40th Anniversary Celebration Author/Celebrity Program

Doris Kearns Goodwin, world-renowned historian and author, will be presented  by The Friends of the Marlborough Public Library in their  “40th Anniversary Celebration Author/Celebrity Program” at the Marlborough Middle School’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 25 Union St., Marlborough.  Ms. Goodwin’s appearance is one of several 40th Anniversary Celebration Programs planned by the 40th Anniversary Committee to celebrate forty years of memories of The Friends programs.  Maurice Lewis, noted media personality, will be the Host of this Special Author Program to highlight the twenty-six years of the MetroWest Daily News/Marlborough Enterprise McConnell Author/Celebrity Series.  

Doris Kearns Goodwin, world-renowned historian, has been reporting on politics and baseball for over two decades. Goodwin is the author of several books and has written for leading national publications. She appears regularly on network television programs and was an on-air consultant for PBS documentaries on Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy Family, Franklin Roosevelt and Ken Burns’ The History of Baseball. She was the first female journalist to enter the Red Sox locker room.

Goodwin was born and raised on Long Island, New York. She received her B.A. from Colby College, where she graduated Magna *** Laude. While at Colby, she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the international honor society. She received her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, where she taught Government including a course on the American Presidency. Following her tenure at Harvard, Goodwin served as an assistant to Lyndon Johnson in his last year in the White House. She later assisted Johnson in the preparation of his memoirs.

In 1976, Goodwin authored Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream, which became a New York Times best-seller. She followed up in 1987 with the political biography, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, which stayed on the New York Times Best-Seller List for five months. In 1990, it was made into a six-hour ABC miniseries. Her next book, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in April 1995, as well as the Harold Washington Literary Award, the New England Bookseller Association Award, the Ambassador Book Award and the Washington Monthly Book Award. It was a New York Times best seller for six months.

Goodwin’s book, Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir, published in 1997, is about growing up in the 1950’s in love with the Brooklyn Dodgers. It has been a New York Times best-seller, as well as a Book of the Month Club selection. A Washington Post reviewer wrote, “This is a book in the grand tradition of girlhood memoirs, dating from Louisa May Alcott to Carson McCullers and Harper Lee.”

Her most recent work, a monumental history of Abraham Lincoln entitled Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, published in October 2005, joined the best-seller lists on its first week in publication, and soon reached #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List. Team of Rivals won the 2006 Lincoln Prize for an outstanding work about the president and/or the Civil War, the inaugural New York Historical Society Book Prize, the Richard Nelson Current award and the New York State Archives History Makers Award. When President Obama was asked if he could only bring one book to the White House other than the Bible what would it be, he said Team of Rivals. Steven Spielberg is developing a feature film about the book, set to star Liam Neeson as Lincoln and Sally Field as Mary.

Goodwin is married to Richard Goodwin, who worked in the White House under both Kennedy and Johnson.  Mr. Goodwin’s experience as the investigator who uncovered the quiz show scandals of the 1950s was captured in the Academy Award- nominated movie Quiz Show, directed by Robert Redford. The Goodwin’s have three sons.  Arrangements for the appearance of Doris Kearns Goodwin has been made possible through the Washington Speakers Bureau which exclusively represents Ms. Goodwin.

Maurice Lewis, Host of this Special 40th Anniversary Program, is an award winning television, radio, cable and print journalist and broadcaster. Maurice has a broadcasting career that includes assignments in Morocco, Spain, the Philippines, and in the African countries of Ethiopia, and Mali. During these overseas assignments Maurice reported from refugee camps overflowing with people trying to escape the deadly grip of famine, drought and civil war.

Reports from Maurice from the Philippines brought news of political unrest, military action and about the devastation of tropical storms, hurricanes, an attempted coup, and the plight of hard working people living in a city on top of a garbage dump.
Our program host has a distinguished record of accomplishments here in the United States, and particularly as a member of the Boston based news media. Maurice was a member of the WBZ Radio, 1030 AM news team that refined and expanded the traditional five and ten minute newscast that eventually evolved into the all news concept that continues at WBZ today. Reporting for WBZ TV 4, “Eye Witness News” Maurice also anchored the 6:00 PM and 11:00 PM weekend news that broadcast the historic and violent events surrounding court ordered decisions mandating school desegregation in Boston with busing as a remedy, and for the attempts to desegregate public housing. 

Anchoring the weekend news at Boston’s TV Channel 7, Maurice was recognized for fair and accurate reporting and for interviews with politicians, community activitists, and for in-depth interviews with public safety officials.

As the award winning host of the WBCN 104.1 FM program “Boston Sunday Review” Maurice interviewed many of the top authors, musicians, movie actors and writers of the day i.e, Jean Auel, Tony Bennett, Mohammad Ali, Don Henley, Carl Hiaasen, Julia Child and many others. Maurice and his wife Terry recently moved to Chattanooga.  While living in Marlborough he served on the Advisory Committee (Strategic Planning) for the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Planning Committee for the annual Evening of Giving, and hosted the Marlborough City Council cable TV program “Council Update.” Maurice also served as President of the Board of Directors for Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse in Boston celebrating twenty-six years of serving veterans and their families. He also had a weekly radio program he hosted on WCRN Radio 380 AM out of Worcester. The 2008-

2009 Season of The Friends “ MetroWest Daily News/ Marlborough Enterprise 2009 McConnell Author/Celebrity Series No. 26” was hosted for his fifth year by Mr. Lewis.

Tickets are priced at $7 for adults and $5 for seniors & students under 18. 

Tickets available at the Marlborough Public Library and the Marlborough Regional Chamber of Commerce, 11 Florence St., Marlborough or order tickets by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope and check made out to:

The Friends of the Marlborough Pubic Library and mail to: Friends of the Marlborough Public Library, 35 West Main St., Marlborough MA 01752. 

Tickets will also be available at the door.

Date and Time: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 7:00 PM

For further info: Tel: 508-481-1833/413-648-9663 or email: rajohnson36@verizon.net  .