Doris Kearns Goodwin
(born Doris Helen Kearns
on January 4, 1943) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S. Presidents, including Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream
; The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga
; No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
(which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1995); and her most recent book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
.
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Biography
Early life and education
Doris Kearns was born in
Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in
Rockville Centre, New York. She attended
Colby College in
Maine where she was a member of
Tri Delta and
Phi Beta Kappa; graduating
magna cum laude
in 1964 with a
Bachelor of Arts degree. She was awarded a
Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1964
[1] to pursue her doctoral studies. In 1968 she earned her
Ph.D. in government from
Harvard University for a thesis entitled "Prayer and reapportionment: an analysis of the relationship between the congress and the court." She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Westfield State College in 2008.
Career and awards
In 1967, Kearns went to
Washington, D.C., as a
White House Fellow during the
Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Johnson offered the young intern a job as his assistant, an offer which was not withdrawn even after an article by Kearns appeared in
The New Republic
laying out a scenario for Johnson's removal from office over his conduct of the
war in Vietnam.
[2]
After Johnson left office in 1969, Kearns taught government at
Harvard for ten years, including a course on the
American Presidency. During this period she also assisted Johnson in drafting his
memoirs. Her first book,
Lyndon Johnson & the American Dream
, which drew upon her conversations with the late president, was published in 1977. The book became a
New York Times
bestseller and provided a launching pad for her literary career.
Goodwin was the first female journalist to enter the
Boston Red Sox locker room. She consulted on and appeared in
Ken Burns' 1994 documentary
Baseball
.
Goodwin won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During World War II
. Goodwin received an honorary L.H.D. from
Bates College in 1998.
[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Goodwin won the 2005 Lincoln Prize (for best book about the
American Civil War) for
Team of Rivals
, a book about
Abraham Lincoln's
Presidential Cabinet. She is currently a member of the
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission advisory board.
[9] [10] [11] [12]
Since 1997 Goodwin has been a member of the
Board of Directors for
Northwest Airlines.
[13]
Plagiarism controversy
The January 28, 2002 issue of
The Weekly Standard
made a case for Doris Kearns Goodwin as a
plagiarist, arguing that her book,
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys,
used without attribution numerous phrases and sentences from three other books:
Time to Remember,
by
Rose Kennedy;
The Lost Prince,
by Hank Searl; and
Kathleen Kennedy: Her Life and Times,
by
Lynne McTaggart.
In a March 24, 2002, interview with the
Associated Press, McTaggart said, "If somebody takes a third of somebody's book, which is what happened to me, they are lifting out the heart and guts of somebody else's individual expression."
Once this was made public — and questionable phrases from Goodwin’s book were placed in numerous newspaper and magazine articles side by side with the originals — Goodwin admitted that she had previously reached a large "private settlement" with McTaggart over the issue. She wrote in
Time Magazine:
Fourteen years ago, not long after the publication of my book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys, I received a communication from author Lynne McTaggart pointing out that material from her book on Kathleen Kennedy had not been properly attributed. I realized that she was right. Though my footnotes repeatedly cited Ms. McTaggart's work, I failed to provide quotation marks for phrases that I had taken verbatim, having assumed that these phrases, drawn from my notes, were my words, not hers. I made the corrections she requested, and the matter was completely laid to rest—until last week, when the Weekly Standard published an article reviving the issue. The larger question for those of us who write history is to understand how citation mistakes can happen. [14]
An August 2002
Los Angeles Times
story by Peter King reported that there were many passages in Goodwin’s book on the Roosevelts (
No Ordinary Time
) that were apparently lifted directly from Joseph Lash’s
Eleanor and Franklin
and Hugh Gregory Gallagher’s
FDR’s Splendid Deception,
as well as other books.
[15] The allegations of plagiarism have damaged her reputation;
[16], causing her to recall the book and to take leave of various positions.
[17]
Many in the academic, literary, and entertainment communities have continued to support her and her assertion of innocence. As in the case of
Stephen Ambrose, the extensive use of research assistants has been identified as a possible source of this uncredited use of other writers' work. She has attempted to rehabilitate her image by promising to print a correctly attributed version of
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys
.
[18] Her biography of
Abraham Lincoln,
Team Of Rivals
, has been free from accusation.
Personal life
In 1975, Kearns married
Richard N. Goodwin, who had worked in the Johnson and Kennedy administration as an adviser and a speechwriter. They have three sons, Richard, Michael and Joseph. One of her sons is heading to Iraq for a second tour of duty.
As of 2007, the Goodwins live in
Concord, Massachusetts.
Goodwin revealed in her contributions to
Ken Burns' award-winning documentary film
Baseball
her life-long support of both the
Brooklyn Dodgers and the
Boston Red Sox.
Books
- Lyndon Johnson & the American Dream
(1977)
- The Fitzgeralds & The Kennedys
(1987)
- No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Homefront During World War II
(1995)
- Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir
(1997)
- Every four years: Presidential campaign coverage
(2000) ISBN 0-9655091-7-6
- Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
(2005) ISBN 0-684-82490-6
Quotations
- "I got to know this crazy character [Lyndon B. Johnson] when I was only 23 years old.... He's still the most formidable, fascinating, frustrating, irritating individual I think I've ever known in my entire life." [19]
- "I just want them to come alive again. That's all you really ask of history." [20]
Notes
- About Our Fellows
- "...the president discovered that I had been actively involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement and had written an article entitled, 'How to Dump Lyndon Johnson'. I thought for sure he would kick me out of the program, but instead he said, 'Oh, bring her down here for a year and if I can't win her over, no one can'." Dartmouth 1998 commencement address (accessdate=2007-07-27)
- About the Author
- Doris Kearns Goodwin (January 4, 1943 - ) - Biographer; Assistant to President Lyndon Johnson
- Doris Kearns Goodwin: History, Baseball, and the Art of the Narrative
- 109th Landon Lecture
- Commencement address at Dartmouth University
- Lessons of Presidential Leadership
- {{google video|2656145181816205925|National Constitution Center talk}} November 2, 2005 (skip to 30 minute mark)
- Address to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council November 15, 2005
- City Arts and Lectures appearance November 16, 2005
- Goodwin discusses Team of Rivals
- Northwest Airlines- Board of Directors, Biography
- How I Caused That Story
- Historians Rewrite History: The Campaign to Exonerate Doris Kearns Goodwin
- New Frontiers in Cheating: Fake Credentials Encyclopædia Britannica
- Doris Kearns Goodwin And The Credibility Gap
- Doris Kearns Goodwin's Second Act by Alex Beam, Boston Globe Columnist
- [1] Academy of Achievement June 1996 interview, p.1
- [1] Academy of Achievement June 1996 interview, p.6