May 11, 2014 Program to Honor 75th Anniversary of "These Are Our Lives"

“These Are Our Lives,” a book of life histories from the Federal Writers’ Project, turns 75 this year. This seminal volume from the New Deal era will be celebrated during a Books & Beyond program on Thursday, May 15, at noon in the Mary Pickford Theater, located on the third floor of the James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

This event, sponsored by the Library’s Center for the Book, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

The program will be presented by historians David A. Taylor, author of “Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America”; Ann Banks, author of “First-Person America”; and Virginia Millington, director of the StoryCorps Archive, which is broadcast on NPR and housed at the Library of Congress. The authors will discuss how life histories were gathered, the legacy of the WPA life histories for StoryCorps, their research into the Library of Congress’ incomparable New Deal collections and new opportunities for life-history archives.

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. Many of the Library’s rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.

The Library’s Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to "stimulate public interest in books and reading," is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through the Young Readers Center and the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit read.gov.