American Writers: A Journey Through History

[Doug Millison]

American Writers: New, Live C-SPAN Series to Span Continent

C-SPAN will debut a 38-week, live television series called American
Writers: A Journey Through History, to be broadcast at 9 a.m. on Mondays
and repeated at 8 p.m. on Fridays. The series will gather historians,
archivists, biographers and contemporary writers at a different location
each week to discuss a featured work of American writing and how the author
interpreted--and at times influenced--events of the day.

The first episode, on March 19, will be a live broadcast from Plymouth,
Mass., focusing on William Bradford and the writing and meaning of the
Mayflower Compact.

The series is the fourth of its kind undertaken by C-SPAN. Previous
projects include last year's American Presidents: Life Portraits, a 41-week
Peabody Award-winning series documenting the life of each American
president; a series covering the Lincoln-Douglas debates; and another
recounting the travels of French writer Alexis De Toqueville through the
U.S.

Susan Swain, executive v-p of C-SPAN, told PW Daily, "This is a big
undertaking, but we're old, experienced hands at this by now. Each one of
our 270 employees will have been involved with the project at some point.
The hardest part will have been selecting which writers to profile."

The series seeks to cover four centuries of American writing, from Thomas
Paine through Mark Twain and on to Jack Kerouac and Neil Sheehan. Although
the list is as comprehensive as that of a typical first-year college level
U.S. literature survey, C-SPAN's selection is likely to become a point of
debate. Some factions of the academy are destined to feel slighted.

Swain said, "This is about history seen through the written word. If anyone
has suggestions for shows or people in their local community who might
participate, they can write to us via our Web site at
http://www.americanwriters.org. We'll even go so far as to add additional
broadcasts if there is a need."

The Monday 9 a.m. broadcast slot was selected to enable the show to be
viewed in schools, where the producers hope the programming might be used.
To facilitate the educational component of the project, C-SPAN is making
available free education kits and has partnered with Borders.com, which
will dedicate a portion of its Web store to the series, guaranteeing each
of the titles is available at a variety of prices. The station will also
maintain a permanent archive of all broadcasts in downloadable, streaming
video on the Internet.

Invitations have gone out to many living writers, such as Toni Morrison and
Walter Mosley, to participate in the series, but none have yet confirmed
appearances.

C-SPAN's crews will arrive in host cities a week before the broadcast and
will visit libraries, public schools and bookstores. In this regard,
bookseller should contact C-SPAN via http://www.americanwriters.com to
suggest local authors, writers, or scholars who would be appropriate to
invite to appear on the show.

A list of featured writers and a broadcast schedule is also available
online at http://www.americanwriters.org.

from PW Daily 1 March 2001
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