working with our cable affil yates and visiting cities across the country. sunday night on afterwards. pulitzer prize winning journalist helene cooper in her book madam president, the extraordinary journey of ellen johnson surleaf. sheez rr interviewed by karen bass of california. >> when did you first meet madam president? >> known about her all my life. she became famous -- well, she was minister of finance in 1979/1980 when the coup happened. by that time i'm 13 or 14 and knew who the minister of finance was. she knew my parents. she was somebody that, as a child growing up in liberia i'd heard of. she was always criticizing the same government that she worked for and in 1985 when she was arrested and thrown to jail by samuel dough i heard all about that and she became at this time sort of a political icon. >> watch "afterwards" on c-span's book tv.