Better get started right away. [laughter] well, good evening, again. For those of you that i have not met, my name is joanne drake, and i serve as chief Administrative Officer for the Ronald Reagan foundation and institute. I want to welcome you all here. It is our tradition here that in honor of our men and women who wear the uniform of this country around the world, we ask that you stand and join us in the pledge to the flag, and i will ask that you remain standing in a moment of silence in honor of our former first lady barbara bush. All i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Ms. Drake thank you. Be seated. I want to thank all of you for coming out tonight and bearing with us. You all live in southern california, too. You know what we were up against there. In addition to our honored guest this evening, sheila tate, we have a few special guests. Fir
The reinhart award presented each year at the festival specializing in nonfiction. This is all little under one hour. What we did with the festival whiz we started for awards for freedom poetry for Lifetime Achievement in now giving away the award for nonfiction tonight. The goal to create the award was to try to focus attention on the reporting in those writers who bring those readers together in a celebratory parcelled the way the festival is about. Teaching at northwestern in chicago has won numerous other awards the jackson writers award, the nonfiction prize, press got prize, a great circle award. We thank you very much for coming to accept a humble prize compared to those others prepare her previous books are the balloonist 2002. Into the notes from 2009 and today we will have those for sale and her recent on immunity. But to notice her importance as a writer i notice her work is the checks juxtaposition the selfcontained irony that fills our lives. She identifies and focuses the
Our next speaker Elizabeth Brown pryor burst onto the scene in 2007 with the publication of reading the man, a portrait of robert e. Lee through his private lettersle. The book received eventually every prize in the world i think elizabeth, the lincoln prize, our Jefferson Davis award, the richard b. Harwell book award and the Richard Slatten award for excellence in virginia biography. I personally had the opportunity to read aloud an expert from an uncorrected proof of that book standing at this podium during the introduction of our 2007 simple pose yum about robert e. Lee. A sanchez often true, there is a story behind elizabeths emergence as a major civil war historian. She earned an m. A. In history from the university of pennsylvania studying withdrew gilpin faust, the now the president of Harvard University and i must tell a story about drew. When she was made the president of harvard people were sayingment is this an unbelievable, she is the first female to be the president of ha