Attention history buffs: the Pulitzer Prize-winning presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is now on Twitter, thanks to TIME’s own Mark Halperin.
Her first tweet:
This is my first tweet ever. For an historian accustomed to enormously long books this will be a challenge to compress thoughts!
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Doris Kearns Goodwin (@DorisKGoodwin) June 17, 2012On Saturday, the political analyst announced to the Twitterverse that he would set up an account for the New York Times best-selling author during their appearance on Meet the Press.
“I was sort of kidding, but, after the show Sunday, as the traditional post-program brunch was being served, I slid my iPad in front of her and announced, in effect, that it was time,” Halperin says. “I told her what a great news source it is, and I promised it wouldn’t bite. She was game.”
Halperin took a photo of Goodwin for her avatar and then taught her how to post updates, follow other people, and manage her stream. Meet the Press tweeted out her new handle, and Halperin shared a picture of her using his iPad.
Goodwin’s second post was about her son Joe Kearns Goodwin (@JoeKGoodwin), who is running for Massachusetts state senate. She even used the appropriate hashtag:
@dbernstein I'm new at this! I am following our next state senator @joekgoodwin now! #MaPoli
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Doris Kearns Goodwin (@DorisKGoodwin) June 17, 2012By Monday afternoon Goodwin was closing in on 4,000 followers.
In her third tweet, she thanked Halperin for his help:
@Markhalperin Thank you, my mentor, for bringing me into the modern age! The railsplitter would be proud - trains then, twitter now!
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Doris Kearns Goodwin (@DorisKGoodwin) June 17, 2012Goodwin’s first book was a biography of Lyndon B. Johnson, Lyndon Johnson & The American Dream (1976). In 1995, she won a Pulitzer Prize in history for No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The American Home Front During World War II (1995). Her most recent book, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2006), won the Lincoln Prize.
