Historian and Author

NYS Writers Institute, November 29, 2005
4:15 p.m. Seminar | Assembly Hall, Campus Center
8:00 p.m. Reading (Introduction by Provost Susan Herbst)
Page Hall, 135 Western Ave., Downtown Campus

PROFILE
Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning political biographer, and the author of major bestsellers about Lyndon Johnson, the Roosevelts, and the Kennedys. Her newest book is Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-82490-6), which has been optioned by Steven Spielberg for a feature film.

Team of Rivals emphasizes Lincoln's unique ability to empathize with, and win over his political opponents. Goodwin argues that this talent enabled Lincoln to forge a truly unusual presidential cabinet--one composed of his former rivals--and to marshal their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war.

Team of Rivals has been praised for offering new insights into the Lincoln presidency, despite the wealth of material that has already been written about the man and the historical events of his time.

"Goodwin offers fresh ground by which to judge the almost overdone sixteenth president" - Booklist (starred review)

"[Goodwin] has written an enormous book possessed of a friendly grandeur and, against all odds, a considerable freshness." - The Atlantic Monthly

". . .Illuminating and well-written, as are all of Goodwin's studies, a welcome addition to Lincolniana." - Kirkus Reviews

Goodwin received the Pulitzer Prize for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (1994), an intimate portrait of the presidential couple's successful partnership. The book spent six months on the New York Times bestseller list.

Other bestsellers by Goodwin include the official presidential biography, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream (1976); The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga (1987, revised 2002), which was adapted as a 6 hour ABC miniseries in 1990; and Wait till Next year: A Memoir (1997), an account of Goodwin's childhood friendship with her father, a friendship based partly on their shared love of baseball and the Brooklyn Dodgers.

A frequent commentator on network and public television, Goodwin currently serves as an NBC News Analyst. She has also served as a consultant and on-air interviewee for numerous PBS productions, including documentaries on Johnson, the Kennedy family, Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, and Ken Burns' The History of Baseball.

Addtional Titles:

Additional Links:
Times Union Article
Sunday Gazette Article
Telling the Truth Symposium
Transcript, TTT Symposium