Serve on the committee that chose truman for the award of biography 1993 and the ceremonies i first got to meet him briefly and come to admire his work and i know all of you do as well the lecture and historian the narrator of distinguished most historical series a recipient of the National Book foundation distinguished contribution and twice received the National Book award the most recent book is john adams. Other books include the johnstown flood warnings on horseback and truman so on behalf of laura bush and the library of congress and all readers everywhere please welcome david mccullough. [applause] thank you. What a warm welcome and thank you for your introduction. Im thrilled to be here and to take part and honored to take part with this historic and marvelous event. What a thrilling day this is to see thousands of people here on capitol hill the american acropolis right at the heart of the greatest libraries of the world. And to see it all with thousands of people out there today of all ages all parts of the city and country all in celebration of the book the miraculous ingredient called the book. There has never been a National Book festival never in the history of our country. And never a first lady who was a librarian to start and who got behind books, made a festival like this happen. She deserves all of our heartfelt thanks. [applause] i am extremely partial to librarians. [laughter] they have been my guiding stars. But for 40 years trying to become a writer of history and biography and here in this library, while i was employed in a government job as a young man, that i first discovered history and my vocation and found that what i wanted to do. So i can never ever express sufficiently my gratitude to the library of congress. Or to the Library System overall. If you think what we had in the public Library System, nothing like it in the world. When you walk through the doors of the Public Library, anywhere in the country, little town, big city , you walk through the portals of freedom. It is all there, all the wonder and journeys and touching experiences which move the heart, not just the mind and all three in a time and society were very little is free anymore. So thank god for the Public Libraries and librarians and lets give more support than we do to the public Library System. If you ever get down about the state of our country there are more Public Libraries in america than mcdonalds. [laughter] [applause] i would not be here or the life i have had order to discover those nuggets of idea leading to my first book if not my editor in chief was also here today. And chairman of the ethics committee. [laughter] and my wife and i i would like you to meet her please. [applause] we were just talking to a reporter from the Washington Post outside and told him she was my editor in chief and he said maybe you should call her editor and chief. [laughter] i have been privilege with my subjects i felt all along i have had wonderful rare chance to write about events past and turning points figures that are a protagonist in times past that are almost without equal as sources of story and understanding of who we are and where we come from. And also to go inside those times past to find out what it was like and the three books that i have done that are biography with truman and roosevelt and adams that i have what was described when she said a biographical subject should be someone that serves a lens through which you can see a whole era or time. And i must say for all i have enjoyed and learned from my subjects in the past years, i never ever had six more enjoyable years than i have had writing the story and life of john adams. I should say john and Abigail Adams. It has been a journey such as i have never had before i never set foot in the 18th century before. When one goes into the 18th century you give up a great deal that is advantageous to the writing biography in the 19h and 20th centuries. There are no photographs, no old outtakes from television interviews. Very few examples of what we take to mean as journalism to bear very little resemblance to the newspaper coverage that continues into our own time. But what it does have and in many ways are the letters and diaries of the people of the time but in the case of the adams it is possible because of what they wrote and their letters to each other and other members of the family and their diaries, to know them better than we can know any of the founders. Not even franklin takes us into his confidence the way john adams did. He poured out his innermost feelings all of his life on paper. Sometimes to his detriment to tell us more than he should. He was a wonderful writer as was abigail. Either one could of been a professional writer and have a career as a reporter or biographer or novelist. With a perfectly on perfectlys superb command of the language. When they think what they had to go through just to get through the day, the discomfort discomforts, labor, hard work, threats to ones health, and everyday life beginning at 5 00 oclock in the morning that with the long strenuous day, to put up with the inconvenience and concerns that never enter our mind today that they would sit down at the Kitchen Table or desk in philadelphia in a cramped boarding house it is exceptional and humbling one of the reasons i tried as best as i could to explore that time it was a very different time that it seems to me we can never know enough about the founding generation and era. We must never take it from on for granted we must understand what they did and against the odds they face , the personal sacrifice and the danger and risk of life one was signed you were recording you were a traitor and if caught you were hanged at best legal you to be drawn and quartered. Its not inconceivable that couldve happened. The temptation always is to look back at times past as events happening in a prescribed order we are taught this way in school that this follows this we get it straight and memorize it it is on the test on thursday so therefore you come away thinking it was on track and preordained in fact nothing was on track all of those events of times past could have gone off in any number of Different Directions for Different Reasons along the way. And most importantly keep in mind what they didnt know. There is a hubris where we look back to say they didnt behave intelligently why they didnt realize is what happened . That is a huge advantage and arrogance of hindsight they dont know how that will come out. None of them. They took a poll of the country in 1776 deciding to go ahead they would have scrapped the whole thing. Only about one third was for it another third was adamantly against it and others were waiting to see how it came out. [laughter] the idea this scattered small population a settlement only reaching 50 miles along the Eastern Shore of the country was going to revolt the most powerful empire in the world and seem preposterous no colonial people had ever successfully broken away from the empire ever before in history. Furthermore none had any experience in revolution or nationbuilding. Always remember they were not starting off to launch a broadway show but founding a country. [laughter] in our vernacular, they were winging it and the miracle is they did what they did as human beings. The very first line of the declaration of independence, lets never forget when in the course of human events the crucial word is human they were human beings. Had feelings and flaws. They were vulnerable and inconsistent and contradictory and subject to ambition that all human beings are doing dumb things. Each of them. None were perfect by any means. They were not superman or god. If they were gods they wouldnt deserve much credit because god can do whatever they want. They were human beings and the fact a rose to the occasion and saw they were in one of the great dramas of all time and they had better play their part well is the miracle that they did it and succeeded. John adams was born 1735 living to the age nearly of 91. You live longer than any president in history. Commonly thought of as a rich boston bluebird on blueblood. He was a farmers son who because of a scholarship to harvard and discovered books that he read forever. And now lets remember it is john adams second president of the United States to sign legislation to create the library of congress so to talk about john adams it is altogether appropriate at this occasion. He was a man of genuine brilliance. Also a man of great heart, great humor, devoted to his country, truthful, his wife, family, godfearing and altogether one of the bravest patriots in history he was abrasive sometimes temperamental tactless sometimes overly concerned with his own position or place for posterity and also a man to his credit never considered popularity his mistress he never recorded popularity his courage was the courage of his convictions and one of the principal behaviors and conduct in life the only founding father who never owned a slave as a matter of principle. We know its important to judge those who did in the context of their time. That is correct and fair and the sensible and sound thing to do but dont forget they were also of their time in a proslavery. Abigail perhaps more ardently than her husband. At one point she says i wondered if all the travails and suffering we are going through is gods punishment for the sin of slavery. The San Andreas Fault of slavery that runs through the country story begins well before the revolution just as the revolution seem to not understand began well before the declaration of independence. John dickinson was in many ways launching into a storm of a skiff made of paper what made it more than just a piece of paper was the fact we succeeded in the revolution that we fought for and succeeded to gain our independence and john adams were not of said free and independent but independent and free and then comes the freedom after the independents and new englanders by nature and cultural tradition were fiercely independent people independence was a way of life and so was religion this is the utmost importance to understand that age and moment in history and the protagonist. We believe strongly in the separation of church and state and to a large degree they all did too but the separation of church and state did not mean separation of church and statesmen. If we really want to understand that we have to understand the part religion played in their outlook on what might happen next. They also had very Long Distance communication to take a lot of time and travail it almost beyond our reckoning to get a letter back and forth between philadelphia and boston where the items lived it took at least two weeks communication across the ocean when they were separated cumulatively ten years and that separation was created by the Atlantic Ocean and to communicate upwards of three to six months. What does that mean cracks adjustment in the personal life and diplomatic or official life one had to be more responsible than we understand today for ones own decisions. Abigail adams at home running the family and farm trying to keep people working with her to make the farm work because that was their only means of subsistence try to educate the children make decisions and to get smallpox shots park one. Had to make those herself she could not call her husband and ask. That was a part of life the assumption of responsibility to oneself when adams was serving in france and the netherlands as a diplomat again and again he had to make momentous decisions on his own that would affect the course of events at the time but also his own career. He made them because that was necessary nothing could be communicated any faster but at that time it was the same thing the vast difference they lived in a different time. Very different time in a very interesting time. I try to read not only what they wrote and they wrote. Neither john nor abigail was capable to write a short letter or a double sentence. And just between the two of them over 1000 letters to each other that survived. All at the Massachusetts Historical Society all on rag paper as a consequence they are as good as the day they are written you can hold them in your own hand and you are holding that letter the same distance from your eyes as they did with two hands. Believe me something tactful and very important, visceral happens when you are working with the real thing. Is not like microfilm are to be reproduced in about. The humanity immortality and the vulnerability comes through and the bravery. And shes in her kitchen 11 00 oclock at nine up since 5 00 a. M. Doing all she did to sit down and write those letters and nearly always to insert a wonderful quotation from one of her favorite poets or shakespeare and nearly always getting in a little bit wrong. [laughter] which shows she didnt look it up she didnt take a book down and say this will make me look erudite. She knew it. It was a part of her. That there is an equally important and rewarding experience not just what they wrote but what they read. I did a small piece in the Washington Post all of those that were required to read in courses in college and the novels of Samuel Richardson. And to be reminded of how terrific they were and what wonderful writers. We talk about progress living with the benefits of progress all the time certainly when we go to the dentist. [laughter] when i think of poor john adams at the end of his life not a tooth in his head everyone had to be pulled long before novocain. We had a certain vanity and arrogance about progress but when you read what they wrote in the 18th century nobody does it any better today or as well. And Something Else that ought to make us all stand up and shape up is a Literacy Rate in massachusetts was higher in their time than it is today. What a disgrace that is. And what a lot of work still has to be done about that. The books that they read affected their lives as they do our lives and our time. The notion of truth and heroism right and wrong and how you write a letter and john adams advised him dont try to write literature when you write. Dont strain for thrills or fancy effect. Right the way you talk. It is a letter. So when you read his letter letters, you hear them talk. One of the things i have done in my books and particularly in this book the way i approach biographies, is to let them talk is much as possible. Most of life is talk if you think about it. And how they talk, the words they use, the cadence in figure of speech is the cadence of personality, style. Abigail was hugely influenced by the writings of Samuel Richardson the great novel of the 18th century and she wrote a very interesting letter to her knees and said read clarissa and write your letter the way they are in the novel the whole novel is just letters. Thats all it is writing letters back and forth to each other. And mrs. Way those are written all of those that they wrote to the husband is in large part because they were separated and the suffering they experienced because of the separation is to our advantage because we have the letters. But even when she wasnt separated from her husband she would write to somebody else. She needed to write she needed to work her thoughts and feelings out on paper. This is a very important point about writing for all of us after the experience you sit down and write something you find you have an insight or a thought you never would have had if it did not force yourself to write. Something about writing focuses in a different way. It when they wrote those letters that was a need they were filling in their own way to approach life i will write about it then understand it better which is why john adams encouraged his son john quincy as a little boy to keep a diary. He kept it for 68 years. John quincy adams diary is one of the great treasures of American Literature not just american history. John quincy i think its fair to be said was a man even more brilliant than his father or Thomas Jefferson all the president s of the United States were given the iq test john quincy would come first. He wasnt a particularly successful president his heroic time is when he came back after the presidency to serve in Congress Something no other president has done ever or since. He died on the floor of congress which is now statuary hall. Battling slavery the same theme that runs through the adams family. And he wanted to be there because he wanted to serve. He saw no stepping down from the presidency congress. None. Nor do i think they see the presidency is the ultimate objective of his career he doesnt see life as climbing a mountain or a ladder of success. More closely is the example or the metaphor of the journey. The presidency was just part and necessarily the most important part. A word about his final year years, every biographer has to face not just questions of analysis and the gathering of information but writing problems and questions. Here is a man who served his country for more than 25 years and never not answered the call of this country to serve. Never. David never have anything much service. And has no power, has no influence, theres no popularity. It just novella living on his farm. South of boston in quincy, massachusetts. I thought, how my going to handle that. I can just a, will he went home from the white house. [laughter]. He didnt do much of anything pretty lived on virtually every years. [laughter]. Nor it was all entirely tedious, day after day and nothing happening, cannot possibly expect any intelligent reader to stay with another 50 pages about that. As lawson that we often worry about things we should worry about. In fact, in the final years of his life from the last two chapters of the book, many ways the most interesting part of the whole story. That was the inward journey beginning thin. In the inward ginny is because he was a man of such death. And such turmoil worried who needed the result love about himself about his family and his thoughts and his own mortality. It was beset by one terrible vote of another. Lots of children, grandchildren. While he had one child was really a property prophecy, a young quincy, and the president. Another son, charles, a very popular and lovable child. Who killed himself with alcohol. And by the time he was in his early 30s. His beloved daughter, died in the house there in quincy. Nasa still there for all this to visit read as a consequence of a hideous mess ectomy rated is performed in the house. It was back in the day before and aesthetics. The horror that one can even imagine. And of course her mother and father were right outside of the door. And then the of his wife, abigail. In his declining health which was declining strike. But the old flame, the old blue flame. Of the mind blaze and writing to the end. Interestingly, this man who had been called a pessimist, he was a realist so much of his life. Him him increasingly optimistic. It is a wonderful line when the spirit of st. Paul, he said i have vowed to rejoice evermore. This was when terrible things were happening. He said i down to rejoice evermore read if i can. It is that wonderful if i can at the end. [laughter]. And your heart goes out to him. As i hope you know, he died, much as on any day. The day of days. With the fourth of july, the same day as Thomas Jefferson died in faroff charlottesville. Jefferson died in the morning and adams died in the late afternoon. And adams, among his last words, they were literally as last words but jefferson survives. It is a great story, these two friends began his friends. Began his Close Friends and became bradberry while serving the diplomats abroad. And then in the new government, new George Washington administration, found themselves, on opposite sides of the emerging twoparty system became political rivals. And ultimately political enemies. And there was a period of about ten years when they refused to speak to each other. But in 1812, adams to rekindle the friendship, to bring about reconciliation he wrote a letter to jefferson and commenced one of the great correspondence and her history lasted until final year. 1926. 1826. There were not just present at the creation, those two extraordinary men. They made the creation happen. Adams was the voice, and jefferson was the pen. There were two strikingly different and to every different worlds of massachusetts and virginia. Anyone who understand those times, and who we are and why we are the way we are, its important to seems to be extremely important to understand the different different parts of the country for thin. I would like to finish by bringing you something that was written in the 14th century read and jefferson and adams both knew. They both had written almost for certain. It was written by or to a friend was mark. In the year 1346. John adams and Thomas Jefferson were two of the greatest booklovers of their day. Each had a large and very valuable library. Adams looks the Public Library in boston. The boston Public Library jefferson books are here. Those of them who have survived. But this was written a good 400 years before Thomas Jefferson and john adams and its exactly the same spirit of what each of them felt and which i think so many of us feel today and one of the reasons were here to celebrate a festival, a National Book festival. Writing and 1386. Divine city has rescued me from almost all of the human desires. One is not entirely at least in big. This is evans doing pretty though my character of the passage of time has contributed. I have seen many things and meditated much. And alas i have begin to understand the worth of those activities that educate human race. That you may not think im immune to all fans of failings. I learned that one unquenchable passion possesses me which so far anita could not nor would repress. I flatter myself the longing for where they things, that are not unworthy. You expect the name of some disease yes it is that they cannot say, my lust for books. Perhaps now i have more books than i need it is with books as a with other things that the more one gets the more one wants. If there is Something Special about books. Gold, silver, gems, purple roles and broad lands of paintings of horses with rich trappings. All such things, bring only a mute superficial pleasure. But books, thrill you to the marrow. The talk to you predict a council you read it and miss you to their living and speaking, friendship. Nor do they insinuate themselves alone into the readers spirit. They introduce other books read each one creates a desire with another. [laughter]. Thank you. [applause]. [inaudible]host ugly we have tr some questions. So i will pass the microphone back. Thanks much. Guest the jews cover about charles, the signer of the declaration in maryland. David he was the last surviving signing, was he not yes. I never found anything. There that doesnt mean that the present something. About his catholicism are a dealings with that absent jefferson have pretty think the most interesting thing that i found, about adams and catholicism was that he attended a Catholic Church. Jill Catholic Church. Still very much a part of philadelphia greeted his percent he had ever inside of the Catholic Church and he wrote a wonderful letter to abigail describing the entire mass. Lasted two hours. [laughter]. He didnt leave. Interestingly, washington, George Washington attended say mass. It seems to be no explanation of why my event. They went together. Ono is that each of them was there that same day. In the letter, back to abigail. He describes the priest pretty in the look inside of the church. He describes the whole mass. He said he thought about moving a novel. Max and understandably, many people read that, and many people have written about the have taken that to mean, just one of those narrowminded the new england people. In fact, he meant full all. Awful did not mean same those days. You have to be very careful about the language of the 18th century. Words have different meanings. Very serious mistakes can be made there. Yes her. Guest the purpose of the book you find that you started to write a torn biography of adams and jefferson. Im curious to know what point did you realize you just wanted to write about adams and what did you reach that decision. David indeed was going to write a dual biography will be god being at work between the two very interesting and very different men. In our lives. My worry, my concern was a jefferson with his star quality. In his gifts. The romance of his house on the mountaintop and all the things and feels much less we can balance was so command the stage that the short stout john adams, by husband in the shadow for several hundred years not have a chance. How could give them equal time. Happy to give them equal importance. Really be the least of my concerns. Because once management were it didnt take very long. I realize that adams was a story i wanted to tell. And adams, tells mark. Is there for us reaching out constantly as if hes trying to find a human being. And is often there. Adams for example, wrote extraordinary letters to his wife and she to him. Virtually all of their lives. Theyre very revealing informative of feeling. Jefferson back on first destroyed every letter plenty of our roads and every letter she wrote to him. We dont even know what she looked like. Is very guarded man. He didnt want people to know about what he really felt, the most fears and worries and anger. Hello. Other shelves of books, but jefferson, there are relatively few books about an entry procedure have been books about Andrew Goodman but not the book i want to write. As soon as i saw that it should be evans, is if somebody giving up a track a disco. His liberating. This is more about that major the biographer. But when they have learned from his go where the material is pretty. [laughter]. Otherwise you resorting to conjecture. All leaders people were writers. As a reader of voice symbols conceivable or possibly king we have been thinking store for thing someone. Thats getting on very thin ice and is tiresome after a while. I also was usually influenced by the presence of abaco. Thought about writing a biography by abigail. I honestly feel like i have already written about her because you cant like life about john adams without writing about abigail. Yes. Guest as it public education, and what i had always heard the just practically dismiss the federalist. And it was overwhelmed with the depths of the person in only really owed to him. I drive around the washington and i see the memorial and the monuments. It just seems like something is missing. David the question is what we deserve to get some visible and tangible symbolic expression of the importance of john adams. Ill yes indeed. Very strong we should. That should be. I think it will be decided by creative people of good things. The house is already voted for this. Whether the senate will, is remain to be seen. I do have nine hamper what the memorial to john and Abigail Adams should be. [applause]. I would like to tell you what it is. [laughter]. I think not to be a library. The gotta be the library of american letters and not to be, my idea of heaven is a library in a garden. In the mall so far as an oasis, another marble monument marble temple. A library which would give changing exhibits an american letters meeting not just literally letters with American Literature. The books of john adams of the works of john quincy adams. Changing exhibits of the letters were literary accomplishments of other people of other americans a few times. Very tacky doctor billington and direct erica Massachusetts Historical Society as conceivably library of congress. Willing to have some of those treasures alone. Northerners cases of these wonderful spirited documents and you browse look. Living with the card not to be partly one of the kind that i have some fruit trees. The kind they had. Remember you heard it here first. [laughter]. [applause]. Guest you have a building by the name of the Adams Building help. For mr. Adams. And we talk about how he helped, he was the beginning of the library of congress. And wondered if in fact, reading, did you find letters about how he wanted this library to me. David i think it was always for it. Last night, i read the letter that he wrote to jefferson when jefferson sold this library to replace the library of congress that had been destroyed by the british during the war of 1812. And adams are back to simulate and view it no mortal, writing books. He loved them. Thank one of the happiest and proudest moments when he signed his signature was signing legislation. Yes are you have been very patient. Guest . [inaudible]. I wonder if you would do us a favor of writing. [laughter]. David thank you. [laughter]. Im going to take a little breather from biography. When asked what was going to go back to writings in history and next time. Not going to tell you what it is just a viable state 18th century. I am very happy there. [laughter]. Im going to stay in the revolution. So to be in the year 1776. Beyond that them outside. [laughter]. Would like to conclude with one observation. The huge advantage of growing up in pittsburgh, pennsylvania where the first thank you. [applause]. Refers library was established. New not just down the street, there were also in every school. It was library the school. On the right school. The first day that i went to school. Remember those long falls, and stairways be very grand way back recently to visit the school treated they found that the school very always were very long and just as impressive as i had remembered it as a child. Merging in the hall into library. We sat down little tables. The library introduces to the library into this is where you come read books. A few minutes i will tell you table by table the book and had him get up and go pick the book of any choice you want. She said have you all brought your library shoes. [laughter]. And sinema god. [laughter]. My mother didnt tell me about any about library shoes into the state i can come in thinking have a life library shoes on. [laughter]. So manually, number two bring your library shoes pretty. [applause]. [applause]. Host thank you again for coming. Inside the room and orders. His ideal the library and garden. Not for many reasons but also tells about library shoes. Please go out and enjoy the rest of the book festival pretty thank you pretty. [applause]. [background sounds]. Host excuse me ladies and gentlemen. Theres on the Program Starting soon. We need to leave this room. Theres a book signing a debacle at oclock. The book signing as by david mccullough. Need to cleanse from now. [background sounds]. Host . Ellipsis saturday evening, book tv has taken an opportunity to show you several programs from our archives. Featuring a wellknown author. Tonight this is david mccullough. Bestselling book, including biographies of adam countrymen. A history of the flood as well as the construction of the panama canal