Jon
Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "American Lion: Andrew Jackson in
the White House" and the #1 New York Times bestseller "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power," will speak at 7:30
p.m. on March 12 at the Clay Center in Charleston.
Meacham's
talk is part of West Virginia University's David C. Hardesty Jr. Festival of
Ideas and is co-sponsored by The Charleston Gazette.
Biographer Walter Isaacson lauded "Thomas Jefferson,"
calling the book "A true triumph. In addition to being a brilliant biography, Thomas Jefferson is a guide to the art of power…a
fascinating look at how Jefferson wielded his driving desire for power and
control."
Meacham also is the author of two other New York Times bestsellers: "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers and the Making of a Nation" and "Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship."
He is the former editor of Newsweek and executive vice president and executive
editor at Random House Publishing.
He
has served as co-anchor of the PBS weekly primetime news and public affairs
program, "Need To Know." He continues to conduct in-depth interviews,
provide commentary, publish "In Perspective" essays, and anchor occasional
special reports.
Meacham is currently editing a book by former vice president Al Gore and a
series of e-books published by Politico on the 2012 presidential campaign, as
well as working on two new books of his own.
He has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Slate
and The Los Angeles Times Book Review. In 2009, Meacham was elected to the
Society of American Historians and serves on its executive board. He is a "Global
Leader for Tomorrow" of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and a
member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Born in Chattanooga in 1969, Meacham holds a Bachelor of Arts in English
Literature from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. He holds an
honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale
University, in addition to three other honorary doctorates. He is a communicant
of St. Thomas Episcopal Church Fifth Avenue, where he serves on the Vestry of the
180-year-old parish and is a member of the Vestry of Trinity Church Wall
Street.
The event is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will
follow Meacham's lecture.
Festival of Ideas was created in 1995 by former university president David C.
Hardesty Jr. It was inspired by events he organized as WVU's student body
president in the 1960s. Today, this lecture series is organized by the Office
of University Events and brings key figures from politics, business, research,
entertainment, sports and the arts to campus throughout the academic year.
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