Boston Historical Society editor Helen R. Deese discusses the 45-volume diary of Boston Transcendentalist, feminist, writer, and reformer Caroline Healey Dall (1822-1912). Deese focuses on the thorough, extensive picture of the life of a 19th-century woman that the diaries represent.
Professor Lewis Dabney traces the life of Edmund Wilson (1895-1972), major literary critic of the 20th century. Dabney discusses Wilson's three classics of literary and intellectual history—Axel's Castle, To the Finland Station, and Patriotic Gore—and the many women with whom Wilson had rocky relationships.
Audio and video options are available.
Pulitzer-Prize-winning author David McCullough talks about his book 1776, which covers the year 1776 in American history, and the corresponding Revolutionary War events. He particularly focuses on his research while writing the book.
Professor Wayne Franklin discusses the life and work of James Fenimore Cooper, his inspiration for and work on the French and Indian War novel The Last of the Mohicans, and the influence of his depiction of this war on U.S. popular novels, works on the war, literature and on the colonial-era history of the U.S. Franklin also covers, in relation, the history of fiction-writing and novels in the U.S.
Spencer Crew, CEO of the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and other presenters outline the lives of David Walker and Maria Stewart, African American Boston activists in the 1800s, as well as the lives and efforts of abolitionists generally and the history of the Underground Railroad.
Audio and video options are available.
In celebration of Boston's 375th anniversary, a panel of authors discuss the lives of Massachusetts Bay colonists between 1630 and 1710. The panelists focus on the daily lives and stories of particular colonists.
Photographer and writer Susan Wilson outlines the "Literary Trail" of Boston—tracking the history of significant writers in Boston through the historical sites related to their lives remaining in the city. Wilson focuses specifically on female writers.
As a part of a bicentennial series celebrating Boston Athenaeum writers, J. Frederick Marchant presents Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882); Jill McDonough presents Amy Lowell (1874-1925); and Rosanna Warren presents Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).
Pulitzer-Prize-winning author David McCullough talks about his book 1776, which covers the year 1776 in American history and the corresponding Revolutionary War events.
Newsanchor Tom Brokaw discusses his chronicling of the Greatest Generation in his book with the same title. The Greatest Generation tells the stories of America's citizens who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II. Brokaw also discusses his career with NBC Nightly News, where he has been the sole anchor and managing editor since 1983.
The lecture audio is available in mp3 format.