Lincoln national museum, which hosted this discussion and provided the video. Today i have the pleasure to talk to a good friend of mine, you and i have known each other for a good number of years and being colleagues i d like to think that we ve collaborated on successfully under several different things. You are an anthropologist by training, you got your degree in you have 30 years with the online department of health. And you finished off that time as the chief at the illinois center of health sticks. Boy, if there s ever some place as the focus of what s going on right now, that would be it. Something of a demographer and a statistician. I can even say that term. But also, i know you got into poetry a little bit later in life and i think that has something to do with this book. More i want to start is just to ask you how it is that you came to write this book? yeah, well thank you for that introduction mark. The idea for the book was actually a poetry project. I was inspired, also
I gave a presentation on those at poets in the parlor series. And thenl they actually ended up down stairs in theaterium for several months, hung up as two posterboards. And i have read so many letters that i could not find that book at the beginning that i d been looking for. I thought maybe there s a need there. Maybe i should start working on that. So, i read more and finally put in a book proposal. And finally got the book. And how long did you spend diving into these letters? i don t know. I ve read at least a few thousand. I don t know how many hours. I started in 2013 reading. And up to 18, 2019, i am still coming across one of the things that struck me about how you developed this book is the organization of it. Can you talk about how you decided to organize these letters. The truth of the matter is the content was determined by the soldiers and not so much by me. So, when i started the reading process, i remember i think it was debbie ham, who was in manuscripts and she brough
Mark, and been colleagues. I like to think we collaborated successfully on several different things. You re an anthropologist by training and then you ended up in state government. I know you had 30 years with the illinois department of health, and you finished off that time as the chief, the illinois center of health statistics. Boy, if there s ever someplace some focus on what s going on right now in the world that would be it. Something of a demographer and statistician. So what i want to do is ask you how it is you came to write this book. Yeah, well, thank you for that introduction, mark. The idea for the book was actually a poetry project. I was inspired also by you with your series of lectures at the time of the civil war. And i wanted to write some commemorative poetry that if soldiers of the day were reading it that they would feel comfortable, and it would be something they could relate to. So i started doing some research on that. And i thought i could find a book or two tha
that you are here. we are also grateful to the anonymous yet very generous donor who made tonight s event possible, and we know that it s been hard to find the space but if any of you are still looking for a place to sit, there s plenty of seating on the balcony if you walk out the door is, we have a whole army of interns eager to take you to the elevators to find a comfortable spare seat so do avail yourself of that opportunity. i d also like to welcome a few special guests who are here tonight with us. we have two trustees have come in from out of state and we are delighted to have them here. mike brennan from columbia south carolina and george clark from houston texas thank you for joining us. we know there are a large number of people here tonight who are involved in the very founding of the trinity forum. i won t call you all by name but i want to give a shout out thank you for coming and welcome tonight. we also have a large contingent from north carolina, so if you are
make funding pledges to tackle cash shortages in schools in england. the boss of barclays will be facing pressure today over his pay and also his handling of a controversy surrounding recruitment in the bank. i ll have the details shortly. in sport, the french open s a fortnight away and andy murray says he still needs to get better but he s through to the third round in madrid. our build up to this year s eurovision song contest starts here the bbc‘s steve rosenberg is in kiev with all the tunes and all the facts you need to enjoy the world s biggest singing competition. and carol has the weather. good morning. thank you. iam in kew gardens next to the japanese gateway. i will tell you more about it through the morning but if you adjust stepping out it is a chilly start although most of us will have a day of plenty of sunshine, except in the north of scotland where we have some patchy rain. good morning. first our main story. president trump has fired the head of the f