June 23, 2015 Books to Movies Program at Library of Congress National Book Festival

Features Pulitzer Winner A. Scott Berg

Press Contact: Gayle Osterberg, (202) 707-0020
Public Contact: Center for the Book (202) 707-5221
Website: National Book Festival

A. Scott Berg, winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, will provide a fascinating multimedia overview of the film industry as the opening to the Books to Movies program at this year’s Library of Congress National Book Festival on Saturday, Sept. 5 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The program will run from 8 to 10 p.m., as one of several programs scheduled for the evening. Other events are a Poetry Slam (7:15 p.m. - 9 p.m.), a series focusing on romance novelists (7:10 p.m. -9:45 p.m.) and another featuring graphic artists (7:15 p.m. - 10 p.m.).

The festival runs from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. (doors open at 9 a.m.).

Berg’s “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius” (1978), about the literary editor of such great novelists as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe, won the National Book Award. His biography of aviator Charles Lindbergh won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. He has also published biographies of film mogul Samuel Goldwyn, actress Katharine Hepburn and U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.

This fall, “Genius” will be released as a movie starring Colin Firth, Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. A first-time-ever sneak peek of the film will be screened during Berg’s presentation.

Following Berg’s overview and look at how books have been adapted for film, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday will moderate a books-to-movies panel with Berg. Also on the panel is Lawrence Wright, whose current book is “Thirteen Days in September: The Dramatic Story of the Struggle for Peace.” Wright won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11.” His book “Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief” (2013) was the result of Wright’s more than 200 interviews with current and former members of the Scientology organization. It became a recent documentary on HBO.

Anne-Marie O’Connor, author of “The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer,’” will also be a panelist. She will comment on the recent film “The Woman in Gold,” which is about her subject (although the film is not based on her work).

The Library of Congress National Book Festival is funded by private donors and corporate sponsors who share the Library’s commitment to reading and literacy. Since 2010, National Book Festival Board Co-Chairman David M. Rubenstein has been the festival’s lead benefactor and has pledged funding for the festival for five more years. Charter Sponsors include AARP, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patron sponsor, the National Endowment for the Arts; the Contributor-level sponsors are Jacqueline B. Mars, National Geographic, Scholastic Inc. and WAMU 88.5 FM; and, in the Friends category, C-SPAN2’s Book TV, Georgetown University’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, The Hay-Adams, the Inter-American Development Bank, Susan C. Lehrman, the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute with support from board chair Roger A. Strauch, the Mensa Education & Research Foundation, the Mexican Cultural Institute, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Embassy of Peru, and Small Press Expo. The Junior League of Washington will also return as the Library’s primary partner for volunteer support, a role the organization has played since 2003. Those interested in supporting the National Book Festival can contact the Library at devofc@loc.gov.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions.

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PR 15-112
2015-06-23
ISSN 0731-3527