Dole Institute's Presidential Lecture Series to bring writers, analysts to KU

LAWRENCE -- This year's Presidential Lecture Series, sponsored by the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics at the University of Kansas, is set for 8 p.m. on successive Sundays -- Nov. 2, 9 and 16 -- at the Lied Center.

The series is free and open to the public. Tickets can be reserved at the Lied Center box office or by calling (785) 864-2787.

Robert Caro kicks off the series Nov. 2. Best known for his biographies detailing the life and career of President Lyndon Johnson, Caro is working on a fourth installment of "The Years of Lyndon Johnson." The series' third volume, "Master of the Senate," earned Caro a second Pulitzer Prize last year. He received his first Pulitzer for "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York."

Roger Wilkins will be the featured speaker Nov. 9. Wilkins, a distinguished professor at George Mason University, also is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who earned praise for his Watergate-related editorials while with the Washington Post. Wilkins wrote "Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism" and the autobiography "A Man's Life." For many years he has been the publisher of the NAACP's journal, the Crisis.

David Gergen will round out the series Nov. 16. Gergen has served as adviser for presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. The author of "Witness to Power," he serves as an editor at U.S. News and World Report, is a faculty member at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and is a political analyst on ABC's "Nightline."

Each speaker will sign books in the Lied Center lobby immediately after his speech. Oread Books will sell a selection of each speaker's books before and during the book-signing at the Lied Center.