Years has been civil war widows. He is currently researching a biography of a britishborn civil war widow, Elizabeth Louisa knights harris. Please help me welcome bob kenzer to the podium. [ applause ] before i begin my talk, i have a question for everyone in the audience. I want to do a little poll. How many of you this is the fifth of the five talks youve been it toto. I know one gentleman. Maybe half of you have been to all five. Okay. How many have been to four . Including this one obviously . Four. Three . Two . And one . Okay. Well, it just shows that youve been here before of the youve gone through the cycle. I begin with that question, oh, by the way, i have to tell you as you can see, im the fourth person whos speaking today. Originally, i was supposed to be the third person, but we changed the order a little. I have to wonder about conspiracies. [ laughter ] the fourth person has never been successful. [ laughter ] the fourth person comes after lunch. When your blood sugar is
Thank you for the kind introduction. Thank you for being here. Its wonderful to be in washington which was my home for many years. Ive done so much of the research for the book. When i told taxi drivers what i was doing. I was writing a biography. Most of him have heard of him. He bought alaska. [laughter] and thats right. But what else did he do . What was he like . Let me take that last question first. What was he like as a person . During the civil war years, he was in his early 60s. Short, lean man with as mas of sort of disorderly gray hair. Big nose, almost always a cigar in his mouth, and if it was any time past 5 00 in the evening a glass of wine near the hand. Talking, always, always talking. One of his also lived and famous host gathering around his table diplomats, soldiers, politicians, actors, you know, the life of the party. What he ask do . He was secretary of state for eight years under lincoln and president johnson. Before that he was a federal senator for 12 years. Be
Event. Its ban hoabout an hour and te minutes. Thank you very back here. I remember when i first made my brash entrance into the lincoln field, one of the first invitations i got was from this group. And i remember that what i had to say astonished many people, but they were polite. And steve carson made me squirm for my dinner by asking hard questions. But he too was a good he was very dubious about what i was saying. Im pleased to report that our friend, the late steve, told me not too long before he died, really, that he remembered that session. And he was gracious enough to say that his doubts had been relieved. And he agreed with me what i was arguing about. And, of course, it was as greg says, only a few years ago that we were honored my partner and i were honored for our editorial work by this group. And it was its something we are very proud of, and i cant thank you enough for that honor. You may not think that ive done you any favor of talking about the gettysburg address. Eve
Had to say astonished many people, but they were polite. And steve carson made me squirm for my dinner by asking hard questions. But he too was a good he was very dubious about what i was saying. Im pleased to report that our friend, the late steve, told me not too long before he died, really, that he remembered that session. And he was gracious enough to say that his doubts had been relieved. And he agreed with me what i was arguing about. And, of course, it was as greg says, only a few years ago that we were honored my partner and i were honored for our editorial work by this group. And it was its something we are very proud of, and i cant thank you enough for that honor. You may not think that ive done you any favor of talking about the gettysburg address. Everybody knows the gettysburg address. Most of you can recite it, im sure. Its the most famous speech in the world. A lot of people think its the best speech in the world. Its storied. There are endless, endless mythology about i
To kick off todays book festival, we have Kay Bailey Hutchison kicking off her book, turn to. Live coverage on cspan2 of booktv. Designed to support childhood literacy and increase company volunteerism. Through the program, more than 1 million books have been bred and donated to prekindergarten through seventh grade classroom libraries across the country. The search has shown that these years provide a crucial window of opportunity to establish a foundation for future success. Were teaching them to read, we teach them to learn to love to read. In addition to our reading first program, we gave away 1500 books to children at last Years National book festival and we hope to give away even more this year. For more than 160 years, we have been working with our customers and our communities to help them succeed financially. In 2012, wells fargo invested a total of 315 million in overt 19,000 nonprofits. At wells fargo, we recognize the importance and the significance of supporting organizati