television companies and more including comcast. >> you think is just a community center? it's way more than that. >> 1000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled this so students from low income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast along with these television companies support c-span2 as a public service. >> the last time we saw each other for 2018 with the in-depth program for three hours. >> i remember well, it was a marathon and enjoyable. i enjoy talking to readers all over the country. >> you have a new novel called worse. is it historical fiction? >> it is. all consents, greatest an american racing history, 19th century. >> why is he the greatest? >> the fastest horse of his time and possibly would be today because racing was conducted differently in the 19th century so his were 4 miles long, to kentucky derby's so he may still be the fastest horse who ever lived. he had the stamina, the heart and courage and a lovely disposition and when he retired from the track he produced more champion houses forces than any other resources produced. >> this is antebellum. >> and during the civil war. a lot of the horses never raced because they went to the military so he would have had even more. he was also at the center of dangerous situations during the civil war as well so fantastic story to tell. >> is the story lost to generaln history but still known and forcing circles? >> in the inner circles. when i heard about this horse i was astonished i hadn't heard before so i ask people have you heard of the clinton? every time they said no i said yes because it's what a novelist hopes for, you can re- reveal something want well-known but he was a huge celebrity in his own time. racing every angle so i was lucky in that regard leading to racing papers of the day i could track his career in great detail which is a wonderful thing and when he died, he ran over three pages in the newspaper and anybody who has had to bury a horse knows the undertaking. they buried him on the hill so it was appropriate because he was so celebrated and so enduring, they exhumed his body and prepared his skeleton and was a feature of the smithsonian institution. >> is he still there? >> no, that's how i came to hear about him because over the years about a century same waned and the mission change from being cap enough curiosity to be a research organizer they weren't interested in lexington but the skeleton so he was in the hall of mammals next to a rabbit and a t dog and a pig so that was ignominious in the attic for a while and natural history museum but the newly founded international museum of the horse in kentucky, and lexington wanting him because he's the reason lexington kentucky is the center of thoroughbred breeding today now he's there with a room dedicated to his significant and a beautiful exhibition. >> your story centers around the groom. this is a fictional part of the story were accurate as well? >> as soon as i started to research the historical story of lexington, i realized the fundamental integral role, the jockeys and trainers were extraordinary for their expertise in no space on them for the labor, many of them were enslaved or formally enslaved so i realized it erased their contribution so there's a missing painting of lexington and described visit if it, i wonderful painting titled lexington being led up by his groom. a somebody who has a horse and loves horses, i know the person who has the closest relationship with the horse is not the owner, have the trainer, not the jockey, it is the groom whose there first thing in the morning feeding, brushing, caring for the horses ailments and knows the horse and has the strongest bond so i knew i wanted the story to center on the relationship between he and his horse. >> best selling author jolting brooks, who will give you a chance to call in and talk. the numbers are on the screen. we will try to work in a few calls in a minute. i'm getting a bit of noise in my earpiece right now of a phone taking up. how long have you been working on the horse. >> i started working on it -- i heard about it before i started working on it but it took me about seven years to write it. >> i apologize, i'm having a little bit of audio trouble. >> i'm getting it, to. >> your smoother than i am. you spent about seven years? >> yes, this is the longest book to write. some of it was the difficulty researching lives of the black horsemen that was extensive but the story crazy twist and turns that led to unexpectedly connection with jackson pollock in new york in the 1950s led to the science of the smithsonian learning how bones are prepared. the incredible treasure hunt of the support center in maryland.f >> was the benefit of writing historical fiction and what is the limitation? >> i like to think of myself as a gateway drug. [laughter] to me it's finding something true in the historical records. you learn something interesting and unlikely, to paraphrase him, fiction is required to be plausible, truth needn't be. if you made it up, nobody would believe it. you follow the line of what i'm interested in you can't know everything because of the could, if he'd been able to tell hisfr own story and we do about him from his own you but we don't know so you take your empathy to work and when it becomes too much to follow i allow myself to think maybe it went like this so to try to hear the unheard the people who didn't tell the story. >> my guess is you have trouble with the historical research on the black groom and horsemen. >> that was a challenge because enslaved people generally speaking not allowed to become literate so they didn't leave an account of their own lives but you can find them, it's just that you have to look hard. interestingly was the owners who enslaved these men defer to their expertise because the thoroughbred horses were great source of prestige and wealth for them so they wanted the best horses which meant they wanted the experts in the field so you see in letters to each other how much they put into the knowledge of the black horsemen so that meant these men, they were occupied and unusual in each niche and things that other people can do like travel across property lines. they were able to do by their wayen out of enslavement. >> prior to starting this segment, hugh said been on the tour in australia. it is a story like this popular down there? >> australians love racing. the whole country stopped, the biggest horse race of the derby although it has all of this from recent years because of concern about their welfare and the practices within the racing industry which i think we have to work hard at. too many horses are dying on the track and are thrown away if they don't make it and i think it's tragic having a bond with the horse who is now 27 years old, some of them are over and done with that five minutes a shocking tragedy. >> you have a horse, a 27-year-old? tell us about him or her. >> she's a lovely lovely little mayor called valentine and i her with a 33-year-old and he had so much to give teaching children gto read and still at 33 loves o go on a trail ride it's hard to stop him from thinking he's on the track. >> let's hear from our viewers. dawn is in virginia. you're on geraldine brooks. >> good morning, ms. brooks. >> good morning, don. >> i was calling originally a lot of question concerning miser star, a racer in the 70s and 80s and he was like 17 hands high at the shoulder and he never lost. i was wondering if his genetic line could be drawn to lexington. >> i would have to look into the books to find that out but i wouldn't be surprised because a lot of the great racehorses still can be traced back to lexington and that is theab incredible thing and also in writing this book we know a lot more about the horse and genealogy than we can know about , enslaved men who trained the horse, generally trace their lineage back to generations but hthey memorized the ages that carried the horses all the way back to the original thoroughbred from which all resources are said to descend. >> still has some alive today? >> when you look in the books you can see all the way back. >> what did you find out about lexington? >> he had a couple of owners and they were fascinating people. his first owner although it's a little murky and it's one of the things i go into in the novel because his black trainer owned his racing qualities and it may have been a means of letting them own a resource because a black man was not allowed to own a race horse that raised on the track so it may have been he had a black owner from the beginning but a fascinating man, he had been in ob/gyn although they didn't call it that in those days, he delivered mary todd blinken so he had the horse and successful racist and it was bought by a fascinating man named richard penbrooke who owned a race horse in new orleans and he was a flamboyant entrepreneur. he been kicked out of west point, he gone down the river as a gambler and made a fortune and then bought lexington and he promoted the races, 30,000 people would show up in new orleans that shut down when lexington horse racing. presidents came to watch the leraces and it was a huge celebration. then he sold the horse back to kentucky, and owner who had interest in scottish estates as well as the establishment where lexington had great success anda he had a long life and was well care for which is a good thing. >> the pulitzer prize for her book, art since 2006. cooper in new jersey, go ahead with your question or comment. >> i'm just wondering, what made you want to read this book? i'm an avid reader and a curious guy. [laughter] >> thank you, we will live with their. >> i wanted to write this book because most young girls becomes crazy about horses at five or 15 which is sensible but i became worse crazy at 50. i don't recommend taking up writing at 50 but that's what happened for me, i had experience on a trail ride in it was an ecstatic experience and then i had a horse of my own the next thing i knew and all i could think about was the horse, how to care for the horse and be a better writer and everything about it so i wasn't getting any work done in my writing life because our thinking about the horse all the time so by accident i overheard a story about this skeleton was being moved from the smithsonian to the museum of the horse and i heard about the course and his successful career and twists and turns in that and what happened to him during the civil war which is a. i'm fascinated by and i realized this was a story for me, the next book i had to write. >> as we mentioned, he appeared on in-depth in 2018 and spent three hours with us talking about her entire body of work. since then, you've had an eventful life. >> the catastrophe is what it was. my husband your viewers may know from his work, confederacy attic, he was on spying on the south and he had a wonderful session with c-span in atlanta and came to washington d.c., his hometown and collapsed in the streetdd and died suddenly witht any indication he had a heart problem and me and my two boys as you can imagine, or devastated by the two knocked the writer out of our orbit. >> i don't mean to be insensitive but how did it change you have to do your work? >> it took me a long time to get back to my work. there is about a year i could not get to the level of focus you need to engage that you need to bring a novel together but it uswas something ruth bader ginsburg said her colleague, i used too be a journalist beforei took a fiction writing, this person had a loss in justice ginsburg said to her, you must do your work, it might not be your best work but it will be good work and will be what saves you. eventually i learned that was true this book, he loved this subject and he helped me researching it because he was a genius in the archives and i knew i had to finish it so i could dedicate it to him and it turned out that was the lifeboat i crawled into. >> her most recent book, thank you for being with us again on book tv. >> thank you for having me. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing the latestonfiction books. 8:00 p.m.asrn massachusetts republican governor carly baker shares his book results were he offers thoughts how to move past politics and get things done. 10:00 p.m. eastern on "afterwards" sociologist beth looking at the future of retirement and whether wor

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