Seven presidential biographers will visit the College as Montgomery Fellows next winter and spring as part of a series about presidential character in the 20th century.
David McCullough, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Edmund Morris and others will talk about the impact of presidential character on leadership.
Before the presidential discussions in 1999, Li Xueqin, one of the foremost Chinese historians, is visiting for the entire Fall term. His studies cover a wide range of disciplines including Chinese epigraphy, texts, archaeology and history.
In addition to delivering public addresses, Professor Li will co-teach Chinese 52: Readings in Classical Chinese, a course on early Chinese culture, with Chinese Studies Professor Sarah Allan.
The biographers invited as part of the presidential series will serve as Montgomery Fellows for several days in order to make public addresses and also converse with students and faculty.
"Having one single person on for all of winter term would only cover one or two presidents," said Barbara Gerstner, executive director of the Montgomery Fellowship. "As we approach the end of the century, we would like to take a look back . Having a shorter term for each speaker allows us to get a true retrospective on the entire century."
McCullough will initiate the series in the winter on January 12 with an overview on presidential power in Cook Auditorium. McCullough, author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning "Truman," is the winner of two National Book Awards.
The week after McCullough visits, Robert Caro will speak on Lyndon Johnson and his use of power. Caro received a Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for biography and is the author of "The Path to Power," the first of a proposed four-volume biography of Johnson.
Goodwin -- who addressed the graduating Class of 1998 at Commencement last June -- will return to the College on February 16 as a Montgomery Fellow.
Goodwin, a former government professor at Harvard University, will speak about the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt, the topic of one of her multiple presidential biographies.
Goodwin, author of the recent baseball memoir "Wait 'Till Next Year," is a regular commentator on "News Hour with Jim Lehrer" and has contributed to the PBS documentaries "LBJ," "The Kennedys," and "FDR."
David Maraniss, a journalist for the Washington Post since 1977, will speak on the Clinton presidency Feb. 23. Maraniss won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1993 for coverage of Clinton's rise to the power the year before. He also wrote the Clinton biography, "First in his Class."
The Montgomery Fellowship's examination of presidential power will continue in the spring with the arrival of David Grubin, a winner of seven Emmys and the producer of "The American Experience: FDR." He is the first of a planned series of filmmakers for the spring.
Richard Schechner, founder of the academic field known as performance studies, will spend the entire 1999 Summer term at the College teaching a comparative literature course on "Performances of Magnitude."
Performance studies combines rituals, political demonstrations, theatre, music and dance in a new form of social performance.
The Montgomery Endowment invites several prominent individuals from various disciplines to come to the College and share their experiences in lectures or classes.
Montgomery Fellows stay in the Montgomery House, which is located across the street from Dick's House, during their time on campus.
The Montgomery Endowment has brought writers and scholars such as Toni Morrison and former President Gerald Ford to the College. Playwright August Wilson spent all of last Winter term on campus, teaching a playwriting course and speaking to students.
Fellows visit for periods varying from three days to three terms, depending on their schedules, the endowment's resources and whether the fellow is able to teach a course.
The Montgomery Endowment, established in 1977, was funded by Kenneth Montgomery '25 and his wife Harle.
