Al and Tipper Gore To Speak This Evening

at Harvard Graduate School of Education

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

This evening at 6 p.m., as part of the Harvard Book Store and the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s collaborative series, Al and Tipper Gore will speak at the Longfellow Building, Askwith Hall, at 13 Appian Way in Harvard Square. The event requires no tickets and is open to the public, who would be advised to show up early for good seats.

“We have anticipated a large turnout,” said Harvard Book Store owner Frank Kramer, “by making arrangements to accommodate over 1200 people.”

The Gores will be signing copies of their two recent, simultaneously-released books, Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family, an exploration of the evolving dynamics of the contemporary American family, and The Spirit of Family, a collection of 250 photographs providing a panoramic complement to the written study.

With personal anecdotes as well as input from historians, sociologists, psychologists and educators, the Gores’ examination is as inclusive and topically relevant as are both the diverse families they present and the universal issues they explore. These include demographic and social factors such as divorce rate, time management, income inequalities and communication, as well as gender, color and age disparities reflected within the past half century’s significant transformation of traditional family structures. Their belief in the family foundation remains steadfast throughout the work, which has been acclaimed by, among others, authors Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone), Isabel Allende and Barbara Kingsolver and psychologist Robert Coles.

"For us, as for most Americans,” the Gores wrote, “family is our bedrock, and we believe the strength of the American family is the nation's bedrock.”

Former Vice President and Harvard alum Al Gore also wrote the 1992 New York Times bestseller Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Currently a professor at both Fisk University and Middle Tennessee State University, where he teaches “Family-Centered Community Building,” he has long sought to both identify and work toward innovative ways to fulfill changing family and community needs.

From 1993 to 2001, his wife, born Mary Elizabeth Aitcheson and called Tipper by her mother, was an an Advisor to the President on Mental Health Policy. She previously authored 1987’s Raising PG Kids in an X-Rated Society and 1996’s photography collection Picture This, the proceeds of which were donated to the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. She has a 1970 Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Boston University and a 1975 Master’s degree in Psychology from Vanderbilt University, was a newspaper photographer for the Nashville Tennessean, chaired the Congressional Wives Task Force in 1978 and 1979 and co-founded the parenting and media group Parents’ Music Resource Center in 1985. She co-founded and chaired Families for the Homeless in 1986, and in 1990 founded the mental health advocacy group Tennessee Voices for Children. She served as Special Advisor to the Interagency Council on the Homeless during the Clinton-Gore years, formed the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign in 2000, and produced 1998-2001’s national photo exhibit Homeless in America: A Photographic Project.

The Gores, who married in 1970, have four children and two grandchildren, and live in Nashville, Tennessee. They have organized a two-day “Family Re-Union” for the past 11 years.

“We're thrilled to be hosting the Gores,” said Harvard Book Store Academic Marketing Coordinator Amanda Darling, “not only because of Al and Tipper's political and cultural importance, but because Joined at the Heart and The Spirit of Family are such thoughtful and inspiring books.”

Harvard Book Store is Publishers Weekly 2002 Bookseller of the Year, Boston Magazine's Best Bookstore in the Best of Boston 2002, and won the Boston Phoenix's 2002 Reader's Choice Award for Best Used and Best New Bookstore.

This season, HBS/GSE’s series speakers have included Gary Hart and Umberto Eco. The next event on Dec. 12 will feature Poet Laureate Billy Collins.

Joined at the Heart: The Transformation of the American Family and The Spirit of Family are published by Henry Holt and Co.

Al and Tipper Gore: Dec. 6, 6 p.m., Longfellow Building, Askwith Hall, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge. The talk is free and open to the public. No reservations or tickets are required.

Former Vice President and bestselling author Al Gore collaborates with his wife, Tipper, on a groundbreaking book about the changing face of the American family Al and Tipper Gore have long considered family their bedrock. They've also spent many years studying the American family, and now, in this provocative and personal book, they explore the myriad ways in which the idea of family is being redefined.

hholt.com,tracy.locke@hholt.com