men can be courageous orally men can be heroes we lose something of our own humanity in that so i hope this helps people connect to a broader idea of who we are and what is possible for all of us. >> we continue our visit to santa rosa california, with greg grandin who choses run the jack london historic park and where the author of call of the world and white saying it did most of his writing. >> jack london was one of the most famous authors in the world that time, he was ties they offer and were getting $0.10 to $0.12 per word for his writing. while he was an american he is one of the authors that was read throughout the world including soviet union, russia at the time, japan, he was translated into language after the language and people found his writing compelling.

he was deeply concerned about the issue and condition and much of what he wrote about while it may have seemed on the surface like stories about dogs or the uconn, were often about the state of humanity and his concern for human kind. we are on jack london's believe ranch also known as the range of good intentions. this is where jack london lived until his death in 1916. the entrance to the cottage provides people with an overview of jack's life. there are lots of pictures on the walls, there's a video available for them to see so they can get a sense of jack london in 51905-1960 period. as they walked to the cottage they will see mementos of his trips to the south seas when he was sailing with his life. and the original study worked in, this room you are in now which is a much larger study

created after the wolf house which is our dream house burned to the ground. that burned to the ground a few weeks before he was -- woodworkers were finishing the woodwork, they took the bag, through the mentor the fireplace, and when i am very hot, spontaneous combustion caused the fire and burned into the ground. jack london, he talked about understanding, and decided to work on his farm and work on the cottage we are in today so he added this particular room which became a much larger study for him to be able to bring to-work with his wife and his manservant to the more accomplished in the short time he had left. his most famous book today is

the call of the wild, he also rose white saying, both of, and searching for gold. there were a number of subjects. and he wrote a book about the poor and the east of london called people of the abyss, he wrote about the area we are in today with a story called valley of the moon. if you want to talk about his socialist period the iron heel is a fascinating book about the revolution that would come after he died. it was written in the future. many of his books are still quite readable. call of the wild until recently was read by most schoolchildren. his writings and a wide variety of different types of styles, he even wrote science-fiction. jack london would have been

writing longhand when people came upon him in his office, the typing was done either by his wife or his manservant. he was surrounded by books, he would see some technological innovations, things like a dictaphone that was invented by edison and was used by jack london because it allowed him to dictate responses to letters in his heart without spending time to write those long hand. he, his wife and his manservant could all work in here at the same time, whether working on books or correspondence or farm matters. he was very productive, two thirds of his writing was published after he moved here, books like white fang published in 1906 a year after he brought his ranch property, valley of the moon was published living here, little lady in the big house was published here, jack london claims he worked two hours a day writing because he

would write a thousand words a day before breakfast but i think a lot of his time was spent because he was trying to build the ranch so it could be a model and that took a lot of his time. one of the elements he sought to perfect in order to help people was to create a much more productive range, much more productive farm so people could be fed, have jobs, be more successful. a lot of what he's doing was experimental. he expected that they would be written about and people could learn from what he did. historically americans believe firmly in manifest destiny. they believe america had a god-given right to own the country from coast to coast. if you were of virginia planter and work out your land you could

go west, in west virginia you could start another plantation, you could move south and start another plantation. the problem was when you got to california if you moved west huge round. you had to figure out ways to reuse and make the land sustainable over time. jack lumpkin believed we could do that, worked to learn by reading everythingondon believeo that, worked to learn by reading everything of that he did find worked with pioneers of the area to develop products that would work here that might not work in other places or might be innovative and unique and provide some real benefits. this is something jack london built in 1915. when he belted the scribes from san francisco were making fun of the fact that he had spent $3,000 and they called it the palace hotel for pigs, making reference to the finest hotel in

san francisco, designed for over 200 pigs and one man could manage the entire operation, feeding them, watering them, doing whatever needed to be done. .. >>

>> today we have twice as many visitors as used to come, about 100,000 people visit every year. it is a great model for some of facilities. we have historic buildings, museum, back country so we can support horseman, a bicyclist, hikers, a history buffs and the combination of that with local community involvement can make for an extraordinary success

>> clear on the campus now where our jack london collection is housed. the reading room also houses the second jack london collection in context. right around us are special collections including hemingway letters and other unique rare and fragile items. all told it is 5,000 items related to movies, hundreds and hundreds of first edition books and close to 1,000 items in the serial

publications like cosmopolitan and ladies home do not -- turtle the special collections are unique and a wide variety of ways as an undergraduate of institution so we try to use them to support undergraduate research and learning. with the jack london collection and the first edition of many of his novels and in serial form when publication before it book form. in the collection hear we have a wide variety of movie memorabilia as well because the kinds of materials that the cds -- studios would discard after marketing purposes and we kept them as

a representation how movie-making and transfer novels to movies what the experience would be like. i brought out a variety of materials from the jack london collection that i would like to share with you. intriguing items that i thank you might enjoy a. i will start with this 1906 collier's magazine issue for which jack london wrote an essay about the earthquake of 1906 and his experience of the destruction and the damage it had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of calls and chimneys the conflagration burned up hundreds of millions of dollars of property the

actual damage wrought there was a excavation never has an imperial city been so completely destroy distant francisco is gone. nothing remains but memories and the fringe of dwelling houses on the outskirts. the industrial section is wiped out the business section is wiped out social and residential sections, factories and warehouses newspaper buildings, hotels and palaces are all gone. remains obeid the fringe on the outskirts of what was once san francisco. there is a related letter that jack wanted wrote to his friend and neighbor in which he mentions the earthquake. >> dear i dash just to ask how you figured in the

earthquake i hope that has not caused much damage beyond the walls of myself barred and shimmies we have a scapegoat k. writed may 1st, 1906 and another of my favorite letters that i love sharing is a letter that jack london wrote to his wife september september 28, 1903 quite a powerful brief love letter. i have already ponder the fact you have withheld nothing from the but your belief in the and love for me that means much to me if you have not said it thus far you shall know me the rest of myself i reserve for myself. i only matched you and my surrender indeed we are blessed above more roles.

a very lovely letter that he shared that the world can now see as a truly unique love story. white fang it's a very famous jack london novel and this first edition jack described again to his neighbor and friend ida affectionately yours, jack london july 30, 1910. on the inside of the book is his trademark book stamp. has his name, jack london and his signature so to speak and in our collection we have here is a regional stamp or one of the original book stamps in the metal

plate to form some of which he created bookplates for his book and it is intriguing to all researchers because it is so worn and used many, many times that he had his bookplates reprinted. also in our special collections the ernest hemingway letters the unique letters written by ernest hemingway to a local journalist. , a journalist you wrote for the newspaper in sonoma county was a war correspondent and also for the "san francisco chronicle" before moving to miami where he was a journalist for the "miami herald" and while he was in miami he met ernest hemingway and began a

correspondence with him. the letters began 1967 through 1859 a and they cover a range of topics this was written october 23rd 1956. thanks for your letter and criticism it was true in new york. sent back to cuba then forwarded here to spain. the stories are a little rushed not publishable but not bitter or cynical. no one can write all the time like the old man at the sea and land war is difficult to write after legal murder and stupidity in justice and extremist efficiency paul business cowardice bravery of viciousness and great unselfishness loving and devotion.

most people who can write have one small boat and then there through. good luck kid, a pop-up. -- poppa. >> this shows the power of hemingway's feeling is of four and a society and our responsibility as human beings and he takes very seriously his role as of mentor and a writer and that shines through in this one very powerful letter and i am sure it had a great impact on denny himself. >> it was good to get your letter i should have written long ago by lost the envelope with the address. i hoping things are better now you don't have to fight so hard on the nail. things are really very bad

nobody realizes how bad until you see the crop that is published as writing. it is never any comfort but to think everybody has a rough to right now. it is more difficult than ever for me but it has been that way before lots of times and if i keep at it it is always all right again. you were well out of miami this summer it was reading practically for when you left we have regarded now the autumn weather is lovely i hope the cold will bring some fish. we lost fish in the deep freeze last night. sending your best to you and your wife. i hope the work going so tough is that rough on her as well i know how rough it is. all look to the family. poppa.

what this shows about hemingway is how matter of fact to their relationship is he can talk about the garden and what is going on as if he knew what the garden looks like and what the fishing might be like and he shares with dead me how much he understands how hard it is when you have trouble riding and how difficult it is to be a writer even in the best of times and clearly was not the best of times for any writer. i think danny really must have felt a powerful impact from a friend from cuba are writing to him in florida. >> our aim is to make all collections as accessible as possible as we are a state universities the we don't have an open and reading room we do welcome research

appointments we will comb brief to workers and we're always wanting to be aware of what we do here especially in the special collections because they are hidden from view ordinarily and relied people to know they are weak and fragile but we will not hide them from the world we just need to protect them as well as offer them for research >> in seven telesco -- san francisco a flower child is the peace lover and that is ginsberg. >> i saw the best mind of my

generation destroyed by madness hysterical and a naked dragging themselves through the negro streets looking for a greek six. from burning for the ancient heavenly connection to that machinery of night who poverty in tatters set up smoking in the supernatural darkness across the tops of the cities contemplating jazz. to bring their brains to have been under the angels staggering on their roofs illuminated who pass through universities with cool i a is a hallucinating arkansas and tragedy among the scholars of for. who were expelled from the academies for creasy to

publish obscene codes on the windows and power to in unshaven rooms and underwear to listen to the terror through the walls. >> when i wrote american screenwriter is trying to write the biography of a poll. i know people have been writing biographies of allen ginsberg but it seems to be a good idea to you think of it as a living entity that was born and evolves and it has a really died it just goes on and on that it is a classic of american poetry and literature. >> how it is divided into three sections. the first that i saw the best minds of my generation

destroyed by madness. these are people, very much alive come on edge, a french people common element interested in material goods they would just as soon burn their money or put it in the bank. to go one joyrides, they don't embrace a certain ethnic. daylight girls and guys and they don't believe you have to wait for marriage to have sex. they are not tied down to the work week 9 to 5 and then they want to travel and explore and the women's liberation movement came

along in the '60s and '70s and then you gave up everything to go on the road and we want to do the same thing. girls want to have fun and. that was the generation to which allen ginsberg belonged. some of them in the 1920's or '30's at the start of the 30's they have people from that generation ever called the silent generation but they came along and were outspoken howling and ranting and raving with the notion that they were silent but people who had lived through the second world war coming in at the tail end of the depression. allen's ginsberg was one of

the crucial founding members of the generation born 1926, said jack kerouac was a few years older and he met them in new york when he came to go to college at columbia. he was immediately attracted to them and wanted to spend time with them and the incubation period was in the york in the 1940's but there was a really boring and tell san francisco in the mid '50s when ginsburg came and moved to berkeley and jack kerouac cave in to visit and there is a conjunction of people from new york and then similar people from the

pacific northwest like philip whalen. allen ginsberg was a genius in terms of poetry and made american and poetry barrasso a genius in terms of publicity. he had worked in marketing and advertising in the new what it took to use for the word for ago he was fearless in terms of promotion. they were riding but there wasn't something that was called that beat generation until he came along to give

it a tag line. he went to "the new york times" and "the new yorker" to get them to review their books to see public performances with the poetry evening in san francisco october 1955 they sent out postcards and kerouac went out to buy red wine and they passed that around. and then the york times heard about this before happened and they sent out a reporter to write about the poetry scene and san francisco. so "the new york times" wrote about it before was published as of book when it

was still the spoken word. i don't know any other poem that "the new york times" has covered gore has written about. it was a new cultural phenomenon or you could go to the museum of modern art. usually the poet as his or her face buried in the book and it was formal and stiff but allen ginsberg was putting body into the work and the audience was definitely involved. kerouac with the first reading how he was in the audience as they were old friends. this is inspiring.

and in a lot of ways he was carried away and of poland took on new meaning. canada rock-and-roll generation. the beatles were john lennon i grew up with kerouac and dylan so there is the continuity when you talk about the beat generation of the tradition of legacy went on with rock-and-roll and pulled musec with dylan and on the electorate and dylan recognized ginsberg said genius that he was carrying

on a the work of walt whitman and some of dylan's early songs are apocalyptic and serve realistic in that way. people who criticize ever since it was published to say this is the book for adolescents. for young people isn't a major statement by a mature off there. when i say is all human beings go through an adolescent phase we're all adolescents at some times and it had a wonderful vehicle energy directed to all the youth of the world and i was 15 years old. my parents subscribed to "life" magazine. i looked at the pictures. jake was holding a copy of powerball in his hand waving it in the courtroom there is

a story about it. and i felt a natural affinity for ginsberg and kerouac. i was living on long island on the edge of suburbia and went to the bookstore to buy a copy and it was $0.75 for girl i could afford that. that made the difference in was a black and white paperback edition that fit in my back pocket. i went to school on monday morning and i said look what i have got. i have a copy of powerball this is the book they're trying to be and in san francisco. and some people look down at

it. i don't a lot of people would look down at those people because there were street with regular jobs they went to the north beach in san francisco on the weekend day wore the turtleneck on the weekend and the dark glasses. so they were part time in the rebellion. they would rigo on a friday night and saturday then they went back home and go to the 95 jobs. people were critical about that but there were others who were more rebels and radicals that were that way more consistently. he definitely influenced my

poetry i have been a poet since high school and some of my poems are very much influenced by ginsberg. it is obvious that i rif off of him and usually when i'm in the york i write about your places or the streets but "howl" very much is the poll of about the york, time square, the empire state building, a greenwich village, coffee houses, but it took him to go to san francisco to look back to have a distance and see the place. >> in a fast sordid movie shifted to pick themselves up hong over with the

horrors of the third avenue myron greene's assembled who walked all night with their shoes full of blood from the east river to our room of steam heat. who created great suicide of the of hudson under the flood light of the of moon in their to be found with oblivion. >> one of the things that is new in the book is i obtained the records of when ginsberg was then then the eric state psychiatric institute in the late 40's. i knew he had been there. i assumed there were medical records. i asked the allen ginsberg trust as he was dead by the time i started to write the

book and i said can you please inquire if there are records could you get them? so i got the records from the hospital with allen ginsberg was a patient. he was involved with a group of thieves who had broken into people's houses stealing jewelry in the use his apartment as a place to stash the stolen goods. the police uncovered the ring and a number of things led them to the ginsberg department said he was arrested as part of the group and he was going to go to new jail but his professors interceded to said would it be okay if he spends some time in a mental hospital or psychiatric institute? and he thought that was better than going to prison.

so he created of met of the prison to say in the united states if you don't fit in with the status'' they say you are mad and send you to a mental hospital. he knew that that happened in russia, the soviet union for nonconformist and it is also happening in this country. if they don't like we were saying or what you we're doing and that have happened with his mother. naomi had spent time in a mental hospital. she was a member of the communist party, an artist artist, said definitely going against the current and i think she is a really good example of somebody who

was a nonconformist who was declared mad and put in a hospital. so ginsberg also wrote letters from though hospital to kerouac in which it fed the myth the mad house as a place of oppression and his ability to survive with the sense of solidarity for all people who were mad or declared to be. that you are insane. that was part of the rebellion. i also did meet his psychiatrist in san francisco. so that it is also