. >> from politics & prose bookstore in washington, jeff himmelman recounts the "washington post" ben bradlee, this is about 45 minutes and it contains language that some may find offensive. [inaudible conversations] >> good evening. i'm bradley graham, current editor a lot with my wife, alyssa at politics & prose. on behalf of everybody here at the store, i would like to welcome you. as those of you who attend our events know, we try to have an author come as soon as possible after his or her book is released. most of the times the authors who have appeared in at least one or two other places before reaching pmp and will have given interviews to news organizations. but tonight, we actually have a world exclusive. this is the first time that jeff himmelman is speaking publicly about his new biography of former "washington post" editor, ben bradlee. and the book, "yours in truth" has 30 generated some controversy. the controversy flared last week when a portion of the book was exported in new york magazine and the fallout had as much to do with another great "washington post" legend, b

if you haven't already, silence your cellphone and join me in welcoming jeff himmelman. [applause] >> thank you for coming. it is a real honor to be here. i loved the introduction. i had a couple disclaimers but i just had a conversation with the folks at c-span. i was forbidden from using blue white wood. it is very difficult to read from my book or talk about ben bradlee without using curse words. i hope to give you ben in full color. those of you who have read the review of the book in the post this sunday, those who came to hear about my book, you will be disappointed. this book is about ben and what bradlee was saying about it being a 500 page book about who this person is is true and my goal tonight is to convey some of who ben is and hope that you find him as captivating as i did and enjoy reading about him. as a quick word i started working with ben. an ended up writing a book with his son but before that happened i was working with ben and he gave me access to his archives. it wasn't the whole thing at first. it was a big set of boxes with a bunch of letters. he