Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin to return to Springfield this summer
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin returns to Springfield to discuss her most recent book "An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s" that recounts her final years with her husband and presidential speech writer, Richard Goodwin.
Kearns Goodwin, 81, will share her insights via an interview with Lincoln Presidential Foundation President and CEO Erin Carlson Mast at the Hoogland Center for the Arts at 7 p.m. on June 11.
Tickets are $40-$75.
The latest book project has been described as an "all-in-one" biography, memoir and history.
It was inspired by, Kearns Goodwin said, the couple's examination of a treasure trove of archival material from their years as presidential advisers and authors. They were married for 42 years before Richard Goodwin died of cancer in 2018.
Richard Goodwin was a speechwriter and adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as presidential candidates Robert Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy. Goodwin crafted some of Johnson’s most influential speeches on the Civil Rights Movement and the Great Society before resigning from the administration and becoming a critic of the Vietnam War.
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Kearns Goodwin was a 24-year-old graduate student when she was selected as a White House Fellow. She worked directly for Johnson and later assisted on his memoir, "The Vantage Point."
He was also the subject of Kearns Goodwin's first book, "Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream." She followed that up with "No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Homefront in World War II," which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995.
Kearns Goodwin earned the Lincoln Prize for “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln," which served as part of the basis for Steven Spielberg’s film “Lincoln." The seven-and-a-half-hour History Channel documentary "Abraham Lincoln" is based on Kearns Goodwin's "Leadership: In Turbulent Times."
Also known as a sports journalist, Kearns Goodwin was a consultant for Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary. "Wait Till Next Year" is a memoir about Kearns Goodwin growing up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan.
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The Lincoln Presidential Foundation had originally been set up as a fundraising arm of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. The two split off in 2021.
The foundation, which relocated to the Henson Robinson House within the Lincoln Home National Historical Site recently, bills itself as the only one focused on increasing access to history, educational programs, exhibits and sites highlighting the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; [email protected]; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Pulitzer Prize winner Doris Kearns Goodwin returning to Springfield
