And you can watch full programs on our website, booktv. Org. Welcome back everybody. Lets get started. Imdealer kites, your room host of the day. Were a little weary by this time but im glad to be here. Im also chair of the brick 11 literary society. Turn your cell phones off, thank you all for coming. Lets thank our sponsors, we need to do that in every session because they are so important to the success of the fair so thanks to knight foundation, poway gel, or a gain of construction, bachelor foundation, the degroot foundation. As always, thank you to all the friends of the book fair. We hope everybody who is in this room will be a friend by next year so you can enjoy all the activities that are available for friends during here. We thank our volunteers, we thank the staff of the book fair and super big thanks to miamidade college. Thanks to all. [applause] we have a big crowd for a mighty important author to let me start by introducing his introducer. Marcia dunn is a longtime miami resident and she has been, talk about good examples, a friend of the Miami Book Fair since the first year. How many of you are founding book fair friends . Anybody else around as long as marcia . A few. Okay, good. Anyway, she is an alumna of Barnard College and the university of miami school of law. She supports many institutions in town but says she is most devoted and most passionate about the book fair. She says that the popularity of the book says more about the intellectual climate of miami than any other event and i think we all agree with her so please welcome marcia dunn who will introduce our next conversationalist. Thank you. [applause] im first going to introduce leigh haber who is going to be the questioner for Colson Whitehead. Lee is the books editor for o, the Oprah Magazine and as we know, oprah selected the underground railroad as one of her books for this year. We lay began her career at a new day for the washington post. After moving to new york she became a publicity director for harcourt and other publishers. Her first love is editing. She worked as an editor with many famous writers,alice walker, denise martin, lou reed , the list goes on. Id like to welcome leigh haber whos going to be our questioner. [applause] Colson Whitehead was hailed as one of americas most talented and innovative authors before the publication of the underground railroad. His eighth book. A native new yorker, harvard graduate and professor, macarthur genius award winner , guggenheim fellow, whiting writers award winner, Mister Whitehead is now the recipient of the 2016 National Book award for fiction. [applause] we are so fortunate to have him here. The novel was published to uniform claim, both for its devastating accounts of the terrible human cost of plagiarism and for its unique style. Mister whitehead freely mixes the surreal with the real and it changes Chronological Order of events to create a novel of tremendous, chilling power. This detail of horror, a slave on a plantation in georgia in the 1800s, the opening sentence says it all. The first time caesar approached cora about running north he said no. I urge all of you to discover what happens when he asked sir the second time. And now its my great pleasure to introduce Colson Whitehead and welcome him to our Miami Book Fair. [applause] howdy, thanks so much for coming, thanks to the Miami Book Fair for having me. Its been a sunday afternoon in my apartment, so this is a nice change of pace. I first had the idea for the book 16 years ago. I was sitting in my house and came across a reference book and remembered how when i was in fourth grade i spent a few moments, i cant explain how it actually worked. This thorough underground network beneath america. And of course its very impractical for many reasons and this day 16 years ago i had this weird premise for a book. The underground railroad and its not much of a premise and not much of a story so i added the elements where each state our character goes through as she runs north, south carolina, North Carolina, the different states in the american possibility for the trial, the turn of america and its a weird idea but i knew that i wanted to stand up so i wanted to wait for maybe a better writer, a little more mature but as i finished the book i would look at my notes and think am i ready . So about 2 and a half years ago i decided to pitch the book idea to my editor and i was feeling a little bit unsure so i told my wife about the idea of the underground Railroad Book and sometimes in a marriage you have to make conversation to kill the silences so she said i dont want to say that the book you are working on now about a brooklyn writer going through a midlife crisis is dumb per se but this other book sounds pretty interesting so i went to my agent, worked with her for 18 years and she said both ideas sound good but then she emailed me on sunday which she never does, usually the agent tries to contact you on a sunday, youve done something wrong but instead she said i cant stop thinking about the other idea. So wednesday was shrimp day and i told my shrink and she said what, are you crazy . I mean, we both know you are crazy but it sounds like this is the thing you should finish working on so with this book, my editor who ive worked with for a long time love the idea and she just said giddyup mother blanketyblank which is oldschool publishing talk for, thats a good idea and we should pursue it area so i did and this is the result. Im going to read two brief sections. One is early inthe book. Its the birthday of old jockey, hes the oldest on the plantation. Whenever he senses the need for rookies, he declares its my birthday and he does this once or twice a year and a half feet and music and a brief relief from the hell of the plantation. These are is this slave who eventually convinces her to run north. She grew up in a plantation , a small farm in virginia and is promised when his owner died that she be set free but she has no possessions so he was sold down south to a much more brutal slave system, now hes at the randall tatian known by jamesand terrence randall. And theres a reference to chester, the young boy 10 years old from cora, the protagonist. The music stopped. The circle broke. Sometimes a slave would be lost in the brief any of liberation, in this way of the sudden reverie among the furloughs , untangling the mysteries of an earlymorning dream. In the middle of a song on a warm sunny night. And when it comes, always, the overseers cry. The shadow of the massacre. The reminder that shes only a human being for tiny moments, across the eternity of her servitude. The Randall Brothers emerged from the great house and were among them. The slaves step aside, making calculations of whatdistance represented the right portal proportion of fear and respect. Not free, jamess house held up a lantern. According to old sake, james favored the mother. Stopped at the barrel and just as firm in countenance and terran parents, the father and sallow of face, perpetually on the verge of swooping down on prey. In addition to the land inherited their fathers killer, who arrived once a month and their rickety carriage with samples of cotton. The brothers dressed like when there were children and continue to do so into manhood. The white trousers and shirts were as clean as the fans could make them and the orange grove lantern made and then look like ghosts emerging from the darkness. Master james, jackie said. His good hand gripped the arm of his chair as if to rise. Dont let us distribute, terrence said. My brother and i were discussing business and music. I told them now, that is the most god awful racket ive ever heard. Randall was drinking wine out of the goblet of cut glass and looks as if hed drained a few bottles. He searched for a face in the crowd, she didnt find him. It was the last time the brothers appeared together on the northern half of the plantation and it is well to remember the different lessons on the occasion, something always happens when the randalls venture into thequarter. Sooner or later, a new thing coming, we can predict who was up on you. James left the daily operations to his men connolly and rarely visited. You might grant a visitor, a distinguished neighbor or curious planter who lived in that neck of the woods but it was rare. James rarely addresses negroes, taught by the last to keep working and enjoy his presence. When terrence appeared at the plantation, he usually appraised each slave made a note of which men were the most able and which women the most appealing. Content to lear and his brothers women, he get grazed heartily upon the women for his own behalf. I like to taste my plums, terrence said, trialing the rows of cabins as he plucked his fancy. He violated the bonds of affections, sometimes visiting slaves on their wedding night to show the husband proper ways to discharge his marital duty. He feasted his plums and broke the skins, left his mark. He accepted that james was a different orientation, to hear his ballet pride tell it, james climbs erotic energies specialize in the room in the new orleans establishment, a madam was broadmindedand modern. The death and the trajectories of human desire, trifle stories were hard to believe despite assurances that he received his report from the staff of the place with whom he grown close over the years. After all, what kind of white men would willingly admit to whip . Terrence scratched his cane in the dirt. It had been his fathers cane, topped with a silver goats head. Member many remembered its bite in their flesh. Terrence said, i recollect james told me about a negro he had down here who despite the declaration of independence area i cant bring myself to believe him. I told him perhaps he might be able to show me since everyone is out and about from the sound of it. Settle it, james said. Where is that boy michael . No one said anything. He waved the lantern around prophetically, with those closest enough to the Randall Brothers, he cleared his throat. Michael dead master james. Michael the slave in question had an ability to recite long passages. And connolly, destroyed from the negro trader, a former master was fascinated by the ability of south American Parents and reasoned that if a bird could be taught the lyrics, a slave might be taught to remember as well, merely glancing at the size of his skull told you that a negro possessed a bigger brain than bird. He had been the son of his coachman, had a brand of animal cleverness, this time kind he had a scene of taste of at times. He was good with simple rhymes and short passages from popular british versa fires. He went slow over the words, the negro didnot understand and truth be told, the master only half understood. But they made miracles , the farmer and the coachmans son. The declaration of independence was a masterpiece. Michaels ability to remember was a mere parlor trick, diverging visitors as it always did to be finished faculties of negroes. His own group so the boy south but by the time michael doctor randall, some punishment had addled his senses. He was a mediocre worker. He complained of noises and black spells and a blot on his memory and in exasperation, calmly beat what little brains he had left. To the discouraging ofmichael was not intended to survive , it achieved its purpose. I should have been told, james said. Michaels recitation had been rivaled by my version but the two clients prodded the negro out for guests. Karen likes to tease his brother. James, he said, you need to keep better track of your property. Dont metal, terrence continued. I know that your slaves had rebels but i had no idea they were so extravagant. Are you trying to make me look bad . Dont pretend you care what a negro thinks, terrence. James turned to go. One more song, james. These songs have grown on me. Wesley, the musicians were forlorn. Noblest gambling were nowhere to be seen. James pressed his lips into his script, he gestured and the men startedplaying. Terrence tapped his cane. His face sank as he took in the crowd. Youre not going to dance . You and you and you. They didnt wait for their masters signal. The other half converge on the alley haltingly, trying to insinuate themselves into the previous rhythm and put on a show. Putting on a show for master with a billiard song, the small angled advantages of the passage they shook off their fear as they fiddled into their performance. Oh how they caper then hollered. Surely this was most likely saw me ever heard. The musicians most accomplished players the colored race had to offer. The director hopped in the circle, checking the Randall Brothers reactions on every turn like everyone else. Jockey pulled his hands inhis lap , to keep time. Cora found his face. He stood in the shadow of the kitchen, flat and then he went through. You. It was terrence. He held his hand before him as if it were coded in an eternal flame only he could see and cora caught sight of it. A single drop of red wine staining the carpets of lee white shirt. Chester, the boy had bumped him. Chester severed and bow before the white man. Sorry,master. Mccain cracked across his shoulder and head again and again. The boy careened and shrank as theblows continued. Terrences arm rose and fell. Mccain raised higher. One drop. Cora had not been under its spell in years. She brought the hatchet down on blakes dog now and since splinters into the air. Shed seen men in countries and left for budgets and crows, women carved the bones by a cat of nine tails. Trees cut off to prevent escape and hands cut off for theft. Boys and girls younger than this beaten and it did nothing. This night, the feeling settle over her heart again. It grabbed hold of her and before the slave part of her put up with the human part of her, she was sent over the boys body as a shield. She held a cane in her hand a man handling a snake at the ornament at its tip. The silver will bear its chief and then mccain was out of her hand and came down on her head. It mash down again and again and this time itripped across her eyes and her blood. So thats it for that section. I guess we can see how things deteriorate on the plantation as she decides to take caesar up on his offer and she has a few adventures. Misadventures and ends up later in the book on valentines farm where a free man and free women have runaways and fugitives and its own community, a kind of black phobia, unit and they Work Together and they have music and they debate philosophical issues of the day about whats next in black society and bingo is a conservative voice and hes having a date with philander who was a more aggressive choice and mingo has spoken and philander addresses the farm. Brother mingo made some good points, flanders said. We cant enslave everyone but that doesnt mean we cant try. Times a useful delusion is better than a useless truth. Heres one delusion that we can escape slavery. We cant. Its scars will never fade. When you saw your mother sold off, your brother beaten, your sister abused by some boss, master, could you ever think that you would sit here today without chains, without the yoke among a new family . Everything you ever knew told you that freedom was a trick, yet here you are. Still we run, talking by the full loom to sanctuary. Valentines farm is a delusion. Told you that the negroes deserved a place of refuge . Who told you you had that right . Every minute but life suffering has argued otherwise. Every fact of history that cant exist, this place must be a delusion to yet here we are. And america too is a delusion, the grandest one of all area it believes with all its heart that it is their right to take the land, to kill indians and make more, to enslave their brothers. This nation should exist yet if theres any justice in the world, because its foundations are murder, theft and cruelty. Yet here we are. Im supposed to answer mingos call for gradual progress, closing our doorsto those in need. Im supposed to answer those who think this place is too close to the grievous influence of slavery and that we should move west. We only have an answer for you. I dont know what we should do. The word we are in some ways, everything we have in common is the color of our skin. Ourancestors came all over the african continent. Its quite large. Brother valentine as the maps of the world in his library, you can look for yourself. You can see different ways of subsistence, different customs, spoke 100 different languages and great mixture was brought to america in the old slave ships to the north, to the south. Your sons and daughters picked tobacco, traded cotton, worked in the largest estate, the smallest farms. We are craftsmen and midwives and preachers andsettlers. I can spell the white house, the seat of our nations government. The word we. We are not one people but many different people. How can one person from this great and beautiful race which is not one race but many with 1 million desires and hopes and wishes for ourselves and our children. For we are africans and americans and something new in the history of this World Without models for what we will become. Word must suffice. Its brought us here this night for this discussion and will take us to the future, all that we know is that we rise and fall as one, one colors family livingnext door to one white family. We may not know the way through the forest but we can pick each other up when we fall and we will arrive together. When the former residence of valentines farm recall that moment, when they told strangers and grandchildren of how they use to live and how it came to an end, their voices still trembled years later area a healthy and san francisco, the countdowns and ranches where they eventually made a home. Make more those who died that day. The air in the room turned prickly, they told their families. Looking like an unseen tower. Whether theyve been born free or in chains, they inhabit the moon as one. The moment when you came from the north are and decided to run. Perhaps they were on the verge of some new border, on the verge of some reason to disorder, of putting all the lessons of their history to bear on the future or perhaps time as it will lens the occasion a gravity that it did not possess and everything was as philander insisted, that we are deluded. That didnt mean that it wasnt true. Thank you. [applause] wow. And you know, ive read the book a couple of times. Its a book i think thats going to continue to resonate into peoples minds the more they get into it and the more the political context changes. So i want to congratulate you for the interNational Book award. [applause] thanks. Colson, that must have been an amazing night for you being on stage with john lewis. It was inspiring and also pretty scary as well. Ultimately, we try not to think so much. I heard you got really drunk. Tonight later, yes. Four months from since the book came out and im an oprah pick and wordofmouth has really kicked in and given new life and brought the fall so im at the end of really sort of a nice run, a pleasant four months of my life. A little nostalgic what you will be stoppinghere for now getting some rest so thats good. I want to ask you a little bit about the process. So this book is so many different things. Its got kind of speculative elements, its historical. The speculative part is the part that fascinates me and gives it its real boldness so for example, ballantine farms. What inspired you . How did you create that and what in history resembled that if there was one . Like i said before, the actual model is gullivers travel. Every 60 pages the book is being rewritten from where he stays but with different laws and customs so we have these separatist states, North Carolina and really 14 years ago i wrote down will one state fee a black utopia state . So there were black towns and communities similar to this one, again, not getting to spoilerish, there were these black communities in the 19th century and you know, its not a historical model, i mix and match and move things around that allowed me to make the book not just about slavery or underground railroads american history. , this idea of how race changes over time so the first section is realistic in historical record but when she escapes, cora goes north and move things around, my motto was that i will stick to the fact that i will stick to the truth and by moving things around and playing with history it allows you to get to a larger truth. This is part of the historical novelhere. I always knew there was thats one of the things as a book editor for the magazine i get galleys way far in advance and its sometimes difficult to wade through everything but your novel jumped out immediately and i think it was because of something about the first line. Where you are taking, the first line immediately puts you into the mind of cora and the mind of someone who really cant even imagine, is there life off the plantation . And yet she has enough of that imagination and determination, spirits, whatever it is to pursue it. And can you tell us a little bit about how cora evolved . At first you are thinking the protagonist would be a man. Over the years, the protagonist was a man, a man looking to define his life as he was sold off, a father looking for a child and i had a mother daughter on a slave ship before. I also had a string of male protagonists so mix it up, colson. Get out of your comfort zone. And one of the first slave narratives i read was by harry chapin who ran away from her master and hid in the attic for seven years before he got passage out of North Carolina and that stayed with me through college and early part of her memoir, her narratives, once she becomes a woman, hits puberty, she enters that most horrible stage of her life and shes now prayed to her masters desires which are about babies because the more babies, more slaves picking cotton, the more cotton, the more money and the female play is different than the man, it seemed worthy of mention so for all those reasons, it made sense and in terms of the structure of the book, you think hiding in the attic and anne frank in an attic so one of the ways we had the impression is like making links between White Supremacy and ancient america and nazi germany in the 30s or 40s under allthis. All this horrible white supremacist tracks and the same bad thoughts and ideas so how can i expand the book so its not just about slavery but also about oppression . Over the summer we came about the book and i got the narrative over to a mexican, the political candidates talking about mexicans but notwithstanding the fact that it goes through a wager, a major discussion about oppression in america and there were moments early on that define her, one is what she stands up to the bully and the second is in the section i read. Where the human part of her supersedes the slave part of her and there are millions of slaves, not everyone is a man, not everyone runs but in this instance its someone, im not sure if i have it or anyone to say that im going to escape from the system, i believe in a place of refuge. Its a huge leap of faith, its a tremendous act of courage and early on there are moments where she gets to this part in a disastrous way. Obviously its important to me as a writer to figure out. I love that line that you cited that you read from where she talks about, you talk about cora that the slave part of her and the human part of her met up and can you elaborate on that idea a little bit . I think people relate to her because she is a recognizable person who overlaps with you, thats what makes characters. No matter who they are, no matter who you are. So how are we in our daily lives and slaves by depression, work, our families. So i think all of us are somehow bonded and its about stepping up and having the human part of us, the stronger part of us sometimes that enslaved, shackled part of us. But thats kind of whats happening and i think we are sort of struggling to have thatbetter part of ourselves. You make that analogy but i dont think any of us in this room can relate the way to a legacy, the legacy of slavery is something, i guess im trying to say, has this country grappled with the legacy of slavery . Has it grappled with racism and what role do you hope that the answer if its know, what role do you hope this will play in helping us to grapple with those . I think the answer is no. I think weve progressed as a country by degrees. I think obama was talking about the election in new york and sometimes you go forward and sometimes you go backwards, sometimes using an exact and i think thats prettyhuman nature. We are also sort of stumbling forward so you know, my grandparents never imagined that i would be here, a published author. At the book fair. With a book endorsed by a black president. My parents, im on cspan right now. Its like speculative fiction. Is quite fantastic if you step back. So its about racism or sexism or slavery in any real way. Its quite unfortunate. I think that, i was thinking about john lewis and at the National Book awards for all of you who didnt follow what was said at the National Book awards, john lewis talked about hes just written this trilogy of books in march and he won a National Book award and he got on stage and talked about how he went to the library where he was growing up. He was not allowed to have a library card because it was white only and yet he was encouraged to read and that moment was so profound for me. So can you talk about what that night was like, what the feeling was like and what role do you think our literature can play into our country . Sure, i hope thats what my book can do and i think i write for myself in the book and sometimes i try to write for the world and if i do it right , if i can write the right sentences and paragraphs, structure and characters, something comes along and i bring it with me. I think i was going to take a few months before i started working again and started downloading research for my next book in the degree, i want to do something. What was it . Im not going to say. Come on, i will tell anyone. Thats all i can say. But im pretty optimistic. I think we are all sort of falling into this in different ways and for me, maybe its still a little bit funny and for other people its on the back schism. I think we are all sort of just in our own different way and we have the facility for speaking and creating art in a certain way. In a certain way, contributing. I talked about this before and i knew this was a book you didnt feel prepared to write earlier in your life and that for example having children, that made it feel like the kind of responsibility to comment on the legacy of slavery and so on. Would that be a Fair Assessment . And if it is, is it going to be difficult next time to write something that is more frivolous, say. Because this book for me, and how many of you have read the book western mark for me, talk about a wakeup call. This book is a wakeup call because even if you think youre a good student of american history, if you think you are well read, feeling what cora feels is an incredible awakening so my question is would it be difficult to move to something thats just for entertainment value . Next i think were supposed to write the books were supposed to write at the time. This isnt the book i was supposed right 15 years ago and early in the back of my head i knew i was supposed to write it and i think theres a superficiality between the level i was last year when i was writing it. I have a lot of different aspects of myself and some books have large chunks and some have none. Some are nonfiction and some address these things, the optimistic parts of my personality and some address the darker parts of my personality and i think a lot of us have those two aspects to our personalities and theres a place of escapist entertainment, a place for being mysterious and i think i will write both kind of books as i go through. Theres a place for thrillers, theres a place for a novel that addresses history. A novel about someone coming of age and family so my eight book, im not sure how many more i have left. I think of poor philip roth. When you see, like 100 . It seems so depressing. Maybe ill just write books. He might have to more. I think we will be in a place where i hope in the next couple of years it will be more obvious that it may be a thriller or a detective novel or something that makes sense to me. I do find myself immersing myself in books even more right now if thats possible. Just one last question before we get to questions from the audience and that is , just tell us a little bit about, where do you write . Do you have a writing room . Do you leave the house and do you feel like you have to dedicate a certain time of day to a number of hours writing . I work at a home, i dont like to leave the house because there are people out there and if istay in the house , i dont have to see people. There are several authors, i have a tv and a couch in their so that i can have a weeping nap if i have to, make a sandwich and from 10 to 3 is a good day for me, a good days work. I get one or two day pages, im doing fast so writing novels, i like to keep the momentum going so if i can do eight pages, it would be relatively good. Maybe one monday and tuesday, wednesday i have an appointment at the dentist and i will catch up on sunday but from 7 to 9, eight pages week, it feels like im accomplishing something and even a paragraph, im a little closer to the end, im much closer, how much closer to this horrible thing am i . So its absolutely painful for this. A few moments of joy. Like this one, like this week. I did want to congratulate you on being one of oprahs 10 favorites of the year. [applause] thank you. Time for questions folks. Line up. Microphone is there if you have any questions or tips. All right, we are moving toward the might. Thank you very much for this wonderful book, it was riveting and really important particularly now. I was wondering why you decided to use the mechanism of magical realism after that first chapter which is so, seems so realistically real. What lay behind that . Why didnt you just continue something that was a story that was realistic . Writes, my profession recently is a book where shes going through different parallel countries so im a novelist and maybe one day i will write a historical novel but it never occurred to me and i couldnt bring in nazi germany and these other experiments and late 19th century, lynchings were involved and that was a book that was about 1850 so it allowed me to have that time and people having this historical conversation with each other so it never occurred to me to play it straight. If i played it straight, it would be a different book and would not be honest to me as a writer. Your book was very powerful. My question is, did you know when you started writing the book how the end particularly of her mother would be had . Theres a linear story of the book and thats cora and there are short biographical sections that enable caesar, the slave catcher. I love the way you do with women really well. I guess i have a structure in different stages that i fought out and it seems that characters were auditioning for their section so as you wouldve guessed, after the North Carolina section, should russell or terrence do it and ethel got it and thinking about where to move different sections around so about two thirds of the way through, i decided i would have made all their and i decided that would be the most dramatic place to put it. Thank you. Hi, ive read all your books and my favorite is harper and i was wondering what is your favorite of your books . Oh i have no favorites and all of those. I want to go back to the other ones definitely so thanks. I like them all but definitely the one i just finished i like the most so this one, i think it definitely has brought two strands. My way of writingtogether , we updated this Industrial Age of john henry, the Information Age and i think this i had this idea many years ago of the underground railroad falls into that. And i think from snug harbor on i was starting with the character in a situation and moving into a story and here i have the what if premise, through very strong characters so particularly the union of two creative strands being made in a single book, a combination for a while then ill be two pages into my book and that will be my favorite book. Thank you so much. Congratulations. I am so moved and in pain from what you wrote about. It amazes me to think youve mentioned nazi germany. That has a very established impact from the holocaust and i know there is a post slavery psychological reaction. Im interested in what you think is the generation that goes on, what the psychological impact of all that cruelty and strength . It persists and say john lewis, who is from my grandparents generation who is still scarred by icing colored films with whites only actors and even though 50 years ago, he had that primal memory of a library card, its still present in the incarceration states. In the book, i deal with slave patrollers were the police force and in slave state where the police them and in slave narratives the language they use to describe the slave controllers and showing their papers on demand is the same language i would use if ive been stopped by police and handcuffed and question for being off at the wrong time so wet later in the section i read that they were still undergoing these, differently. If not slavery but if these mechanisms that are still in place which echo slavery. Figure out why they are important and figure out the typewriter that you want to be and then the type that you actually are. And in terms of the heavy material yes before the more horrified that i got. And jess to imagine that they died in georgia or florida my family life does not go back that far. We have been allowed to go little bit longer but please have a short questions and shorts answer. How and when did you learn about the underground railroad . That is crazy then. I thought the idea the work was incredible so when he with the first time to fletcher house talking about him finally escaping, there is 11 short line in there that i thought was genius that you personally managed a the line in their. And with this very difficult idea hot one dont pass gas and adding it is incredible so do you realize something as simple as life greg. With this part of the book i excited laugh laugh but that tension of what they talk about and what is going on so i do shape the readers move would mood. I dont think it is one of the key lines of the book laugh laugh every sentence is there to do its job. [applause] aho. Thank you so much for coming this paper and it has been a great session. He will be signing books around the corner and you must buy his book right outside the room. [inaudible conversations]. This was the best story to tell, and the New York Times correspondent and his son was so mythologized, of very Famous Artist at the time, if you look at history books and go to art museums you can see a depiction of this man holding a sword standing up surrounded on three sides. So i thought there would be a great back story. And i concluded to things that how he was wounded and died that was gruesome but held that this part of the mythology. They save the good gettysburg and look at the wall he was shot through the leg cannonball went through his horse and he sold amputated his leg and stayed on the battlefield. And still directed his men 10 minutes before he fell off. That is what you read when you go up there where he is alleged to cut off his leg. I believe after my research that it did not happen that way i think it happened in a different way. So while it debunks the mythology around him and that is so little bit of heartache at the National Military park i believe the reality of the story of how she arrived on the battlefield, fought, and how he spent the final 10 hours of his life frankly is more self sacrificing and more heroic is more permanent than any method. It is not a particularly good story but it is the real story of what happens to people in war. But what i thought was a good hockey is that sam wilson was a famous york correspondent but into a number of other areas and was a staunch abolitionist one he was married to the sister of the suffragettes. She was someone it stands at a gentle and to be very, very of spoken about the need of the war. He felt there was no sacrifice including the right of one of his nephews whose body he had to retrieve one year before gettysburg when when he was killed there. So no matter what the sacrifice we need to win the war. So here rise at the battlefield of the first day and by several Senior Officers his son is badly wounded and taken to the war house on either side of the confederate line. So it is the search for his boy and the aftermath than the tens of thousands that came from all over the country as the armies were pulling out and heroes who are unknown would step forward in that moment including africanamericans who were hunted they step forward in caring for those 20,000 wounded men. There were 200 surgeons to care for those 20 dhows cent. You can imagine those challenges that were there. Page. Facebook. Com booktv