Why wouldnt the government have protections . It just wasnt done why wouldnt the government have a pension for officers and everybody else and not the president in fact he had very little money he had to borrow money quite secretly to pay for the move back home. This is not well known a doesnt mean he didnt have money but he needed cash to cover all of the expenses to move out of the white house. When he got home, in order to provide income he undertook the writing of his by autobiography in memoirs which no other president had ever done except for Herbert Hoover but his time was much briefer than trumans and his covered far more tumultuous history. So to undertake the twovolume that more was a major and ambitious task. And then he built his library. Now it was a previous president ial library but it was established after he died in officer truman was the first one to officiate over the president ial library and again he was beginning something one of the things i try to emphasize in the book is that truman was a very creative public figure and presidency he had been a builder all his life he built roads and court houses when he became president he built the famous truman balcony on the back of the white house under a great flurry of criticism and then he rebuilt the white house entirely the white house today is the house that harry built except for the outer shell which was maintained the original outer shell the entire is the reconstruction of the original house. He took part of every detail of that reconstruction. He loved building and creating and in a larger way his presidency is marked of innovative acts as the Marshall Plan and the truman doctrine. And so to be a builder in this last chapter of his life appealed to him tremendously. And building the library, having his office and taking people around that was his life except for his travels. Cspan did you meet him . I know i met him as a youngster i was very starry eyed i got a job in a magazine called Sports Illustrated i was coming home from work one night we lived in brooklyn i came out of a subway stop to see the st. George hotel and it was a small crowd waiting and then the governor stepped out i had never seen a governor before so i was quite excited and then out stepped president truman former president truman. I was astonished i remember thinking he is in color. Because we only had black and white television. Black and white newspapers. And i think the fact he had very high color he radiated good health made him seem a person. He certainly didnt seem like a little man to me. He was 6foot eight but i never spoke to him or met him. I often have thought went up be interesting if you could go back in time and i could reach out and touch them on the shoulder and say mr. President i will write your biography some day. Cspan knowing what you know about him what would he think . Im sure there is some of it he would like because after all it is an honest attempt to see the complete man. But i would hope that he would think i understood him better than other people have. He was a much more complicated and complex and keenly intelligent and thoughtful and considerate man than the stereotype implies. And playing give him hell harry just like that down home missouri will rogers. And all the people i have interviewed who knew him and worked with him in the white house, they all say please understand this man was much more than that. How many interviews . 126 that range across the Broad Spectrum some hardly knew him at all or saw him coming go as neighbors or people and independents but those that are so important i interview them many times over during the ten years of took me to write the book. Who did you spend the most time with . I would guess in total either Margaret Truman his daughter and Clark Clifford and some of the secret Service People who werent valuable because they were with him all the time many had never been interviewed before about him. Cspan her secret Service Allowed to talk after the fact . Apparently so. And they are wonderful because they saw him on one on stage and in all conditions and on under enormous pressure and with that assassination to the secret service men walked me through the whole event from inside and outside warehouse where it took place to spend the better part of one saturday doing that im sure thats never been done before so my account of that is based on material that can only be had by reaching that time through living people. And their devotion to harry truman is a very compelling thing to listen to. Thats true at all levels. I did not find a Single Person who want to tell me what the terrible backstage temper was or whether it was ungrateful. And the closer people were not just they like tim but they were devoted to him. And hoping i was hoping some people who didnt like him and had some skeletons to pull out but that never happened. Cspan why did you start . Ten years ago 1982. Cspan what was the reason . I was looking for a subject. I started working on a book of Pablo Picasso i had to go around there and i quit the book after a few months because i found i disliked him so. He was a repelling human being. He really didnt have a story at the time that interested me he was successful but he never went very far or had any adventures so to speak and immensely important painter and introducing modern art for the treatment of his family and attitude toward women he was not somebody wanted to spend five years with as a roommate so to speak. My editor at Simon Schuster suggested i think about doing Franklin Roosevelt because at that time there was not a good one volume biography. On impulse the visceral way i said no. If i do a 20th century president it would be roosevelt it would be harry truman. He said well why not harry truman . I looked into it and there was not a good biography of truman of a complete life and times this last chapter that you talk about that side has never been written before. It comprise 20 years of his life a very important part of his life. And beyond that there was a minutes collection of letters and diaries that he poured himself on paper all of his life and he left a very revealing record unlike of any president ive ever known and im sure will never have another president that has anything like that we dont write letters like that anymore and we dont keep diaries. He did both his whole life long before he ever realized he would be a figure in history but in one month in 1947 when he was president and his wife passe passed, harry truman wrote to her 37 times it wasnt just a simple how are you but these are real letters. They were all in longhand. Wonder for low clear straightforward handwriting but it was very legible so theres never a problem reading his handwriting. Seldom ever a problem when he was talking about. Cspan and last chapter you point out at some point he and his wife best call their daughter margaret every night in new york . Yes. They were very very close. The same people those secret Service Agents and white house staff and domestic staff said they were probably the closest family they have ever known in the white house. And they dont want to be quoted but they all say truman was their favorite president. The first president ever to walk out to the kitchen the first in their memory to think the chef or the cook for the dinner that night. And then coolidge come out once and they thought that was to see if anyone was stealing food. Truman knew everybody by name on staff, new about their families. He was a politicians device and thats the way he was the whole give him hell harry on the job in the white house with the lowest level or the highest level he never gave anyone helen never raised his voice. If anything he is remembered for how considerate he was. With small favors and courtesies he would do. John adams was born in 1735. He lived until 1826 nearly to the age of 91 lived longer than any president in history. He has been commonly thought of as a rich boston bluebird he was not any of those he was not rich or blue blood he was a farmer son who because of the scholarship to harvard discovered books forever. John adams was the most broadly read american of his time and lets remember it was john adams the second president of the United States who signed legislation to create the library of congress. So to talk about john adams and remember john adams is all together particularly appropriate on this occasion. A man of genuine brillianc brilliance, also a man of great art and humor and devoted to his country , truthful, devoted to his wife and famil family, hardworking, godfeari altogether the bravest patriot in history abrasive sometimes temperamental, sometimes tactless, sometimes overly concerned with his own position or place and also a man to his credit and also to his disadvantage that never considered popularity his mistress. He never courted popularity he was a man of principle his courage was his convictions and one of the most vivid and important examples of his principled behavior and conduct is he is the only founding father who never owned a slave as a matter of principle. We know thats important to judge those in the context of their time. That is correct and fair and historically the sensible thing to do but lets not forget john and Abigail Adams were also of their time and they opposed slavery. Abigail even more ardently than her husband at one point she says i wonder if all the travails and suffering we are going through our gods punishment for the sin of slavery. This San Andreas Fault of slavery that runs through our country story begins well before the revolution. Just as the revolution is too many people seem not to understand began well before the declaration of independence. The declaration of independence and John Dickinson was in many ways launching into a storm in a skiff made of paper what made it more than just a piece of paper was the fact we succeeded in the revolution, in the war we fought for and succeeded to gain our independence. And john adams and he would say independent and free you have to have independence and that is a way of life. And that was religion that is of the utmost importance to understand that time and that age and moment in history and those protagonists. And the separation of church and state and they all did two. But in their time and mind and eyes and spirits does not mean the separation of church. So we have to understand their life and their whole outlook and what would happen next. Long distance communication a lot of time and travail and is almost beyond our recognition to get a letter from philadelphia and boston or where the adams lived took at least a few weeks. And then they separated the cumulative lead ten years and that separation was created by the Atlantic Ocean and to communicate across the Atlantic Ocean took upwards of three through six months. And what did that mean cracks it meant both it and personal life and in diplomatic and official life that one had to be more responsible than we understand today for ones own decisions. Abigail adams at home running the farm to balance account accounts, and keep good people working to make the farm work. To educate the children, making decisions whether to get smallpox shots. Had to make those herself. She cannot pick up the phone and ask what should i do. That is a part of life. The assumption of responsibility to ones self. When adams was serving in france and netherlands and as a diplomat to make momentous decisions on his own that would affect the course of events but also career. And he made it because it was necessary. And we think of communication and transportation is two Different Things no faster than a sailboat that is the difference. Because they lived in a different time. A very different time. And a very interesting time. I tried to read not only what they wrote but did they write. Neither john nor abigail was capable to write a dolt sentence or a short letter. [laughter] and just between the two of them they wrote a thousand letters to each other that survived. Shirley more than that all the Massachusetts Historical Society and all on rag paper as a consequence they are as good as the day they were written. You can hold them in your own hand and you hold that letter the same distance from your eyes as they did as they did and believe me something tactful and something very visceral important happens when you work with the real thing. Is not the same to see it on microfilm or reproduced in the book. The humanity, the vulnerability to come through since five in the morning. But nearly always to insert into the letter a wonderful quote from her favorite poets and always getting a little bit wrong which so she did not look it up she wasnt taking it off the shelf to copy it. And that was a part of her. And an equally rewarding experience. And those that are required to read those english courses and hope and swift and the novels of samuel richardson. Had to be reminded of how terrific they were. What wonderful writers. We talk about progress in heaven knows we live with the benefits of all time when we go to the dentist. [laughter] not a tooth in his head. [laughter] they had them all pulled. Long before novocain. But we have a search and vanity but when you read what they wrote in the 18th century, i dont think anybody does it any better today or as well. And i will tell you Something Else that will make us all set up and shape up that the Literacy Rate in massachusetts was higher in their time than it is today. What a disgrace that is. And what good work and a lot of work still has to be done about that. The books that they read, that affected their lives as they do our lives and our time , they affected the notion of truth, heroism, right and wrong and how you write a letter he advised Young John Quincy dont strain for thrills and fancy affect, right the way you talk. So when you read his letters and to a very large degree you hear them talk and one of the things i have done in my books and in particular this book one of the ways i approach biographies is to let them talk as much as possible. Most of life is talk. How they talk, the words they use, vision figures of speech the cadence is a reflection of personality of style and the person and abigail is hugely influenced by the writings of richerson which is one of the most popular novels of the 18th century and she wrote a very interesting letter to say you read clarissa and write your letters they are in the novel the whole novel is just letters. That is all it is people writing letters back and forth but they are written to the moment what is happening right now and thats the way abigails letters are written. All those that she wrote to her husband were written a large part because they were separated for so many years and they are suffering and because of the separation is to our advantage as a consequence we have the letters. But even when she wasnt separated from her husband she would write to somebody else, her sister, some the best letter she ever wrote but she needed to write. She needed to work her thoughts out on paper her feelings out on paper and this is a very important point about writing for all of us, you sit down and you start to write something and find you have insight or thought you never would have had if you did not require to write something about writing focuses the brain in a different way. We have some video of your home and your writing shed. Where is it . First of all brian it is not a shed it is headquarters. Thats our home in massachusetts the village and the center of Marthas Vineyard the house as part of the 18th and 19th century that is the back porch over the acre that we own where we have gardens and a nice reach back to bordering to a neighboring farm that has been in the same family since it was first settled that measures 12 by 8 feet and that window is on all four sides i love it and my faithful typewriter that has since 18 1965 every book ive ever written on that. Theres nothing wrong with it. It is an example of a beautifully made american machine and then as 750,000 miles and runs perfectl perfectly. Cspan but sent john adams in this room . Everything. Part of that was with richard in charlottesville we live there a better part of a year when i was doing research at the library at the university of virginia. But essentially all of it was written here in that room. Cspan wendy wright quick. All day every day. Im not writing all day. Im reading or correcting im going over notes there is no telephone. No music. There is a nice view but i have my back so im not tempted by it. And to see general washington with those soldiers marching along. I hope they show that want to show that at the end theres a guy at the end i identify with always a little slow. Hes catching up. And then i look at him and with that example. So why work out there when the children were young we didnt want to walking around. And as a call to me as we work and thats how we got interested. From the adams letter to abigail and then as indicated there. And those figures that are at home. And of course its very important. And in the john adams book. I take everything a wonderful crayon drawing of a french artist. It is one of the best representatives of him. I love drawing and painting and the only way we can see those people of the utmost importance. And those are letters of George Washington. And those dug up on the propert property. How long have you lived in that house . In 1965 and pay less than you would pay for a car today. And we so one slowly began to restore it off the street. And our writer in residence and spending the aggregate of half the year at least working on the truman book. This is where all of the paraphernalia for communications are located the fax machine, coffee machine, computer it says no cell phones permitted. And then to have lunch. That is a photograph smoking one speaking of the joint session of congress. And then some grandchildren. Rosalies grandfather. And the house on Marthas Vineyard. And those around the house and one from the hotel room. How long does it take . They were done pretty quickly as watercolors. That was a sketch of it. So something we always love to do and the oldest daughter melissa