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:
“America is a nation with no truly national city, no Paris, no Rome, no London, no city which is at once the social center, the political capital, and the financial hub.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“I am afraid I am one of those people who continues to read in the hope of sometime discovering in a book a single—and singular—piece of wisdom so penetrating, so soul stirring, so utterly applicable to my own life as to make all the bad books I have read seem well worth the countless hours spent on them. My guess is that this wisdom, if it ever arrives, will do so in the form of a generalization.”
—Joseph Epstein (b. 1937)
“Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
—Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)