CONTACT: Pat Vaughan Tremmel at (847) 491-4892 or at p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

March 13, 2002

Pulitzer Prize-Winning Wills Delivers Rosenthal Lectures

CHICAGO --- Garry Wills, Northwestern University’s Pulitzer prize-winning history professor, will deliver the 2002 Julius Rosenthal Foundation Lecture Series on "Jefferson and the Slave Power" April 9 -11 at Northwestern University School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave.

The lectures, at 4 p.m. each day, are free and open to the public.

Wills will focus on President Thomas Jefferson and how the skewed "three-fifths" representation of blacks lurked behind most major events of his presidency. The lectures are titled "Louisiana and the Slave Power" (April 9), "Aaron Burr and the Slave Power" (April 10) and "Jefferson’s Embargo and the Slave Power" (April 11).

Known for the depth of his thought and the gracefulness of his writing, Wills is the author of more than 20 widely read books on American culture and politics. "Lincoln at Gettysburg" won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, for its close textual analysis of the Gettysburg Address, and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

One of the nation’s most prominent public intellectuals, he is a member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He also is a frequent contributor to newspapers and magazines and moves with ease between American politics, ancient history and medieval philosophy, synthesizing information across disciplines and finding the new angle in spellbinding language.

"Professor Wills is certain to continue the Rosenthal lectures’ strong tradition with his bold and energetic approach to history," said David E. Van Zandt, professor of law and dean of Northwestern University School of Law.

The Julius Rosenthal Foundation Lecture Series has assumed a preeminent position among distinguished legal lecture programs, and the publication of the lectures has contributed to legal literature and scholarship for more than 60 years.

Wills’ most recent book, "Venice: Lion City," was cited by the Los Angeles Times as one of the best books of 2001. "He seems to have left not a book unread, not a church unvisited, not a painting, sculpture or mosaic unconsidered…it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that I have learned something new about the city on every page," said the reviewer, John Julius Norwich.

Wills’ "St. Augustine" also was chosen as one of the Los Angeles Times best books, for 1999. "This biography of Augustine is compounded in equal measure of fact and exegesis, all of it offered up in elegant prose," said the reviewer.

Other books of Wills include "Nixon Agonistes" (1970), "Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence" (1978), "Explaining America: The Federalist" (1980), "The Kennedy Imprisonment" (1982), "Reagan’s America" (1987), "Under God: Religion and American Politics" (1990), "Witches and Jesuits: Shakespeare’s Macbeth" (1994) and "John Wayne’s America: The Politics of Celebrity" (1997).

Besides winning a Pulitzer, he also has received the National Humanities Medal in honor of his lifetime achievements in the humanities (1998); the National Book Critics Award (twice); the Organization of American Historians Merle Curti Award; and the Yale Graduate School’s Wilber Cross Medal.

Wills, who received master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Yale University, taught classics and humanities at Johns Hopkins University.