Doris Kearns Goodwin Made a Literary Dream of Mine Come True
I’m still talking about this night — and now writing about it!
Last week, I met presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin at the Champaign Public Library.
It was part of the library’s author series throughout the year. Once I heard she was coming to town, I registered for the event right as free tickets went on sale. Thankfully I did too.
She sold out in a mere matter of 8 minutes or so, as was reported. I locked myself into going, and I’m so glad I did.
I arrived at about 5:30 or so and stood in line outside of the library. A former University of Illinois law professor, his wife a former grade school principal and their son an attorney running for judge kept me company in life.
Time flew by and before I knew it, I found myself upstairs in the third seat of the front row on the right side, just inches from the stage. An empty chair sat next to me.
It didn’t take too long before an older woman filled it. We began talking about history, reading and the likes and again, time flew by.
What struck me about her was when I mentioned John Hay, Abraham Lincoln’s personal Secretary during the war and Teddy Roosevelt’s Secretary of State. She told me she is a direct descendent of him and that her name was Mary Hay.
I about fell out of my chair.
Before I knew it, Doris walked right in front of us. I shared a smile with her before she stepped onto the stage and began to speak.
She told the audience of around 350 people about how her mother instilled her love for reading and her father instilled her love for history by keeping score of Brooklyn Dodgers games while growing up.
She then discussed “her guys,” the presidents she’s lived with for years: Lyndon Johnson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
I had watched her give so many lectures on YouTube before and laughed at her occasional jokes. She repeated those same jokes that night which made the experience all the better.
I was in the presence of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author who has spent the night in the White House, worked with Steven Spielberg on the Lincoln movie and watched Jackie Robinson play baseball all those years ago. It was wonderful.
But the night wasn’t over yet.
Following her lecture, I waited in line downstairs in the library’s lobby for a book signing. I carried my copy of her book “The Bully Pulpit” which covered Teddy, Taft and the golden age of journalism.
When I arrived at the table, I handed a man my phone so he could take pictures of me meeting her. He had done so for other folks too so I didn’t see why not he couldn’t do the same for me.
I opened my book for her, and she read the sticky note inside with “To Noah Nelson” on it so she could know what to write, as suggested by a library employee handing out sticky notes to us moments before.
“How are you?” I asked Doris. “It’s so great to meet you.”
“It’s great to meet you too,” she said. “Are you Noah?”
“Yes,” I said. “Noah Nelson. Noah like the Ark and Willie is my grandpa.”
She laughed.
“When I tell people that, half of them laugh and half don’t know who he is.” She continued to sign my book. “My dad met you years ago in Springfield, and he was the only one who carried your baseball memoir to have signed. He’s a big baseball fan.”
“Who’s you’re team?”
“Well, Dad grew up in the south side of Chicago,” I said. “But the Cubs were always on TV, so he’s a die-hard Cubs fan but he has nothing against the Sox.”
I then asked how her Boston Red Sox are doing.
“Not very good,” she said. “I just want to see them win one more time in my lifetime.”
I then told her I was an aspiring writer and hopefully a future Pulitzer Prize winner. I asked what advice she had for me.
“Just keep going!”
And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.
It’s a rare moment in life when you meet a literary hero. I did so when I met Doris Kearns Goodwin and spent a few moments with her I will never forget.
Noah Nelson is a graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor’s degree in journalism with minors in political science and history. He served as a senior columnist for The Daily Illini, serves as a writer on Medium and the host of his blog called Nothing But Noah. His books “Life: A Collection of Short Stories” and “Dana and Me: A Memoir” are both available now on Amazon. Like what you read? You can write for Medium too!