currently we are the university of maryland, college park, maryland, hornbeck library and a katherine anne porter room here and we're talking with university of maryland professors who are also authors. and we are pleased to be joined by history professor jon sumida, who has written this book, "decoding clausewitz" -- "decoding clausewitz: a new approach to 'war'." professor sumida, it was carl von clausewitz? >> he was a prussian officer who fought against napoleon. he first went into action as a teenager in 1790s. later rose to be a midgrade officer, was present at the great battle in 1806. was a subordinate of the chief of staff of the army, and was a participant in the reform of the prussian army after the great defeat. in 1812, he resigned his commission because he disagrees with the king in terms of their decision to be an ally of france, their former enemy, and invade russia. so he goes over to the russian army, serves as an advisor to the czar, and is attached to two senior russian commanders, fisa some of the great battles of 1812 including, was at the retreat of the french army when it'

simonon, cheever, katherine ann porter, eudora, so many of them. >> you have a photograph here of james michener. and by the way, who wrote all the little -- they show the name of the individual and then underneath it there's copy. did each of these people write them? >> it varied with -- james michener, i think it was probably a full quote from a paris review interview. george was extraordinarily generous, letting me use yots from "the paris review" and certainly when a lot of people were dead, i had to go to other sources. but also over the years, as i have photographed people, i have constantly clipped articles and -- that are interesting about them, whether or not my picture illustrated it and put them in the subject folder. so that i was able to go back to a lot of other magazine articles and then in the case of people like amy tan and roy blunt jr., veronica chambers, they wrote their own text pieces with -- ann petri, who's 87 and living in old saybrook, connecticut, i interviewed her and then i wrote up, you know, extracted from my interview with her what i thought would be a ni