it is set at the time of the civil war and the through-line is william tecumseh sherman's march. i think it shows what he did as a writer because on the first page, you can't really stop reading. he starts the story right away. you have these people in chaos. the language is different, the sentence structure is very long, it's very different from anything else he wrote. by the end of page one, you cannot stop reading. charlie: here he was 10 years ago at the height of his powers as far as you are concerned? kate: i thought it was fantastic. charlie: what did the editor do? as good as you are and as many great writers, you have had none better than him, what was the role of the editor? kate: i think it is like maybe some of the other writers -- our friendship. the first thing with edgar was to understand and appreciate and take very seriously what he was doing. to read the books in a very serious way and bring up anything you thought maybe you didn't understand or wasn't clear enough. charlie: that is what he wanted and expected. kate: he was very eager for it. he did not want you

william tecumseh sherman the burning of atlanta georgia command columbia south carolina and vice chairman is not the villain a popular legend. complete weekend schedule at c-span.org. >> this week on first ladies influence and damage, lucretia garfield and mary arthur mcelroy. an educated woman and a believer in woman's rights when her husband president james garfield was assassinated she returned to ohio and insured his legacy. chester arthur a widower becomes pres. and his sister mary arthur mcelroy fills the role of first lady and establishes white house social etiquette used by future first ladies for decades. this sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span original series first ladies influence and damage examining the women who fill the position of first lady and their influence on the presidency from martha washington to michelle obama sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv. >> congressman bobby scott is the democrat on the house education committee. we talked about the effort to revise the no child behind law and other education issues. issues. this is a half hour. >

and sunday evening at 6:30 west-selling historical novelist jeff sherra on william tecumseh sherman and why sherman is not the villain of popular legend. get the entire schedule at c-span.org. >>> now, a discussion on a recent report examining the fiscal condition of each of the states from today's "washington journal." in is about 35 minutes. >> and we're back. here to talk about the fiscal health of the states in this country is eileen nor.cross. she's at george mason. looking at the rankings of each states which are doing the best and which are doing the worse. let's talk about the categories you looked at o. >> we ranked the states based on our own financial reports. and we looked at the short-term and the long-term. the short-term is cash solvency. does the state have enough cash to pay short-term bills. budgetary solvency do bills match expenses. then liabilities and assets seeing where they fall there. service level solvency looks at the ratio of total taxes to total state personal income. how large are taxes, revenues and expenses to personal and state income. then trust fund in

of political figures here for dinner, including future presidents taft and mckinley also william tecumseh sherman was a guest for dinner, as well as a number of other local and national political figures. so as a political partner with her husband, entertaining these political figures and serving in that role of hostess at these dinners would have been incredibly important. ms. swain: and joining us on our set now another guest, tom culbertson. mr. culbertson is director emeritus of the rutherford b. hayes presidential center, where spiegel grove is also open to the public, spent 24 years of his professional life helping america preserve the history of the hayes presidency. we heard from allida black about the great political partnership, but your comments about the skills that she brought to this job as she entered the white house? mr. cullbertson: well, she was a partner to rutherford. she was a sounding board for him. she was a gracious hostess, as allida said. she was able to engage people one-on-one and to make anybody that she talked with think that they were the only person in the room and