Pulitzer Prize Winner David McCullough to visit USC Upstate for Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series
November 30, 2015
SPARTANBERG, SC – Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough will be the featured guest of the third annual Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of South Carolina Upstate on Thursday, March 17, 2016.
McCullough has been widely acclaimed as a “master of the art of narrative history” and “a matchless writer.” He is twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize, twice winner of the National Book Award, and has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award.
“This is a great opportunity for the Spartanburg community to meet and hear a great American treasure,” said Dr. Rob McCormick, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “All of Mr. McCullough’s books have provided us with new and exciting perspectives about the American experience. His work will continue to inspire and inform us for generations to come.”
McCullough’s most recent book, The Wright Brothers, tells the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly: Wilbur and Orville Wright. It is a number one New York Times best seller.
McCullough’s book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, the number one New York Times best seller, has been called “dazzling,” …“history to be savored.” His work 1776, has been acclaimed “a classic,” while John Adams, published in 2001, remains one of the most praised and widely read American biographies of all time. McCullough’s other books include The Johnstown Flood, The Great Bridge, The Path between the Seas, Mornings on Horseback, Brave Companions and Truman. His work has been translated and published around the world, and, as may be said of few writers, none of his books has ever been out of print.
In a crowded, productive career, he has been an editor, teacher, lecturer and familiar presence on public television—as host of Smithsonian World, The American Experience, and narrator of numerous documentaries including Ken Burns’s The Civil War. His is also the narrator’s voice in the movie Seabiscuit. John Adams, the seven-part mini-series on HBO
produced by Tom Hanks, was one of the most acclaimed and talked about television events of recent years.
Tickets are $45 for reception and presentation. Reservations and book purchases may be made at www.uscupstate.edu/mccullough or at (864) 503-5235. A reception will be held from 5 to 6:45 p.m. and the presentation will be held from 7 to 8:15 p.m. Books available for purchase include The Wright Brothers, John Adams, and Truman.
The Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. Distinguished Lecture Series is sponsored by the Department of History, Political Science, Philosophy and American Studies at USC Upstate. The Series has previously featured Pulitzer Prize Winner and Historian Jon Meacham and Pulitzer Prize Winner and Investigative Journalist Bob Woodward.
Who Is Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr.?
Dr. John B. Edmunds, Jr. served for 43 years as a professor of American history at the University of South Carolina Upstate. A Spartanburg native, Dr. Edmunds earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of South Carolina, where he specialized in the history of the Palmetto State. In 1967, as the first professor hired by the University of South Carolina Upstate, Dr. Edmunds began a career distinguished by excellence as a teacher, a scholar and an administrator. For more than four decades, Dr. Edmunds inspired Upstate students with his enthusiastic teaching.
He is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of South Carolina history, his deep affection for his native state, and his ability to convey his love for South Carolina to his students. He is the author of two books, Francis W. Pickens and the Politics of Destruction and The Episcopal Church of the Advent: History and Records, 1848-1998, as well as numerous articles on South Carolina.
