Find out more about that. Tonight our guest author is going to be interviewed by gawrt, a distinguished magazine journalist. He covers politics, technology and [inaudible] contributes to wired and the author of multiple books including the Number One National best seller the only plane in the sky an oral history of 9 11. Inside Robert Muellers fbi and often rock about the governments [inaudible] hes also and memorably did a great interview there back in february in the manchester north sure we could do things like that. And hopefully, well do that again when we can. And i am so pleased to welcome tim wiener back to northshire. He was saying hes done events in vermont for his last four books, and we are lucky enough to host him in our store back in 2016 when his wonderful Richard Nixon boy owe came out bio came out. I remember it very, very fondly. He has won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book awar for his reporting and writing on National Security and intelligence. He covered the
Village in steel. Ng im not going to concentrate much on the book. T my editor, jerry kern, is a huge fan of the book. He has specific questions. Im goingdi to talk more about int a sense the process. Sense. You are now in what you call the dark country of no ideas. That is a term i didnt come up with. My good friend and publicist came up with it when i am looking for a period to describe my next book. When i finish a book i have no other idea on my plate and start from scratch. It is a longish process taking about a year before starting the next project during which i am unpleasant and snappish and pissy. That process do you sort of read not indiscriminate and go from there . I wish i had a way to distill the process. It is mostly chance. I do things that i hope will try to jog things lose in my mind. I will walk through the stacks in my Favorite Library in seattle and just pull books at random and just read to see what the book is about as a way to expose myself to new things and boo
Up to questions and i hope that theyll be plenty of them. Sam battle was born in 1883 to a large family in newborn, north carolina, 22nd of 25 children in the family. His parents were former slaves. His father was a minister in the african methodist church. His mother was the daughter of a black slave and white slave master. He grew up in a warm, loving, faithbased, achievement driven home and had incredibly childhood. 1883, hes born into the first post slavery generation. He proved to be a young guy who has no sense of limitations. His parents told him that he would have no limitations. He could achieve whatever he want today achieve, but if he wanted to be educated, he could be educated. But if he wanted to become a lawyer, he could become a lawyer. His early years, he was a big young man. In fact, when he was born, he was recorded that he was 16 and a half pounds and the largest child born in that vicinity. Later on in life, he would say i was born large and so i lived large. That w
Watergate scandal. [inaudible conversations] im going to put this down here for just now. Okay. Good ioning. Good evening. Im bradley graham, coowner of politics prose along with my wife, lissa muscatine. On behalf of the entire staff, thank you so much for coming. A few quick administrative notes. Now would be a good time to silence any cell phones or other things that might go beep. When we get to the q a art of the session part of the session, we invite anybody to ask a question, but we ask that if you have a question, first, you put it in the form of a question and, second, you make your way to this microphone up here, because we are videoing both for our own youtube page and cspan tv is here this evening as well. Theyd like to be able to hear your question. And at the end, before you come up to get your book signed, our staff would appreciate it very much if youd fold up the chairs that youre in and lean them against the bookcases or a pillar. The topic this evening is, of course,
This was a true labor of love. I researched my topic for three years and spent a yearplus writing it. It is hummabling and gratifying to see it so well received, and to be following walter isakson, robert caro, and tony. [applause] i came to develop a strong interest in Paul Jennings when i was director of education at James Madisons month peelier in virginia. I was familiar with jennings memoir considered by the White House Historical association to be the first memoir of life in the white house. It was titled a colored mans rem innocences of James Madison, and as the title implies, its really more about the socalled great man than it was about the author himself. My interest was in Paul Jennings. I set out to discover elements of his own biography to uncover the circumstances behind the original publication of the memoir in 1865 and to find an interview living direct descendents. A slave in the white house, Paul Jennings and the madisons is the story of Paul Jennings unique journey f