Booknotes

Booknotes debuted on April 2, 1989. The first guest was former United States National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, discussing The Grand Failure: The Birth and Death of Communism in the Twentieth Century.[4] The fifth anniversary was marked on April 10, 1994 with a special two-hour show featuring over 50 of the 300 authors previously featured on the program.[5] For the tenth anniversary of Booknotes in 1999, Brian Lamb compiled and edited an anthology of stories on 78 people who influenced American history from the 18th century to 1999. Titled Booknotes: Life Stories, each contributed story was written by a well-known biographer.[6]

After 801 interviews, the final broadcast aired December 5, 2004.[3] Lamb's guest was Mark Edmundson, author of Why Read?, professor of English at the University of Virginia and a contributing editor at Harper's Magazine.[7] The show was intended to end with the 800th episode, but due to a miscalculation, the final program was actually the 801st.[7]

Booknotes segments continue to be re-aired on C-SPAN's companion network C-SPAN 2, during Saturday Book TV broadcasts,[8] while C-SPAN 3 airs repeat segments every weeknight at 11 p.m. Pacific Time. All 801 transcripts are available online[1] and the 801 shows can be viewed online via the Booknotes website.[9] Lamb's own copies of the Booknotes books, most of which contain his personal marginalia, are housed in the rare books collection of George Mason University.[10]

The Booknotes concept grew out of a one-off interview special with Neil Sheehan, author of A Bright Shining Lie, in September 1988.[6] The interview itself resulted from Lamb having viewed a short commercial television interview with Sheehan and wanting to hear more.[6] According to Lamb, a strong viewer response to the program led to the decision to start producing a weekly author interview program.[3]

Each Booknotes episode devoted one full hour to an interview with the author of a recently released non-fiction book.[2] In order to avoid duplicate appearances by any one author, each guest appeared only once on the program,[3] thus allowing for over 800 different authors to be interviewed every week over a fifteen-year stretch. The hour-long interviews explored authors' work habits, thoughts and lives, while also covering the intentions of their book and how, or if, these were achieved.[1][2]

Research for the interviews was simple: producers identified subjects, arranged for them to appear and Brian Lamb would then read the book in the week prior to the interview.[6] One reason for discontinuing the series, according to Lamb, was the time constraints imposed by reading an entire book every seven days.[3]

The set where Booknotes was recorded was similarly basic, comprising a black backdrop, two armchairs and a coffee table.[8]

In February 2003, Lamb was awarded the National Humanities Medal.[11] In November 2007, Lamb received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work on C-SPAN.[12] The American Historical Association awarded Lamb the 2004 Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Award "for extraordinary contributions to the study, teaching, and public understanding of history."[13]