[applause] his raining and i thought booklovers are going to want to stay in the henry. But, here you are. Thank you, and good morning welcome to the 2017 National Book festival. I am carla and i am honored to sam the 14th librarian of congress. As you can see, pretty excited to open this event. Our 17th consecutive celebration of books and reading. It is wonderful to see a full house in our largest presentation space. Not only will we have a full house at the convention center, but we also have millions of people joining us live on facebook. So thank you wherever you are for joining us. [applause] we have a fantastic linus of mainstage authors this year. What better way to kick off the festival than with one of our nations most beloved historians, mr. David mccullough. [applause] mr. Mccullers here for his sixth National Book festival appearance and we hope youll continue to make this a habit. He will be followed by diana. [applause] she is the author of the wildly successful outlander series and she is here for her fourth festival. Next is jd vance. [applause] his hillbilly elegy has struck a cord in the National Conversation about poverty in america. Thomas friedman barely needs an introduction. [applause] is an internationally recognized writer of the middle east on affairs and the environment. In Michael Lewis famous for his books about finance that he is equally famous about his books about as diverse as adoption in baseball. The screen adaptations of the blindsided medical have been enormously popular. And condoleezza rice. [applause] was secretary of state for the United States she is now on the faculty of Stanford University traveling from california to be with us today. Finally, mr. David. The fact for recordsetting a time at the festival his thrillers and books. People have been read by millions. Im pleased to turn this over to the person who helped make this festival possible and is our cochair, mr. David rubenstein. [applause] a true believer in the power of literacy and reading and what it can do for all of us. It would not have been possible to have this event without you, thank you. [applause] please welcome to the stage mr. David mccullough and mr. David rubenstein. [applause] [applause] [applause] welcome. How many people here were the first one at the book festival . How many have been to everyone how many is this the first time . How many people like the price of admission . [applause] so were honored to have david let me give you a brief background. David is a native of pittsburgh. [applause] grope one of four boys and a family where his father had a small Electrical Supply company, not quite General Electric but very impressive. David went to yell where he did well and graduated in 1955. Then went to new york, did not go back to pittsburgh despite his parents wishing him to do so and enjoined Sports Illustrated. Then he came to work out washington at usia. While there he had interested in something and then he wrote his first book which was a bestseller. That was his first book. The book will talk about today, the american spirit his written 11 books and hes working on his 12th book. Every one of his books still in print which is very unusual. As first book is almost 50 years old. [applause] so, he has won the Pulitzer Prize twice for his books on harry truman and john adams. Hes won the National Book price twice and have been given the president ial medal of freedom by president clinton. He was asked to speak to a joint session of con congress was given every honor. He has also been given 55 honorary degrees which must be a record. He has five children, 19 grandchildren and the love of his life is here his wife of 63 years. [applause] did you ever think right up in pittsburgh that you become the most famous chronicler of American History. Of course. I never imagine such a thing. What was your ambition is a child . I wanted to get good grades in school but not spend too much of my time worrying about that and then i got interested in girls and that took a lot of my thought and preparations once i got to college i knew i either wanted to be an artist or writer, or an architect for an actor. But i couldnt make up my mind so when i finish college i thought ill go to new york and see what happens. So i went there and a lot happened. Did your family say go there come back to pittsburgh. My father would call me and say well now its time for you to come back to pittsburgh and get a real job. He never understood, but i would go back all the time and im grateful i grope when i did at that time in that city. It was a lesson in history itself, it was a simulation for the arts of the literature the principle of our school was a founder of the first pbs station in America Carolyn patterson and the first Radio Station in america and i was invited to do a voiceover for it when i was still in high school. So, you want to Sports Illustrated. Thats not American History but what did you work on their. I worked in the circulation and promotion department. We have these tests mailings they call the other they would write for five different letters to people asking them to take an interest in this new magazine. And i asked if i could contribute a competitor in the test and i was told yes but you have to do it on your own time. So i was a trainee. So i wrote the letter and submitted it and they decided to use it and it won the test. From that time on i was looking good. The thing about Sports Illustrated is it was brandnew and nobody really knew where it was going or how to make it go and it was an exciting time. The holy spirit of the city was amazing. I went to work for 5000 per year. They gave me an extra 10 a week because i was married. So the stereotype of women was not just in salaries but expressed in other ways too. I found how many wonderful women there were working there and later when i came to washington i found some of the best people i work for were women. When kennedy ran i thought this was exciting and he was gonna make a difference and give us a chance to take part. When he gave his inaugural address and said do not ask what your country can do for you but you can do for your country. I took that to heart. I quit my job. I knew no one in the kennedy crowd. No one in the government. I came down went doortodoor looking for a place in the federal government for my training and education would be a propria. I wound up in luck would have it, and thats a big factor not just in our lives but in history is not sufficiently paid attention to. Hours on u. S. It was an exciting time. It stayed an exciting time for the three years until the president was killed. During that time i was in the library of congress doing research for articles we were to include in a magazine i was editing. And i was on this big table in the library photographs taken at johnstone right after the disastrous flood of 1889. I heard about the flood all my life but i knew nothing about it. I saw the devastating destruction and i couldnt believe my eyes. I thought, what happened. I took the book out of the library which was okay but the author didnt understand the geography of western pennsylvania. So i took another book out. Was a pot boiler written at the time the wall i was in college i had the good fortune to cross paths with wilder, the great playwright and novelist. He was asked, why do you rate the place you do, the subjects you choose he said, i imagine a story that i would like to be able to read and if i find nobody is written it so i can see it on stage her reading in the book, i write it so i can read it in a book or see performed on stage. I thought, why dont you try to write the book that you wish you could read about it as soon as i started working at the book at the library of congress i knew this is what i wanted to do. So did you quit your job at usaa . When kennedy was killed access to come back to new york to work at the American History magazine which was published with hardcovers and no advertising. Bruce was the editor. I worked there for six years and i wrote the jonestown flood at night and weekends for three years. After i had written the book that i got the idea for the next one i thought, i have to quit and see if i can do a full time. Because i was very to a very brave, wonderful woman. [applause] she said, if thats what you want to do, will do it. We had no outside income. We had an advance on the new book. After my book was published several publishers came to me. One wanted me to do chicago fire and one wanted me to do the San Francisco earthquake. I was hardly 30 years old and i sorry to be in typecast as bad news and i didnt like that. I wanted a symbol of positive affirmation. It took me a while to come up with the idea. I get my ideas from all over the place. I was having lunch with two friends, one was a Science Writer and the other an engineer. They started talking about all the builders of the Brooklyn Bridge didnt know they were in for. And i thought, theres my subject i came out of that lunch and went straight to the New York Public Library and up the stairs marble stairs to the old card catalog and i pulled out the juror there were over 50 cards on the subject of the Brooklyn Bridge but not one describing the book of the kind i intended to write. Was on the basis of that idea and the willingness of my publisher to go behind me and give me an advance that i was able to stop working fulltime. Ive never change publishers. He published all my books and i figured if i was loyal and faithful to them they would be to me and they have been. One wife and one publisher you might describe your style of writing. Its unique in the sense that your wife is involved in the process of helping you with the writing. How do you do that . Ive been confessing to this truth more lately than before, but i dont consider myself a historian. Have no degree in history know phd, i majored in english i only took the history courses that were required. And ive always believed one entree for the ear as well as the eyes. When you hear what you have written you hear words that youre using too often. Your sentence structures become repetitious and you hear what is boring. I had two or three wonderful writers help me along the way. Paul morgan, wonderful writer and charles is a brilliant man and writer and naturalist. They help me a great deal to understand that you have to cut back. You have to write and rewrite. All the best of them have been that way. My wife reads everything that i write to me out loud. She sometimes reads a Chapter Three or four times. When were working on my book about roosevelt, man tell the story . Where at the next to the last chapter and she said there something wrong with that sentence. I said read it again. She read it again. I said theres nothing wrong with that sentence and she said yes there is. And i read it aloud to her and i said see said no theres something wrong with that sentence. And i said just keep going place she kept going and i didnt do anything about that sentence. The book went to the publisher the publisher published it and it came back and had wonderful reviews including find review in the new york review of books. Up until he was about ten the review he said sometimes however he doesnt write very well consider this sentence. [laughter] some historians do a lot of research and then they write, you perhaps do Something Different you research and write why do you do it that way . I never undertake a bright a book about a subject i know much about. The research in the process then would not be an adventure. And to me each subject i undertake is a new experience. Im working on a detective case, i dont know much about the research from the last half of the book and i dont want to know that yet. I want to be involved with people involved in the story. I want to know them and inside their time people say to me youre working on a new book and i said yes but i really sam working in a book. You have to get in that time and understand those human beings. History is not about statistics and memorizing dates. Its about people. About human beings in the course of human events and we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those people i know what the life was like in the hardship and adversities was like. I was spoiled brats were that we have so much that we owed to them that we dont bother to know who they are. Its not right. [applause] so, i do the research as i go along. As you learn more than you have different questions. You have sk questions all the time. Why did this happen where was he, who was seek what were they worried about any have to keep learning more from the original sources, letters, diaries, on published memoirs and thats where the gold is, so much is right here in the library of congress. When i was working on the right brothers book all the letters they wrote to each other and their father are all here in the library of congress. You read those letters, these two young fellows who grew up in a house with no running water, no indoor plumbing no central heat, no telephone and you could put ten of them in this room tiny little house but it was full of books and their father insisted that they all read and they read about their level. Those letters they wrote expressed what he drummed into them, learn how to use the english language. Their vocabulary is breathtaking and they never finished high school. When i see the writing thats produced by College Students and learn the nearly half of all the law schools in our country are requiring Incoming Freshman for all College Graduates to take a basic writing course because they cant write a respectable presentable letter or report or proposal the work that they are going to have to be doing. We have to knuckle down and get back to learning how to write and read with concentration and understanding and teaching history. Were raising several generations of Young Americans and i know this because i lecture and teach universities all over the country. Were raising young people who are illiterate. Its not their faults i think some of the brightest people ive ever met other students ive been involved with we have to simulate curiosity and ask questions. Thank you have to have the answer. I dont have all the answers. I hope i never reach the point where think i have them all. In curiosity, one of the great writers have said curiosity is what separates us from the cabbages. When you are writing, do type, teases type or. Are you ready . Im proud to say i work on a manual typewriter. The weather breaks where do you get the parts . Its never broken. I brought it secondhand, ive always had that time his life with the typewriter on the job so, were living in new york and i went to the typewriter shop about a secondhand typewriter that was then 25 years old. I paid 75 for it. Ive written everything ive ever written, every speech, article, book on that typewriter for over 50 years and there is nothing wrong with it. There never has been. By no means to the notion entry into the minds of the manufacturers of that machine, its fantastic. Why this typewriter . Why not a word processor, it goes too fast. I i dont think all that fast. And if you hit the wrong button you can eliminate months of work. I have a friend is a very good book writer lost 5000 words because he hit the wrong button. Also i love to take the paper out of the typewriter after i finish a chapter, put it on the clipboard and find a comfortable place to take an outdoor chair and let that deter me show him how it should be done with the machine thats all eliminated. With this, you can see the process. The only other avid devoted typewriter man i know is tom hanks. He writes everything on the typewriter and he has what must be the worlds greatest typewriter collection. More than whats at the smithsonian. He understands perfectly why work on a typewriter. I urge others to do it. I urge others to remember how much work goes into writing a book. How many words to do a day before he say that that . In the old days i would do four pages a day when i was growing. Now i try to do two pages a day. In two pages at day is ten pages a week or more. By the end of the month you have a chapter. Are the beginnings of a chapter. Im often asked how much of my time i spent writing and how much of my time i spend doing research and its perfectly good question. Nobody has ever asked me how much of your time spent thinking. Class a lot. It may if youre looking in the window where work you might think that the guys asleep. [laughter] but i am thinking deeply. [laughter] one of my roles at the smithsonian, whenever you do retire into give us, can you give us that typewriter . I am not sure, i have to talk to the boss. Lets talk about this book. Your written templates before. This is your 11th book. We will talk shortly about the 12 books. It will be on 2019. This book is a compilation of your speeches and commencement talks. You have given you have near a world record of honorary degrees. What you have left to say that you have not said before . Do you get tired of saying the same thing to students . Are they really listening to his commencement speech is . The setting of every talk, everyone you meet is different. So you want to know something about the university where you are speaking or the college where you are speaking or if you are invited to speak lets say at the white house or the capital, you have to do the homework. See you do the research. I do a lot of research. Im very conscientious of what im saying is going to go on the record at that University Earth the lets talk about some of these speeches. This is a highly readable book i highly recommend it. Lets talk about one of his first speeches. You are asked to give a speech to the joint session of congress. Very few d citizens, private citizens are very rarely asked to do that could have that come about and what do you want to tell the members of congress . There was a gathering of historians and biographers that spoke at a conference here at the library of congress on the congress. After that