The National Book Festival is an American event that the Library of Congress organizes annually on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Held in early autumn, the festival attracts tens of thousands of people each year (in 2011, nearly 200,000 were in attendance). Over fifty nationally published authors, illustrators, and poets are invited for lectures, readings, interviews, and book signings. The Festival also features various child-oriented attractions.
First Lady Laura Bush first hosted the festival when it was established in 2001 and continued through 2008. Previously, as First Lady of Texas, Laura Bush helped establish the Texas Book Festival. The honorary co-chairs from 2008 to 2012 have been President and Mrs. Obama.
Librarians from libraries across the country are invited every year to represent each state. In 2012, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and commercial sponsors such as Target and AT&T help provide funding for the event.
Famous quotes containing the words national, book and/or festival:
“Let us waive that agitated national topic, as to whether such multitudes of foreign poor should be landed on our American shores; let us waive it, with the one only thought, that if they can get here, they have God’s right to come.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“And she straiked me three times o’er her knee;
She changed me again to my ain proper shape,
And I nae mair maun toddle about the tree.”
—Unknown. Alison Gross. . .
Oxford Book of Ballads, The. James Kinsley, ed. (1969)
“Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme, I have tried; I can find no rhyme to “lady” but “baby”Man innocent rhyme; for “scorn,” “horn”Ma hard rhyme; for “school,” “fool”Ma babbling rhyme; very ominous endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)