Washington and Lee University
Last spring, the fourth annual Tom Wolfe Lecture/Seminar, sponsored by the W&L Class of 1951, featured Christopher Buckley, “one of the funniest writers in the English language,” according to Tom Wolfe. Author of 11 books, including God Is My Broker, Little Green Men, No Way To Treat a First Lady, and Washington Schlepped Here, Buckley is best known for his Thank You for Smoking, which was developed into an award-winning motion picture in 2006. Focusing on his most recent book, Florence of Arabia, we enjoyed a lighter examination of the U.S. State Department’s efforts to understand the Middle East, the energy cartel, the CIA, the White House, snooty French diplomats, plucky feminism, and the Foreign Service. In addition to Buckley, we heard from W&L faculty Bill Connelly, Boardman Professor of Politics; Pam Luecke, Reynolds Professor of Journalism; and Tom Wolfe ’51.
This year’s program features not one but two distinguished writers, Geraldine Brooks and her husband Tony Horwitz, who will focus on the topic “A Writer’s Use of History.” Brooks is the author of five books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning March, a novel set in the period of the Civil War. Her international bestselling novel Year of Wonders (2001) is set in England during the plague year 1666. Her most recent book People of the Book, a novel that traces the journey of a rare illuminated Hebrew manuscript from medieval Spain across five centuries of European history, is also enjoying critical acclaim.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Tony Horwitz is the author of Blue Latitudes, One for the Road, Confederates in the Attic, and Baghdad Without a Map. His most recent book, A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World, will be published in April. 
Like his other books, Voyage is as much about Horwitz’s efforts to understand history through often humorous personal encounters with the historic places and those who tend or otherwise embrace the myths surrounding them.
As writers fascinated by matters archival, Geraldine Brooks and Tony Horwitz are acutely aware of history’s abiding but often elusive presence. Serving as a respondent in this seminar is Suzanne Keen, Broadus Professor of English and winner of the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award for 2008.