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Margaret Mitchell House & Museum

The Margaret Mitchell House & Museum was founded in 1990 to save and preserve the house where Margaret Mitchell lived and wrote the book Gone With the Wind. On August 1, 2004, the Margaret Mitchell House merged with the Atlanta History Center (AHC). As a result, the AHC oversees the operation of the two-acre site which includes the Margaret Mitchell House, Gone With the Wind Movie Museum, Visitors Center, Museum Shop and The Center for Southern Literature. Tours of the exhibits tell the story of Margaret Mitchell beyond the book and movie, including her journalism career, philanthropy and family history. The Center for Southern Literature, the programming division of the MMH, preserves the legacy of Margaret Mitchell through weekly literary author programs, creative writing classes for adults and youth, and the administration of the PEN/Faulkner Writers in Schools Program.

http://www.gwtw.org

Alice Walker: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For

Tue, Nov 14, 2006

Speaking in the spirit of her latest book, We are the Ones We have been Waiting For, Alice Walker lectures at the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia. Walker's We are the Ones We have been Waiting For brings us a collection of meditations that draw equally on her spiritual grounding and her progressive political convictions. Essay-style chapters conclude with a suggested meditation on patience, compassion, and forgiveness not only for ourselves but for our foes as well. Taking on some of the greatest challenges of our times, Walker encourages readers to have faith that despite the overwhelming situations we find ourselves in, we are prepared to create positive change. **Alice Walker** is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple and one of the most prominent novelists of her generation. Walker is also a bestselling non-fiction writer whose work has been widely praised.

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Hank Klibanoff: American Awakening and the Race Beat

Thu, Dec 7, 2006

Hank Klibanoff, lecturing from his book *The Race Beat*, tells the story of how America awakened to its race problem, of how a nation that longed for unity after World War II came instead to see, hear, and learn about the shocking indignities and injustices of racial segregation in the South, and the brutality used to enforce it. Klibanoff discusses how the nation's press, after decades of ignoring the problem, came to recognize the importance of the civil rights struggle and turn it into the most significant domestic news event of the 20th century.

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Civil Rights Movement Series

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French Women for All Seasons

Thu, Jan 11, 2007

Mireille Guiliano, author of the best seller, French Women Don't Get Fat, discusses her newest book French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure. French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure is a guide, showing how to savor all life's moments in moderation, in season, and, above all, with pleasure. Brimming with fresh advice and seasonal stories, Guiliano's latest focuses on food bien sur (more than 100 delicious new recipes) but also on many other aspects of living that should bring us pleasure, such as picking a wine, dressing well, and even arranging flowers. **Mireille Guiliano** was born and raised in France. President and CEO of Clicquot, Inc (LVMH), she splits her year between New York and Paris. Her first book, French Women Don't Get Fat, has appeared in 37 languages.

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Alice Hoffman: Skylight Confessions

Wed, Jan 24, 2007

Alice Hoffman reads from her new novel *Skylight Confessions*, about three generations of a family haunted by love. Arlyn Singer believes in destiny and in love. But fate seems to be playing a trick on the night when John Moody knocks on her door to ask for directions. Opposites who cannot understand each other, they are drawn to one another even when it is clear they are bound to bring each other grief. Their marriage is dangerous territory, tracing a map that no one should follow.

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Joshua Glover: Freeing the Fugitive Slave Act

Wed, Feb 7, 2007

H. Robert Baker articulates the many ways in which the case of fugitive slave Joshua Glover evoked powerful emotions in America in the years leading up to the Civil War. On March 11, 1854, the people of Wisconsin prevented federal government agents from carrying away the fugitive slave, Joshua Glover. Assembling outside the Milwaukee courthouse, the crowd demanded that the federal officers respect Glover's civil liberties as they would those of any other citizen. When the officers refused, the protesters rescued Glover. The government brought his rescuers to trial, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court intervened and took the bold step of ruling the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional. *The Rescue of Joshua Glover: A Fugitive Slave, the Constitution, and the Coming of the Civil War* delves into the courtroom trials and political battles precipitated by Glover's rescue in Wisconsin on the eve of the Civil War.

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How Religion Poisons Everything

Wed, May 16, 2007

Christopher Hitchens makes a case against religion. With a close reading of major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish. In God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix. Christopher Hitchens, a widely published polemicist and frequent radio and TV commentator, is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. Hitchens debates Timothy P. Jackson, Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at Emory University's Candler School of Theology; the debate is moderated by Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial page editor Cynthia Tucker. Co-sponsored by The Center for the Study of Law & Religion at Emory University

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Kinfolks: Search for My Melungeon Ancestors

Tue, May 8, 2007

Lisa Alther chronicles her search for the missing branches of her family tree in *Kinfolks: Falling Off the Family Tree, The Search for My Melungeon Ancestors*. Alther's mother hailed from New York, her father from Virginia, and every day they reenacted the Civil War at home. Then a babysitter with bad teeth warned Alther about the Melungeons: six-fingered child-snatchers who hid in caves. Forgetting about these creepy kidnappers until she had a daughter of her own, Alther learned they were actually an isolated group of dark-skinned people, often with extra thumbs, living in East Tennessee. Learning that a cousin had his extra thumbs removed, she set out to discover who these mysterious Melungeons really were, and why her grandmother wouldn't let her visit their Virginia relatives. Were there Melungeons in the family tree? Alther assembled clues over the years, but DNA testing finally offered answers. Part sidesplitting travelogue, part how (and how not) to climb your family tree, *Kinfolks* shimmers with humor, showing just how wacky and wonderful our human family really is.

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Rue McClanahan: My First Five Husbands

Mon, Apr 23, 2007

Rue McClanahan reveals her life in and out of the spotlight in her memoir about love, marriage, men, and getting older. Who can forget Rue McClanahan as the sexy Southern vixen, Blanche Devereaux, on the Emmy-award winning series The Golden Girls? Now, the actress reveals her life with saucy wit and Southern charm in *My First Five Husbands*, an entertaining take on life and love from an irrepressible star. From her roles on Broadway opposite Dustin Hoffman and Brad Davis, to the Golden Girls era and beyond, this memoir is the irresistible story of one woman's quest to find herself. Now happily married to her soulmate, Husband #6, McClanahan is proof that many things can and do get better with age and that, if she keeps her wits about her, even a small-town girl can make it big.

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Dwight "Malachi" York: Ungodly Predator

Tue, Jul 17, 2007

Bill Osinski discusses his book *Ungodly*. While society turned a blind eye for more than three decades, Dwight York, also known as Dr. Malachi Z. York and Imam Isa, devolved into a sexual predator of unprecedented proportions. He became the target of what prosecutors believe was the largest child molestation prosecution in United States history. When he was finally indicted, state prosecutors reduced the number of counts listed from well beyond 1,000 to slightly more than 200 because they feared no jury would believe the magnitude of York's evil. He was arrested in May 2002, convicted in 2004, and sentenced to 135 years in prison.

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Karin Slaughter: Beyond Reach

Wed, Aug 22, 2007

Georgia author Karin Slaughter discusses her latest crime thriller, *Beyond Reach*. Sara Linton, resident medical examiner and pediatrician in Grant County, Georgia, must defend herself in a heartbreaking malpractice suit and clear the name of a wrongly accused friend. Slaughter's other novels include *Triptych*, *Faithless*, and *Blindsighted*.

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