August 23, 2010 William Cope Moyers to Discuss His Book “Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption” on Sept. 28

William Cope Moyers spiraled into a crack-cocaine binge that threatened to destroy his life. After multiple attempts at rehabilitation, Moyers was finally able to recover from his addiction and make sobriety the center of his life.

Moyers, the son of famed journalist Bill Moyers, will discuss his book “Broken: My Story of Addiction and Redemption” at noon on Tuesday, Sept. 28, in the Montpelier Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building. The lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are needed.

A former newspaper journalist and writer at CNN, Moyers is the vice president for external affairs at the Hazelden Foundation, a renowned drug-treatment center, and executive director of Hazelden’s Center for Public Advocacy.

Moyers graduated in 1981 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va. In his early 20s, Moyers found himself unable to stop an increasingly self-destructive pattern of daily drinking and drug use. As he points out in his book, “Long before most kids ever have to face what it means to ‘cope’ with life, I was painfully aware that I couldn’t cope with much of anything.”

Moyers’ addictions continued until 1994, when one horrific day, his father and family found him on the floor of a crack house in Atlanta’s inner city. What happened next transformed Moyers’ life. A spiritual awakening and the support of family placed him on the road to recovery.

The lecture is sponsored by the Library of Congress Employee Assistance Program and the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division.

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