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Excerpt: The Final Day of the 2005 National Spelling Bee, Washington, D.C. It’s nine in the morning, and I’m standing on stage at the National Spelling Bee. At this hour the cavernous ballroom in the Grand Hyatt is almost empty, except for Jim Close, …

Excerpt: the 2005 Nationals, Washington, D.C. – Who Are the Spellers? ...As parties go, these 273 spellers are likely the most divergent group of people gathered in the nation’s capital this week. Once again this year, the Bee is the definition of …

Excerpt: Marshall Winchester Charlotte, North Carolina No one spells like Marshall Winchester. Tall, slender, bespectacled, with short-cropped black hair, Marshall takes hold of the microphone before issuing the letters. He stands as if ready to make …

Excerpt: Aliya Deri San Francisco, California If the group of spellers that gathers every year for the National Bee is distinguished by a certain geek chic—the attractive nerdiness of the intellectually inclined—by comparison to many in this group, …

Excerpt: Samir Patel Fort Worth, Texas Life isn’t pretty here at the Fort Worth regional spelling bee. That is, not if you’ve won the last two years, and you’re now competing for your third trip to Washington, as Samir Patel is. If that’s the case, …

Excerpt: Kerry Close Spring Lake, New Jersey The first thing you notice when talking with Kerry Close is her intensity of presence. Hidden within her reserve, her native shyness, is a keen awareness, a sharp, sensitive intelligence. She’s twelve years …

Chapter One excerpt: the 2004 National Spelling Bee, Washington, D.C. David Tidmarsh is breathing like a runaway pony. And no wonder: The slender fourteen-year-old stands onstage facing six judges and a crowded ballroom, with all eyes on him. In the …

Prologue to American Bee: As I traveled around the country, talking with the many people I spoke with to report the story of the National Bee, I was often asked: “What made you want to write a book about the spelling bee?” The question was usually …

Excerpt from: Chapter Sixteen: The Generation Gap (Since its debut in 1948, the Sullivan show had always reflected the many changes in American popular taste. But as the country moved toward the social turmoil of the late 1960s, the show's reflection …

Excerpt from: Chapter Fourteen: Beatlemania (The Beatles were virtually unknown in America when Sullivan booked them in the fall of 1963 for a February 1964 appearance. As Beatlemania spead across the Atlantic in those months, anticipation of their …

Excerpt from: Chapter Eleven: Elvis (Elvis' three appearances on the Sullivan show in the 1956-57 season were national events, with audiences hovering around 50 million viewers. Sullivan's uneasy grappling with the charismatic power of the …

Excerpt from: Chapter Six: Hollywood (This chapter details Sullivan's life as a Hollywood gossip columnist and filmmaker; he moved from New York to Hollywood in 1937.) Everything seemed bright that Saturday in September as Ed, Sylvia, and …

Excerpt from: Chapter Five: Cafe Society (In Depression-era Manhattan, Sullivan was an influential gossip columnist, chronicling the lives of the smart set. This chapter describes his experiences as a New York Daily News columnist.) The milieu …

Excerpt from: Chapter Four: Broadway (In 1931, Sullivan took a job as the gossip columnist for the New York Graphic, a notorious Manhattan scandal sheet. This chapter describes his debut on the job.) Ed’s column, Ed Sullivan Sees Broadway, debuted …

IMPRESARIO The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan Prologue On an overcast Sunday morning he sat in his robe and hurriedly typed his column. Next to the typewriter sat his usual breakfast – a lamb chop ordered from room service, an artificially sweetened …