An Evening with Doris Kearns Goodwin

Festival favorite Doris Kearns Goodwin returns for a fascinating presentation about politics, history, and her new memoir, An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author, presidential historian, and television commentator’s most recent book artfully weaves together biography, memoir, and history in the emotional journey she and her husband, Richard (Dick) Goodwin embarked upon in the last years of his life.

Book coverThe Goodwins’ last great adventure involved finally opening the more than three hundred boxes of letters, diaries, documents, and memorabilia that Dick (who had played key roles in Presidential administrations and campaigns in the 1960s)  had saved for more than fifty years. They soon realized they had before them an unparalleled personal time capsule of the 1960s, illuminating public and private moments of a decade when individuals were powered by the conviction they could make a difference; a time, like today, marked by struggles for racial and economic justice, a time when lines were drawn and loyalties tested.

Their expedition gave Dick’s last years renewed purpose and determination. It gave Doris the opportunity to connect and reconnect with participants and witnesses of pivotal moments of the 1960s. And it gave them both an opportunity to make fresh assessments of the central figures of the time – John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Robert Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, and especially Lyndon Johnson, who greatly impacted both their lives. The voyage of remembrance brought unexpected discoveries, forgiveness, and the renewal of old dreams, reviving the hope that the youth of today will carry forward this unfinished love story with America.

Buy Tickets