McCullough on Dickens
David McCullough on Dickens
David McCullough is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of Trumanand John Adams among many other books.
In a speech given at the Second Annual Library of Congress National Book Festival on Oct. 12, 2002 McCullough, listing his favorite books, comes to Dickens:
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"Dickens, of course all of Dickens. Rosalee and I just last Christmas were in New York, we went over to the Morgan Library and we saw the original manuscript of A Christmas Carol. If you've never gone to the Morgan Library to see that, go, and it's going to send a chill right up your spine, there it is, a little book about that big (indicates a small book) in Dickens own hand. I guess if I had to pick my favorite of all of Dickens it would be Great Expectations, but it's a hard choice".
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"I love Dickens. I love the way he sets a scene. He said, in his great admonition to writers, "Make me see." I try to make you see what's happening and smell it and hear it. I want to know what they had for dinner. I want to know how long it took to walk from where to where".
