On a beautiful day in September, first lady Laura Bush and Dr. Billington opened the National Book Festival on the grounds of the Capitol and the Library of Congress. - Rebecca D'Angelo
Authors by the dozens and readers by the thousands answered first lady Laura Bush's call to "come together to revel in the joy of the written word," at the first National Book Festival, celebrated on Sept. 8 in Library buildings and on the east lawn of the Capitol.
Sixty nationally known authors participated in the festival that she hosted and the Library sponsored. The Library estimated that 25,000 to 30,000 readers joined in the festivities.
Against a backdrop of balloons, banners and blue sky, the Librarian and Mrs. Bush opened the festival at 9:30 a.m. To an audience of cheering librarians, he introduced Mrs. Bush as "the first professional librarian ever to live in the White House."
"She is energizing an ever-widening circle with her passion for the cause of books and libraries and reading," Dr. Billington said.
Outlining the day's events and thanking participating authors, event underwriters and the "armies of volunteers and staff who made this day possible," Mrs. Bush welcomed the crowd. "We're all in for a treat at this festival," she said.
Left, as a backdrop to the presentations by authors and storytellers, musical groups performed on the Library's Neptune Plaza; right, Clifford the Big Red Dog was one of the visitors from the world of children's literature. - Rebecca D'Angelo
Fans of all ages took every seat and stood four or five deep beneath the big white tents on the Capitol grounds to hear their favorite recorders of history and commentators on current events, spinners of mystery and weavers of suspense, writers of fiction and imagination, and tellers of tales. They came early (two took their seats at 8 a.m. to wait for mystery writer Sue Grafton to begin speaking at 10 a.m.) and stayed late (historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was still signing books on the Jefferson Building lawn at 5:45 p.m.).
Young families came in droves. Center for the Book Director John Cole counted 30 baby strollers parked outside the Mumford Room, where Steven Kellogg and Marc Brown were telling stories and demonstrating their art of writing and illustrating children's books. Moms and dads read to their children wherever they were waiting patiently in Great Hall mezzanine lines, sometimes for an hour or longer, to get books signed. Outside, on the Capitol grounds, kids stared in disbelief or squealed with delight upon chance encounters with Arthur, Clifford the Big Red Dog and other familiar characters that had materialized from their world of fiction.
Visitors crowded the Jefferson's Building's Great Hall as well as its front staircase to enjoy the festivities. Books (and sales) were much in evidence. - Rebecca D'Angelo
Reading in the Children & Young Adults Pavilion, members of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) turned out in force to communicate their "Read to Achieve" message:
"Reading is fun and books are cool too/ I will read a book daily to learn something new."
Said Michael Curry, a player for the Detroit Pistons and president of the NBA Players Association: "We're here to launch our Read to Achieve program and to show you the importance of education; even professional basketball players can't have a career without an education."
Left, a young visitor gets her name written in calligraphy; right, Mrs. Bush mingles with festivalgoers. - Rebecca D'Angelo
Los Angeles Sparks forward Delisha Milton, an Olympic gold medalist in 2000 and WNBA All-star in 2001, said the Dr. Seuss books taught her at an early age "that life is not smooth; it has its ups and downs."
Theo Ratcliff, who majored in communications at the University of Wyoming before joining the Atlantic Hawks, said the Autobiography of Malcom X was his favorite book as a student. "One book can change your perspective," he said. "I have kids of my own, and I know they look up to basketball stars, so we should set an example."
The Catcher in the Rye hooked Pat Garrity on reading. The Orlando Magic forward, who studied biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, said the book should be "required reading" for every boy between the ages of 10 and 18.
Left, John Hope Franklin and his son, John Whittington Franklin, signed posters and books for readers and fans; right, Poet Laureate Billy Collins read from his work. - Christina Tyler Wenks andRebecca D'Angelo
In the Storytelling Pavilion, crowds gathered throughout the day to hear stories and music from the people of the Appalachian Mountains, the Deep South, the South Carolina Sea Islands and the Caribbean. They saw a Taiwanese puppet show, listened to Native American tales from New York State and saw East Indian stories expressed through dance. American Folklife Center Director Peggy Bulger's interviews of two Navajo Code Talkers brought people in the audience to tears.
In the Mystery & Suspense Pavilion, Walter Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins mystery series (Devil in a Blue Dress, A Red Death, White Butterfly, Black Betty and A Little Yellow Dog) kept his fans laughing as he discussed his trade. "Writers only do part of the work," he said. "Readers do the rest. They fill in the details from their own memory."
For example, he said, a reader once asked him, "'How do you remember all those details from the '50s? How do you remember drinking a Crown cola and looking down that girl's dress?' Those weren't my details; those were the reader's."
The day was filled with presentations by authors, including (from left) Jan Karon in the Fiction and Imagination Pavilion; David Levering Lewis in the Montpelier Room; and Scott Turow in the Mystery and Suspense Pavilion; David McCullough autographed his latest work, John Adams. - Gail Fineberg, Rebecca D'Angelo and Christina Tyler Wenks
Scott Turow, who began writing as a teenager and taught creative writing at Stanford University before entering Harvard Law School, brings the point of view of both defense lawyer and prosecutor to his novels, which include Personal Injuries, Burden of Proof, Presumed Innocent and Pleading Guilty. "For the past 10 years, my focus has been on capital punishment, and I bring that perspective to my characters," he said, before reading a chapter from a yet-unpublished manuscript. "I think I understand and feel deeply the arguments on both sides."
Facing a tent full of people in the Fiction & Imagination Pavilion, North Carolina author Jan Karon dabbed at her eyes. "What a warm reception. I'm trying to keep tears from messing up my mascara," she said. "Are all of you, or most of you, actually Mitford fans?"
"Yes!" screamed hundreds of readers for whom Karon's mythical Mitford is as familiar as their own kitchens. "What would I do without you?" she told them.
She provided answers to questions she said many of her readers ask about her characters. "People ask, 'Where do you get your characters?' The truth is, they get me." One of her favorites was Miss Sadie. "People ask, 'If you loved her so much, why did you let her die?' Well, that's life, and it was time for her to die."
Left, Ord, the blue dragon from the PBS series Dragon Tales, meets a fan on the Capitol lawn; center, Navajo Code Talkers, World War II veterans instrumental in cracking enemy coded transmissions, were interviewed in the Storytelling Pavilion; right, National Basketball Association player Dikembe Mutombo was a popular attraction in the Children and Young Adults Pavilion. - Rebecca D'Angelo and Gail Fineberg
"Is Mitford real?" she asked. "Yes!" her audience shouted in unison. "Of course it is," she said. "It is all around you, if you just keep your hearts open."
A recipe for marmalade cake, which figures prominently in her stories, is real, too, she said, offering a Web address before she began reading from A Common Life, which she described as "a book about joy."
Readers with no less enthusiasm for history and biography lined up in the corridor on the sixth floor of the Madison Building to gain Montpelier Room entrance to hear Pulitzer winners David McCullough, whose popular works include John Adams, Truman and Mornings on Horseback; Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose research produced, among others, No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream; David Levering Lewis, whose exhaustive work about W.E.B. Du Bois won the biography Pulitzer for each of its two volumes; and A. Scott Berg, whose Lindbergh won the biography Pulitzer in 1999. John Hope Franklin, author of more than 20 history books, and his son, John Whittington Franklin, retold the life story of their progenitor Buck Colbert Franklin.
Mr. Cole, who was in charge of the festival's author program, said
participating authors were pleased. "Many said they would love to return
in future years," he said.
Not only did visitors wait in line to hear these speakers, but they filled the
Coolidge Auditorium to overflowing to hear and see their favorite authors in
three programs: "Children's Books, Literacy and Libraries: A Conversation"; "Mystery & Suspense:
Where the Bodies Are Buried"; and "Poetry: Hear Our Voices." They attended a
Conservation Clinic held all day in the Whittall Pavilion, asked questions about
copyrights, saw demonstrations by the National Library Service for the Blind
and Physically Handicapped and ate and listened to music on Library plazas.
The beautiful weather, packed program of presentations and casual atmosphere contributed to the success of the National Book Festival—although the day proved to be exhausting for some. - Rebecca D'Angelo
Other visitors had their names written in calligraphy in three Area Studies reading rooms, which also displayed award-winning books; toured the Main Reading Room; and discovered that digital technology can make learning fun (www.americaslibrary.gov), in the National Digital Library Learning Center.
C-SPAN 2 filmed many festival events and broadcast an eight-hour National Book Festival special on Sunday, Sept. 9, plus three hours of additional author presentations the following weekend.
Throughout, staff volunteers, organized by the Library's Visitor Services Office, answered thousands of questions, directed traffic and solved problems.
