January/February 2000

Editor's Note

Literary Revelations

Trying to Tame Huck Finn
NEH Chairman William R. Ferris talks with Boston teacher Nancy Methelis about confronting controversy in a classic novel.

Uproar in the Classroom
A new film explores how the written word carries explosive consequences. By Robert Zalisk

Almost a Masterpiece
The early version of what became The Great Gatsby will soon be in print. By James L. W. West III

The Nuances of Money
An interview with author James L. W. West III. By Anna Maria Gillis

People and History

Eleanor Roosevelt, No Ordinary Woman
A documentary places the emphasis on Eleanor without Franklin. By Maggie Riechers

The New Deal Network
A website puts depression-era documents into schools. By Pedro Ponce

A Visit from Historian Shelby Foote
The writer shares reflections on the South and history. By Richard Carter

Crossroads of Art

A World of Spectacle
An exhibition examines eighteenth-century art in the city that was the intersection of the classical and the contemporary. By Tom Stabile

Seven New Members Named to National Council
Linda Lee Aaker, Edward L Ayers, Ira Berlin, Pedro G. Castillo, Evelyn Edson, Peggy Whitman Prenshaw, and Theodore Striggles. By Lynn Erskine.