Lawyer turned best-selling author David Baldacci has become one of the Library of Congress's biggest fans.
In his previous career, Baldacci had used the collections of the Law Library of Congress. But his interest in the Library as a resource for his novels began at the Library's second annual National Book Festival in 2002.
Lawyer turned prolific best-selling novelist David Baldacci became intrigued by the Library of Congress at the 2002 National Book Festival.
It all started when Baldacci, a speaker in the festival's Mysteries & Thrillers pavilion, met Rob Shields, then a staff member in the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
"He spoke movingly and lovingly about the Library, and I decided that I needed to learn more about it," said Baldacci. "I wanted to write about the Library from a unique perspective, that of an insider."
Toward that end, he asked Deborah Hocutt, his executive assistant and the former director of the Virginia Center for the Book, to set up an orientation that would include tours of both the Thomas Jefferson Building and the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Baldacci and Hocutt visited the Library on Dec. 13, 2004, where they met with this writer; Mark Dimunation, chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division; and his colleague Daniel De Simone, curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection.
In late 2005, Baldacci published "The Camel Club," which features a ragtag foursome of dysfunctional but somehow successful crime solvers. One of them is Caleb Shaw, a fictional staff member of the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
A year later, Baldacci upped the ante by featuring the Library of Congress itself as a central "character" in "The Collectors." In this 2006 sequel to "The Camel Club," the Library serves as a backdrop for suspicious, nefarious action.
Prior to writing the sequel, Baldacci and Hocutt visited the Library's Preservation Directorate, where they met with director Dianne van der Reyden and her colleagues. So it is not surprising that preservation plays an important role in "The Collectors." Specifically, the focus is the Library's copy of the "Bay Psalm Book" (1640), the earliest extant book printed in British North America, which was bequeathed to the Library in 1966 by Adrian Van Sinderen.
The tale of political intrigue is set in motion by the murder of Jonathan DeHaven, the head of the Library's Rare Book Division, a character inspired by Dimunation. At the book launch held at the Library on Oct. 17, 2006, Dimunation asked Baldacci if his fictional alter ego really had to die. The author carefully but firmly explained that the librarian's death was indeed central to the book's plot. In a subsequent interview in the magazine Fine Books & Collections, Baldacci commented, "I think Mark's gotten over it. I think he's embraced it. Originally, he was killed on page 16. Now he dies on page 33. I told him that he got seventeen extra pages of life."
Himself a collector of signed first editions, Baldacci arranged for the printing of a limited edition (80 copies) of "The Collectors," hand bound in full Nigerian goatskin leather by Angela Scott of Washington, D.C. The spine is decorated in 24-karat gold. Baldacci presented a copy to the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
In addition to this gift, Baldacci has given the Library of Congress unprecedented visibility in the world of popular fiction. With a cover design featuring the Library's Main Reading Room and endpapers that reproduce four different pages from the "Bay Psalm Book," "The Collectors" has been published in more than 30 languages and sold in more than 80 countries. One million copies of the cloth edition are in print, and the book was on the best-seller list for 11 weeks. The first paperbound edition of "The Collectors"—totaling 1.5 million copies—will go on sale in September. In November, Baldacci's third book in the Camel Club series, titled "Stone Cold," will be published. In it, the Camel Club returns to solve a string of murders of Washington, D.C., political staffers.
Baldacci will discuss his latest novel, "Simple Genius" at the 2007 National Book Festival on Sept. 29. At the 2005 festival he spoke about his thriller "Hour Game" in the Mysteries & Thrillers pavilion and his first book for children, "Freddy and the French Fries: Fries Alive!," in the Children's pavilion.
A tireless advocate for literacy and the importance of reading, Baldacci and his wife Michelle are cofounders of the Wish You Well Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting literacy efforts across the nation. The organization recently joined the Center for the Book's reading promotion partnership program. (See story, above.)
In a recent talk to the Library's private-sector advisory group, the James Madison Council, Baldacci described his interactions with the Library's staff.
"Their patience and enthusiasm and genuine interest in the story made it much better by allowing me to see things through their eyes and benefit from their extraordinary expertise. What better way to experience the Library than to have people who love it bring it to life by letting me absorb their knowledge, understanding and passion and thereby letting me transfer it onto the pages?"
