>> the newly designed web site has 11 video choices, making it easy for you to watch today's events. it is easier for you to get our schedule with new features like a three network layoffs the can scroll through and even receive an email alert with the program is scheduled to air. a handy channel finder so you can quickly find where to watch our c-span networks at the all-new c-span.org. >> this week on today, best- selling author simon winchester discusses his writing career

spanning 20 books, including his paperback version of "atlantic." host: simon winchester i am looking at a june 26, 2011 article, from the "daily based," with the headline why i am becoming an american. what is going on here? guest: it seemed a sensible thing to do on many levels. emotional. i am pleased by an american. i have lived here for so long. immigration. you can always with a green card be aware that you could quite easily be thrown out for some transgression. i decided that i would take all the necessary steps, because there is a 10 question exam. i have to confess i got one of the questions wrong. i had an australian friend who was up for citizenship. i said, i got one of the

questions from purchase of the a, not the one about what color is the white house? i said, no. that one i got. i feel full confessing to but it is what is the american national anthem. i blurted out "america the beautiful." in my view it should be, but it's not. how could you have flaunted that exam? guest: one of the questions is what is the ruled law? host: yes? ule of what is the roll-c law? host: what is the constitution? guest: you would have been wrong. everybody is equal under the law. i got that one right. he said, you are in. i was worried.

host: when did you first come here? guest: i came here in 1963. i had a girlfriend in montreal and i would have been 18 coming on 19. had took a ayeayera off between school and university and came over here on the "empress of britain." then hitchhiked to vancouver. and i had been utterly obsess with america for years. my father's had a job here. at the last instant he got cold feet. i thought i would one day visit america. i hitchhiked to vancouver and entered america under the peace

arch. the first sign i saw is it is illegal to pick up hitchhikers. people were so kind. so i left america thinking that this is a beautiful country, meeting john carson and john f. kennedy, opening a loch on the st. lawrence seaway. people are hospitable and generous, unlike europe. >> dinner with kirk douglas, coffee with john carson. how did you do this?

>> i went to topeka, to an institute for the mentally unwell. and they said, the other famous person who lives here. he is in nice and you should go see him. he must have been in his 80s. he said, come horseback riding with me. it was like jumping on the express train. we talked about running against roosevelt. he was a marvelous man. >> and what about coffee with johnny carson? -- >> the tonight show was taped in burbank and the tapes were sent overnight.

i think that's how it was done. the fellow who took them every night -- he said that i should meet johnny carson. he did not have me on the show but he said it -- >> what was the reason -- you were by yourself. where did you get this wanderlust? >> i am not entirely certain. my parents did not travel a great deal. and all went back to this deep disappointment. i sat next to this boy in school whose father built trains and

lived in america. he lived in connecticut and he would come back from the holidays and show me pictures -- it sounds ridiculous, but the merritt parkway. i thought this was the most beautiful highway i had ever seen. i knew about things like the grant -- grand canyon, but i thought, this is where i wanted to go. i had no wanderlust, but going from montreal, this is north of lake superior. this is incredibly romantic. and people are astonishingly

kind. every journey begins with the first step. you are rewarded by everything that you meet. >> i remember you in that chair 15 years ago. the professor and the madman. this is what led to you being a success. >> i think the show was helpful. the books had done commercially, very badly. the progress from the typewriter was seamless. it was a relevance but the professor, for some reason,

this was a very difficult story to tell. but it wasn't that difficult to write. i was in the arctic, doing research for the next book, because this had been published in england. there were polite reviews, not particularly selling well. i was up in the arctic, with an australian friend of mine. i was taking a rifle, and we were terrorized -- you must take a radio. we are in the middle of nowhere. and suddenly, out there is mr. winchester. they said, are you near a telephone, and i said i am it in the middle of absolutely

nowhere. they said that there is someone in new york to needs to speak to you. this was about a three days march if i turned -- and to call long story short, the publicist said that i had to go back to new york, quickly. this was someone from the new york times. harper-collins paid for the plane and i met this very nice man, who was a theater critic and then -- he wrote "at lunch with." we talked about "the professor and the madman." i flew back to the arctic. the publicists lady asked what

this was about. when the new york times says jump, you say "how high." they said they hoped it would be on the front page of the arts section. every monday in june and july and august -- she said, this will be at the front of the arts section. this is wonderful and he loved the book, this is the good news, but the bad news is that next monday, it is labor day. no one is going to purchase 'the new york times." it rained from dusk until dawn, and they had nothing to do.

they didn't go out to barnes and noble. they went to amazon. it got to number one. what great fortune was that? and ever since then, the books have done better than before. >> why did she not just talk to him on the phone? >> it is extremely expensive. and to go back to that call -- with the publicist, she said, we need you to get to new york. >> i said i am thousands of miles away but she said, we really need you. the landing strip for these geologist's get in and out, this will cost.

>> the first and only time in my life -- >> do you know how many professors -- >> jane freedman, the ceo of harper, they ordered 10,000 to be printed. they had no belief, reasonable belief that a book about lexigography would sell. >> you are still living off it? >> you could say. the book business -- i am happy i did not buy a porsche. it is a highwire existence. >> give us a minute synopsis so they can wonder what is "professor and the madman?"

>> it is w.c. miner, who came from new haven and was a military doctor during the civil war. something unpleasant happened to him. he became seriously mad. his parents knew john ruskin. he did not get better at all and he shot someone dead. an irishman. he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. he was in a huge limit asylum, and he befriended, incredibly, -- a huge lunatic asylum and he befriended, incredibly,

the widow of the man that he had shot dead. she would bring books and he found -- left in by the bookseller, a brochure that had been put out by james murray, of the english dictionary that was being constructed, calling for volunteers with time on their hands. and who were able to read the books with a view to finding the context in which they were used. w.c. miner, having plenty of time on his hands said that he could do this. anonymously for many years, he did not give away the idea that he was a lunatic and a murderer. he was the biggest contributor to the oxford english dictionary. and when james murray, frustrated that this man would never come to any of the banquets, said that if he will not come to me i will go to him. he took a train -- to where the

asylum as that. the horse-drawn carriage came and picked him up. there was this huge mansion and he was shown to a man who was sitting in a book lounge, and he said, good afternoon. i am james murray. you are w.c. miner. he said, i am not. i am the superintendant of the lunatic asylum. he is mad, a murderer, and an american. and they became the best of friends. >> we found this. some still pictures and audio. let's watch. >> this is simon winchester. i am wandering the united states, researching a new book.

i have recall the number of audio postcards. [beethoven's fifth plays] i am in the middle of the missouri river in west montana, one of the most remarkable pieces of geography and history in the entire united states. this is simon winchester in a remote part of northwestern colorado. looking north towards, i can see the badlands of south dakota. this is mountainous and eroded. >> that is all we found. did you do more than this? >> i will be posting another one on lonely strode in america, -- on the loneliest road in america, route 57 in

nevada. there are only two of them. >> what is this leading to? >> this goes partly back to my publicist who said that if you have a web site, the thing about websites is that you forget about them unless you have someone who is looking at this. i try to refresh this every sunday putting a word of the week into this. and i carry a reasonably decent tape recorder with me. and my wife, she has become a rather good photographer. we thought it would be a good idea to record low post cards. and as i wander around on this trip, to act as a teaser, and interest people in the book's i am trying to write, -- i will try to do some more.

>> i am looking at tweets. this is day one of ike 1999 -- 1919 expedition. left zero mile marker, in gettysburg, then shanksville, then ohio. east palestine, ohio. rain. day one of -- >> it rained a great deal. on this specific trip, this was to follow the route that the young captain eisenhower took in 1919. the american army was doing some planning in world war one about what would happen if america was invaded and how quickly we could get troops from the base in the south to the west. railways only have a certain amount of capacity.

there was a military convoy about 3 miles long, and this went north to gettysburg. and that followed the lincoln highway. young eisenhower was given a temporary rank of colonel. he kept a diary that i have printed out, and we fall of the trip that when -- this one from pennsylvania into ohio, indiana, and my wife and i went the whole way. we took a tent and sleeping bags, the first few days -- it was rather grizzly. but thereafter, we were camping. and 20 days later, we were in lincoln park in san francisco.

the equivalent concrete marker, which is not as grand as the white house, that said that this was the end of the expedition. they took 38 days and we took 18, we were in a land rover. >> i got on the web site and wrote down -- all the details on exactly how many people were on this trip. >> it was quite big, about 250. the convoy was 3 miles long and there were all manner of vehicles, ambulances and cooking, they had a catalog of disasters everyday. things were breaking down and the cars were falling off the road.

it seemed they were bent every day, getting people out of ditches. it was reasonable up to a council bluffs, iowa. and after that there were essentially no roads. until you get to lake tahoe in california. for these vehicles it was almost impossible. and when he wrote his report, about the asiatic enemy, it would take 58 days and we have lost. in his mind, he decided we would have to have a decent road system, and when he saw the german autobahn system, he said that america would have to have this system. the idea was planted in 1919

when he did this for himself. >> this book, and the timetable -- >> what i am trying to do, i am in that position where i have done most of the trips and this is so massive, organizing everything. what i am trying to do is partly a celebration, but also to say, what united this country together? let's follow all the major trips, and there was a geologist named clarence king did the first survey of the west. there was theodore, who was essentially the architect of the transcontinental railroad

and the west. moss -- the people behind the transcontinental telegraph system. washington greeley, who did the same thing in alaska. and fast forwarding to the interstate highway system and possibly, -- in this romantic to look at the internet backbone today. these expeditions, you had to be very brave to be involved. there was macdonald, the real architect, who was something of the hero out in the '40's and '50's. what were the interstate should go in nevada and new mexico. these are the men who united the states.

and we will be answering the question, are the states as united as the visionaries hoped that they might be? this makes it a little bit more political. if this does not sound too artificial, obsessed with anderson, and his portrait of "grotesques." the people who become somewhat odd in their search for truth. king being the perfect example of a very strange man. the yale-educated, east-coast white man, who acted -- he was the leader of the first united states geological survey. he had a passion for black women, and created "james todd." he married a black woman in

baltimore. he would say -- i have to catch the sunset limited. all he would do is go to the geological survey, and say, "that was quite an expedition." he didn't confess to his wife until year before he died. >> is there a number on the lincoln highway? >> this is about 230 and become -- it is u.s. 30 and becomes strange on the other side of salt lake city. >> what was the best and worst thing you saw on this trip? a broad question about the united states. >> the best thing has to be the scenery.

the road goes past dinosaur national monument in colorado and utah. to drive into this park, off of the main road, and thank heavens we have a land rover. 12" miles, switchback, down to the green river. not far from where the one-armed explorer launched into his expedition, with a sensational campground. there is a ranger who comes once a week to make certain that the fire would is there. -- the firewood is there and the loos are clean and everything. the great powers of sandstone, in the middle of the wilderness and a lot of extraordinary wildlife. and if you go on a lewis and clark trip, the most depressing

thing i saw on one particular trip was the huge agricultural industry plants that you see along the columbia river. with the french fries are made in idaho. these gigantic factories and these huge butchering plants, with the feed lots and the cattle. when i first came here in the 70's, i stayed with some farmers. this was in iowa. they taught me how to drive the columbine harvester. -- to drive a combine harvester. i had heard over the years that they had disappeared. i looked them up during the eisenhower trip. they are not elderly but they are no longer young.

you have a quarter section which was perfect to make a living for himself and his family. but now the economics of farming had completely changed. you cannot make money unless you have thousands of acres. there is nothing romantic about farming anymore. i was happy that they were still there. i looked back to a different time when farming was a more gentle pursuit. >> you had gone through a rough patch with two failed marriages. and now you talk about a wife. how did this happen? >> this happened in washington. she was a producer at npr. she was a producer on "talk of the nation." this is a live radio program.

i had seen her name and for some reason -- i thought she was a i did not want to be rude to her. i thought she would be something like that. but then one day i was supposed to be on her show, and i thought, there is no way -- i said that i was afraid i could not be on the show today. and she rang up, and we had never spoken before.

she said she could not lose a guest. she was so persuasive and so nice, i thought that i had to meet her. a few months later, i was on her show in san francisco, where they were doing a live feed on the anniversary of the san francisco earthquake. this was on the 18th of april, 2006. i was in san francisco, and there was this adorable lady, with such command of the audience. she is giving instructions on how to applaud, and then she did this thing -- when i went back she said, be quiet. and so, we met about a week

later in washington, one thing led to her mother. >> we were engaged on my birthday, in 2006. after we first met in april. and we got married on her birthday. this was january 2007. she is born here and speaks fluent japanese. her parents in a chain of stores in new york. the umbrellas that you put in drinks -- there were very successful eleven stores. and there was an implosion and they don't do this anymore.

>> where do you live? >> 17th street in manhattan. we have a little farm in massachusetts. this is a bit of the acreage, most of it forest. i have been pressing cider this year. we have chickens, goose, and bees. the one thing i have to do is get the honey. i put an electric fence around the beehive. >> it surprised me, when you were here 15 years ago, this was your first television interview? >> i also think it was probably one of the very first -- i must have been on news shows talking about northern ireland. i produced a television program about books, called "footnotes" on bbc 2. i am for getting this because

this was all taped. there was one life program, the -- live program, the award -- >> like the pulitzer. >> it was a disaster. i wore a dinner jacket and i look like a collection agent from the mafia. and there was john fuller -- i asked about the state of the english novel. the camera cut back to me. they said, winchester wore the expression of a man who has peed down the leg of his dinner jacket. michael kay tripped over one of the wires and fell on his face. the producer was fired, i left in solidarity.

>> here you are. >> this is the only book i have written the did not require any travel. it seems possible and probable, that this actually got the number one in england. this will be my most successful book. they say, travel writing is not the genre you should write. maybe you should look for new wife and settle down. and this appeals to me. >> there you have it. >> that is sort of what i do nowadays. >> in a book called "the alice behind wonderland," i counted 29 books.

>> i am sorry to disappoint you. >> the one that is on top here, "atlantic: the biography of the ocean." i understand that the paperback is out now. >> yes. >> what led to this book? one of the statistics in your book is that something like the ocean has been around for 170 million years. why did you find interest in this? >> i sort of knew how the ocean was formed. and people who are in the business of plate techtonics know when the ocean will cease to be.

it will be 100 million years before it disappears. i grew up by the atlantic. i crossed this and it occurred to me one crosses it so easy, some people do anyway, we have come to disregard this. this is merely an expense of distance. getting to new york as quickly as we would like. and i thought, what i knew about this, this was a romantic and beautiful ocean, and also the most important of the world's oceans. you could make a case that the mediterranean was the inland sea of classical civilization. so much has happened in history that the atlantic is a part of modern western civilization. once again, structure -- how we gather all of this information about a great body of water and making this digestible, in a way that does not look like an

encyclopedia. one day, after having signed the contract but not being sure how i would do this, i was traveling back from london to new york and i had my head -- my favorite poetry anthology. a nice, sensitive man who loves poetry. he had organized them, and the book was called, "seven ages." this starts with poetry relating to the schoolboy and the lover and soldier, the old man, return to childhood. i said, i could use this.

shakespeare never went to the atlantic. but the template, everything i knew about this could be part of the seven categories. the lover would be the romantic relationship. mendelson. the architecture of new york and liverpool. nobody has said how ludicrous it was to use shakespeare as the template but this seems to work. >> which of these 21 books, is professor still the number-one seller? >> every time that there is a volcano, i think one is about to erupt in bolivia.

this does very well. i have never had a number one bestseller in america. number two was as high as the professor was on the new york times list. >> what is your feeling about what will sell? >> yoon not have a sense, books on lexicography or plate tectonics. but what encourages me, particularly, and this is very different, in britain, the best-seller lists are dominated by celebrity memoirs. david beckham and film stars. in america, there is a lot of nonsense on the list, but american readers seem to love the big words, they seem to like serious nonfiction.

they don't mind people being serious. in great britain, this comes up in julian barnes's new book. they talk about the embarrassment that writers feel about being serious. in america, they like this if this is packaged in a digestible form. this is why a book on lexicography would sell more than 10,000 copies. this is a story about redemption and the unsung hero being plucked from redemption. i think in short, americans like serious writing. >> you have appeared on the in- depth program in 2004.

>> at the end of the day, to read this out loud, standing up and claiming -- with amateur poetry, convinces me whether i can feel myself getting flat and boring. if i make myself board reading thus it will happen to the reader. i would give a piece of advice that i give to my students. this is a simple, practical reality. if it does not sound right when you read this -- >> i stand up, if this makes me board, you say that this is turgid. i am glad i take my own advice. >> think if we are in a

business class. the business of what you do. looking back over your career, how do you make money? you sound like you have sold a lot of books and are making money off of them. is this how you are making money? >> i came from a very ordinary middle-class family. in 19 -- when was this? i was in hong kong and i realized -- i was a freelance journalist. i was running out of money and people -- they would send me to pakistan or to cover the war, with younger and more attractive looking people.

and suddenly, the journalistic career was beginning to nosedive. i could have been a pipe- sucking pundit. but i wanted to be out there. my books were not selling at all. i had written this book on the yangtze river, which did not sell any copies. i have a real problem, will let go to public relations or something like that? and then, suddenly, the possibility of actually making a living out of writing suddenly occurred. "the map that changed the world," was about a geologist, who became the founder of modern geology.

i kept believing that this would stop sooner or later. not to go buy jaguar motorcars. i could possibly make a living writing. many people to not do this. the successful writers, they have day jobs usually teaching. this is very much a high wire act. there is no disguising the fact that book sales are going down, advances are going down, how long can this be sustained? i am looking for alternate avenues. i am interested in new technology.

and although i am writing this american book, this sounds rather bizarre, but the huge collection of skulls -- i think there is a chance that this will sell very well. in which case, this is another avenue of making a living. >> why would you want an app on skulls? >> the people who are making this, they sold this -- for 1495. a quarter million of them so far. and similarly, with the solar system, the use a strange technology. with the elements or the planets or the skulls, they can

be manipulated if found on the screen. i think every child is fascinated with the educational tools, and this is remarkable because this is anatomically correct, and i sound like a salesman. i will not go down fighting, if you like, but there are other ways to get into the new world and not just let the waters close over me. >> this is for money? is this lucrative? >> it isn't bd. sometimes you find, that there are a lot of financial institutions, i believe they do not listen, they don't care unless this is al gore were bill clinton or someone like this. this -- i was doing a benefit in houston last week. it was wonderful because they listened and they love to the

story and you feel that you are doing some good. the printing industry, and taking some cash in hand. >> in 2005 we had you on camera in san francisco. >> i have this envelope on the table, and this was a check -- this is a letter that says, from anonymous. you claim that the earthquake was in daly city. where is your evidence? james morris had sexual reassignment surgery in morrocco.

a perfect guru for someone speaking in san francisco. if geologists can tell us an eartquake is coming, great. tell me as soon as you know. otherwise, shut up. >> i have never heard of this as a sexual reassignment. >> i didn't get that. i may have told you, jan was my guru. i was living and working in uganda. in 1966 or 1967. there was a book called "coronation everest." written by james morris. this was the expedition for the summit of mount everest. and this was amazingly exciting.

he had never climbed anything higher than a welsh hill. with six ropes, he is at 25,000 feet. this expedition succeeds. and using flags, he gets the news of the success back to london, to be published on the second -- morning of june, when the new queen was crowned. a british expedition had conquered the world's highest mountain. and when i heard about this account, i thought, i am hopeless geologist. this sounds like it has the makings of a career -- i would

be much happier rather than walking around the world with a bottle of sulfuric acid. i wrote to james and said, i am the 21-year-old geologist. can i be you? most of the time they would ignore this but he did not. the day that you get this letter, the day that you get this, give up your job as a geologist. i left that afternoon. everyone was saying, now that -- we are glad that he stopped by the we are glad that you left. every newspaper in the land was wanting to record the. six months later i did get a job at a paper. you could hear the gulp.

you took my advice? he said, three pieces of advice. you will never make much money, but you'll never lose your sense of wonder. he will travel all over and be tempted to be cynical or jaded, don't. and don't bother to learn shorthand. every month, send me the clippings. i will take them to a halfway decent writer. we never met until 1974. i was living here in washington. we covered the resignation of richard nixon, and the apology from gerald ford. that day i was covering evil to enable -- evil knievel.

the woman that i was climbing in norse -- north wales with, she said -- he is ridiculous and you have to ring him up. he said, simon, i thought that you were in washington. where are you mad? i said, i am 3 miles away. he came down from the hills and we went to his house. when he opened the door, he had changed into a woman. a skirt and handkerchief. we have been the best of friends, -- >> the next book -- >> this will be published in

200013. >> and the app will be out for thanksgiving this year. we have the issues related to damien hearst, for the love of god. the most expensive artwork in the world. >> did you learn anything as he traveled the united states? >> this was about 25 days. >> did you learn anything about the political mood, something we have not heard about?

>> deliberately on the way back, i came to the state of texas. the distance from washington, the gulf is amazing. not wishing to be part of the united states is strong in west texas. they feel they should be independent. and arrange their own defense. did not feel at one with the people in washington. a similar expression in mississippi but for different reasons, largely racial. the civil war has not been forgotten. a fractious mood.

>> do you have any children? >> three boys. one of them was in portland, and is the global ambassador for -- a son who is staying to be the editor of the post, and with my youngest son, he has two grandchildren. and he is running a group of restaurants in london. >> putting aside the fact you are now an american, if you had to choose the best place you have been in all of these travels, what would you choose? >> i would go to the west coast of scotland. it is where i wrote "the map that changed the world."

if i stood on my desk, i could see the headland where george orwell wrote 1984. my homage to him is to call it barn hill farm. there is no place more beautiful than the west coast of scotland. >> is there any feeling from the former british -- >> when i was on the tour for the alice behind wonderland, i was told i was a traitor, and had stopped being a brit. i don't sell as well in britain. in britain, there is a curled lip. "how dare you go to the other side."

>> i have the hardback copy of "the atlantic." our guest was simon winchester. thank you very much for visiting. >> for a dvd copy, call this number. for free transcripts, visit us at www.q-and-a.com. they are also available as podcasts. >> upcoming guests include

producer/director carl, releasing the film "the man nobody knew." discusses hern life. >> tomorrow, and look at the future of health care legislation with the help affairs journal. then a discussion about the authorization bill. later, we will chat with carol rosenberg on the cost of operating the guantanamo bay detention center. that is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> the new website has 11 video choices, making it easy for you to watch today's events. it is also easier for you to get our schedule with new features like the three n