November 6, 2011 Library Hosts Fall Preview of Books and Gifts Nov. 16

Get a jump on holiday shopping at the fall Preview of Books and Sale-a-Thon, hosted by the Publishing Office of the Library of Congress from 1 to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16.

The sale, which will offer deep discounts on new and recent products, will be held in Madison Hall on the first floor of the James Madison Building at 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public. Cash, credit cards and checks will be accepted.

Several authors will be on hand to sign their new works, and shoppers will find an array of gifts and books about architecture, art, biography, film, history, music, photography, reference, sports and theater—all featuring items from the Library’s unparalleled collections. Also on sale will be 2012 calendars, posters, postcard books and note-card sets. Giveaway items include Library postcards and bookmarks.

New books include the acclaimed “Photographic Memory: The Album in the Age of Photography,” by the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division curator Verna Posever Curtis. It showcases some of the most important examples in the history of the medium and includes albums by renowned photographers and filmmakers, among them Walker Evans, Danny Lyon, Dorothea Lange, Duane Michals, Leni Riefenstahl and W. Eugene Smith.

Civil War buffs will be drawn to “The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War,” a visual feast of colorful and rare images with text by Margaret Wagner. Another lavishly illustrated volume, “Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Years,” by Linda Barrett Osborne, continues the story that began with her highly praised book for young readers, “Traveling the Freedom Road: From Slavery and the Civil War Through Reconstruction.”

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution. 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 and exhibitions. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov and via interactive exhibitions on a personalized website at myLOC.gov. Library publications and other products can be ordered by credit card at (888) 682-3557 or online at www.loc.gov/shop/.