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LAWRENCE -- Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Edmund Morris will inaugurate the Dole Institute of Politics' Presidential Lecture Series next month at the University of Kansas and be followed shortly by two more renowned presidential historians.
Morris, who won a Pulitzer Prize for "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and recently published a best-selling sequel, "Theodore Rex" will speak at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 3 at the Lied Center. Morris will speak on "The Badger on the Pullman: TR Visits Kansas, 1903."
Michael Beschloss, a familiar face to millions of viewers of ABC News and The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, will follow on Nov.10. Beschloss, a presidential historian, is working on a trilogy based on Lyndon Johnson's secret White House tapes as well as a new account of Abraham Lincoln's assassination, and has recently published "The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler˙s Germany 1941-1945," available in stores late this month. His address is titled "Presidential Leadership."
David McCullough, who recently earned his second Pulitzer Prize for his book on John Adams will conclude the series on Nov. 17. McCullough, who received his first Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for his biography of Harry S Truman, will speak on "Presidential Decisions: Washington, John Adams, FDR and Truman."
• The Presidential Lecture Series will be free and open to the public. Each of the lectures will begin at 8 p.m. in the Lied Center of Kansas. Free ticket vouchers will be required for each of the three lectures. Vouchers are available through all KU ticket outlets, Student Union Activities at (785) 864-3477 and the Lied Center box office at (785) 864-2787. Seating is limited.
Each speaker will sign books in the Lied Center lobby area immediately after each speech. The KU Bookstore will be selling a selection of each speaker's books before and during the booksigning.
The Dole Institute, established at KU in 1997 to honor the former Kansas senator and presidential nominee, is designed to foster new thinking on major policy issues and encourage student participation and citizen involvement in public service. The 28,000-square-foot Dole Institute building, now under construction adjacent to the Lied Center, is scheduled to be dedicated on July 22, 2003, Dole's 80th birthday.
Morris, a native of Kenya who graduated from Rhodes University in South Africa, immigrated to the United States in 1968. Eleven years later, he won a Pulitzer Prize for the first of three planned books about Theodore Roosevelt. He also wrote the authorized biography of Ronald Reagan, "Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan."
Beschloss is a specialist in the American presidency and has written extensively about presidents at times of crisis. He recently published "Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965," the second volume of a projected trilogy about President Johnson. This volume and the first book, "Taking Charge," study the Johnson presidency through tapes of LBJ's White House telephone conversations. Beschloss' other books include "The Crisis Years: Kennedy and Khrushchev, 1960-1963" and "Kennedy and Roosevelt: The Uneasy Alliance."
McCullough wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential biography "Truman." His newest biography, "John Adams," has more than a million copies in print. His other historical works include "The Johnstown Flood" (1968); "Mornings on Horseback" (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt; and "Brave Companions" (1992), essays on heroic figures past and present. McCullough is the host of PBS' "The American Experience" and narrated Ken Burns' "The Civil War" and other PBS programs.
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