On June 13, 1862, the Lincolns moved what was left of their family three miles north of the chaotic White House for the summer. Their destination, tradition holds, was a gracious Gothic Revival cottage on the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, the nation's first refuge for old and disabled veterans.

Authors Susan Birch and Hannah Joyner discuss their book, Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson, about a man who was deaf and black in the Jim Crow South

Hear excerpts from The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers that tells an unforgettable tale of moral isolation in a small southern mill town in the 1930s.  Copyright © 1940, renewed 1967 by Carson McCullers. Used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. Audio rights courtesy of HarperAudio. All rights reserved.

Additional music credit: “Sundown” by Son House © 1965 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. Currently available on Father of the Delta Blues: The Complete 1965 Sessions. Tracks used courtesy of Song BMG Music Entertainment.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, developed in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The program is designed to restore reading back to the center of American culture.

National Endowment for the Arts presents:  An introduction to "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers.