The 39th president spoke with Terry Gross in 1995, 2001 and 2005 about poetry, Sept. 11 and his concerns about how intertwined politics and religion had become. Carter died on Dec. 29 at age 100. Today is his funeral.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. On this day of Jimmy Carter's funeral, which has also been declared a national day of mourning, we listen back to more excerpts of the interviews I recorded with him over the years. At 100 years old, Carter was the oldest living former president in American history. with one of the longest and most productive public lives after leaving the White House.
Those post-presidency years were devoted to public service. He and his wife Rosalyn teamed up with Habitat for Humanity, building or repairing thousands of homes in the U.S. and other countries around the world, including Mexico, South Africa, Haiti, Vietnam, India, and the Philippines.
He flew around the world to war zones to mediate violent conflicts and monitor elections in fledgling democracies. And Carter wrote several memoirs about his presidency, his childhood, his deep religious faith, his reflections on getting older, and life after leaving office. That gave me the opportunity to interview him several times.
We'll start with a side of Jimmy Carter most Americans were unaware of when he was in the White House, his lifelong interest in and love of poetry. When we spoke in 1995, he'd just published a collection of his poems titled Always a Reckoning. Carter was the first former president to publish a book of poems.
What do you think the assumptions are that people make when they hear a former president is also a poet?
Well, I think it's been a rare thing in history to have a president who was a published poet. I imagine a lot of folks who have been in the White House have written a poem or two.
And hid them.
And hid them, yes, or shared them with maybe a wife on Mother's Day or something of that kind. But I think to write poetry seriously is probably considered to be incompatible with being a politician who's been in the White House.
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