September 12, 2012 Library of Congress Publications To Be Featured at National Book Festival

Three new Library of Congress publications will premiere at the 2012 National Book Festival. Four recent titles also will be featured at the event, which will be held 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 22, and noon to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2012, between 9th and 14th streets on the National Mall.

New titles include “The Nation’s Library,” by Alan Bisbort and Linda B. Osborne (Sept. 1, with Scala Publishers, $19.95), an updated guide to the Library of Congress, first published in 2000; “Seeing the World Anew: The Radical Vision of Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 & 1516 World Maps,” by John Hessler and Chet Van Duzer (Oct. 1, with Levenger Press, $85); and “The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax: Words, Photographs, and Music,” Alan Lomax with Tom Piazza, (Dec. 10, with W.W. Norton, $35).

Festival-goers can get a sneak peak of the Library’s upcoming Civil War exhibition and will have the opportunity to purchase the companion volume, “The Library of Congress Illustrated Timeline of the Civil War” by Margaret E. Wagner (with Little, Brown and Company, $35). The exhibition titled “The Civil War in America,” which commemorates the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, opens Nov. 12, 2012, and will remain on view through May 23, 2013, in the Southwest Exhibition Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building at 10 First Street S.E., Washington, D.C.

Aimed at a young audience are “Traveling the Freedom Road: From Slavery and the Civil War Through Reconstruction” and its companion volume “Miles to Go for Freedom: Segregation and Civil Rights in the Jim Crow Era,” by Linda B. Osborne (with Abrams Books, $24.95).

Rounding out the list is “Gardens for a Beautiful America, 1895-1935: Photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston” by Sam Watters (with Acanthus Press, $79).

The above titles and other Library publications are also available in the Library of Congress Shop, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C., 20540-4985. Credit-card orders are taken at (888) 682-3557. Selected titles also available online at www.loc.gov/shop/.

All seven titles will be on sale at the book festival. The following will be the subject of book talks at the event in the Library of Congress pavilion:

Saturday, Sept. 22 11 a.m.: “Seeing the World Anew,” authors John Hessler, Geography and Map Division, and Chet Van Duzer, John Carter Brown Library
12:20 p.m.: “Gardens for a Beautiful America,” Helena Zinkham, Prints and Photographs Division
3 p.m.: “The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax,” Todd Harvey, American Folklife Center

Sunday, Sept. 23
3:40 p.m.: A Sneak Peek of the Library of Congress Civil War Exhibition. Curators Cheryl Regan, Michelle Krowl and Margaret Wagner
4:20 p.m.: “The Nation’s Library,” Giulia Adelfio and Sharon Hannon, Visitor Services Office

The 2012 National Book Festival will feature more than 100 authors, poets and illustrators. Festival-goers can attend talks by their favorite poets and authors, purchase books and get books signed, have photos taken with characters from children’s television shows and participate in a variety of activities. Details about the Library of Congress National Book Festival can be found on its website at www.loc.gov/bookfest/.

The 2012 National Book Festival is made possible through the generous support of National Book Festival Board Co-Chair David M. Rubenstein; Charter Sponsors Target, The Washington Post, Wells Fargo and the Institute of Museum and Library Services; Patrons the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS KIDS; Contributors Barnes & Noble; Digital Bookmobile powered by OverDrive, LEGO Systems, Inc. and Scholastic Inc.; and—in the Friends category the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Hay-Adams and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Thanks also to C-SPAN2’s Book TV, the Junior League of Washington and The Links.

The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may be accessed through the Library’s website, www.loc.gov.