and nappers to present the medal for distinguished is joanne woodward. yes. [applause] >> she has been a star of stage, film and television. ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to welcome joanne woodward. joanne? [applause] >> on behalf of the national book foundation, it gives me great pleasure to present the medal for distinguished contributions to american letters, to my dear friend, the second love of my life, gore vidal. [applause] [applause] [inaudible] >> and i haven't acknowledged anybody since. wisely i think. [laughter] >> and i do remember as a kid watching him make his instances and exits from rooms and halls and parliaments. and he was always in a wheelchair. and i thought well, the poor man, you know. he can't frolic and play like the rest of us. and then as i entered the the artificial limb years, i began to be highly sympathetic of this gallant president. and there's a story he loved telling about himself and his debility of. in the patches come to the white house, and he was not very mechanically minded. and he locked his wheelch