SCOTT SIMON, HOST: Over the next few months, we'll speak with past winners to mark the Pulitzer's centennial. This week, we interviewed Annette Gordon-Reed. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "The Hemingses Of Monticello." She has a new book, "Most Blessed Of The Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson And The Empire Of The Imagination," which digs into Jefferson's mind and his contradictions.</s>ANNETTE GORDON-REED: I think to ask the question how could someone who was a slave owner write the Declaration of Independence, you know, how could he own slaves when he did this other thing, how could he know that slavery was wrong? I mean, that's a problem for us. But there were many, many, many more people who didn't think that slavery was wrong. I mean, the real question is how did somebody who grew up the way he grew up - I mean, the story we tell and the - you know, of him - his first memory of being handed up on a pillow to an enslaved person, this institution bounded his life. And yet he thought that it was wrong.</s>SCOTT SIMON, HOST: You can hear more of that interview later this hour.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes, Scott Simon will speak with past Pulitzer winners over the next few months. Simon previews this week's conversation with Annette Gordon-Reed.