Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin gave her first public defense against charges of plagiarism last night Thursday before an audience at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.

Goodwin has been embroiled in controversy since a recent article in the Weekly Standard magazine outlined instances of plagiarism in her 1987 book "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys."

Since the revelations of plagiarism, Kearns Goodwin has admitted to even more instances of "borrowing" from other authors.

Doris Kearns Goodwin is the author of four books. Her book "No Ordinary Time" on Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt earned her a Pulitzer Prize in 1995.

But it's her 1987 book called "The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys An American Saga" that has the historian defending her reputation.

Though the instances of plagiarism have just become public, according to Goodwin, she and her publisher, Simon Shuster, settled out of court a decade ago with plaintiff and author Lynne McTaggart for using McTaggart's material without giving her proper credit.

Goodwin would not allow taping of her speech at St. Catherines, which drew hundreds of people, including students, faculty and the public.

In an hour long address, Goodwin spent only a minute or two speaking directly to the controversy. She admitted that out of a 1000 page manuscript, she drew in some small part from McTaggart. Goodwin said of McTaggart -- quote "While she was regularly cited, there were some sentence fragments that should have been in quotes." And that was as far as Goodwin went last night to directly address the plagiarism.

Goodwin blames the borrowing of other author's texts on her system of taking notes in long hand. The notes combined direct quotes and paraphrased sentences. She says, essentially, she couldn't tell them apart, which is how whole sentences made their way into her book. She says it couldn't happen again because she now scans source text directly and keeps those files separate from her own notes and analysis.

Gary Schwitzer, an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Minnesota who attended the speech, said Goodwin's excuse is no excuse at all.

This file was digitized with the help of a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).