This Art Deco owl of wisdom—designed in the 1930s by sculptor Lee Lawrie—adorns the door to the center reading room on the fifth floor of the Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, DC.
Photo credit: Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
In September 2011, the Library of Congress celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps with an annotated bibliography of selected books in the Library of Congress collections authored or edited by returned Peace Corps volunteers and a few former staff members. This revised and updated edition contains a selected listing of books published between 1964 and 2015. Each entry links to a Library of Congress Online Catalog record, which contains more information about the book.
This edition focuses on works of fiction or nonfiction by authors or editors related to either “the Peace Corps experience” or the developing world in general. This selected bibliography is representative of the creativity, scholarship, and knowledge of the developing world of Peace Corps writers who served in the Peace Corps in more than 70 developing countries.
The Library of Congress collections include more than 862 books searchable by the “Peace Corps” keyword, but their authors did not necessarily serve in the Peace Corps. The Library’s collections also include many other books on subjects unrelated to the Peace Corps experience or the developing world by authors with Peace Corps service. This selected bibliography attempts to provide a representative sampling of the Library’s collection of books by authors with Peace Corps service.
Photo caption: President Kennedy greets Peace Corps trainees at a reception on the White House grounds, August 9, 1962. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011648222/
Download the bibliography (PDF, 1.01MB)
Bibliography by Author:
Find books in the Library of Congress Collections by 200 authors who served in the Peace Corps.
