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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

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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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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Cassandra King: Queen of Broken Hearts

Wed, Jun 6, 2007

Cassandra King, the national bestselling author of *The Same Sweet Girls* and *The Sunday Wife*, discusses her new novel, *Queen of Broken Hearts*. It is not easy being the queen of broken hearts. Just ask Clare, who has assumed the mantle while her career as a divorce coach thrives. Now she's preparing to open a home for the retreats she leads, on a slice of breathtaking property on the Alabama coast. When Clare's marriage ends in tragedy, her work becomes the sole focus of her life. While she has no problem helping the men and women who seek her advice to mend their broken hearts, healing her own is another matter entirely. Falling in love again is the last thing Clare wants. When Lex, a charismatic, charming, burly sea captain, moves to town to run the marina, Clare insists they remain friends and nothing more. But even though she fights it, she begins to fall for him. *Queen of Broken Hearts* is a memorable story infused with all the flavors, textures, and intrigues of a small Southern town.

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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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Kristin Gore: Sammy's House

Wed, Jul 18, 2007

Kristin Gore, Al Gore's daughter, discusses her novel about life in the White House. The heroine of her bestselling debut, *Sammy's Hill*, returns in *Sammy's House*. Samantha Joyce is many things: health care policy advisor, hypochondriac, lover of Japanese Fighting Fish, and of Charlie Lawton, her Washington Post reporter boyfriend.

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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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Fiasco: American Military Adventure in Iraq

Wed, Aug 1, 2007

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas E. Ricks discusses the American military adventure in Iraq, with a preface on recent developments.

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Scandal of the Season: Gossip in 18th Century London

Tue, Aug 14, 2007

Sophie Gee discusses her book *Scandal of the Season*, an erotic, witty drama about life in 18th century London, a time of Jacobite plots and Popish fears that threatened to erupt in political violence. *Scandal of the Season* is supposedly a fictionalized account of the true story behind Alexander Pope's 1712 poem, "The Rape of the Lock." When Pope composed his satirical epic, he was shining a spotlight on a suspected affair between the British aristocrats Arabella Fermor and Lord Robert Petre, two mainstays of the London scene. The intrigue became common knowledge when Petre publicly cut off a lock of Fermor's hair, providing fodder for gossip writers of the time.

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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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