Monday, September 5, 2022
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” ? René Descartes
Over the course of its 20-year history, the Library of Congress National Book Festival has become one of the most prominent literary events in the nation. This past Labor Day weekend, for the first time in three years, the festival once again became an in-person event drawing thousands of book lovers once again to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., on Saturday Sept. 3. Since the onset of the pandemic, the privately funded event had been forced to retreat to an on-line only format. Founded by first lady Laura Bush, herself a former librarian, the National Book Festival began in 2001 on the Library of Congress grounds and in its buildings on Capitol Hill, expanding soon thereafter to the lawn of the Capitol and then to the National Mall, finally moving indoors to its present location in 2014.
This year’s festival featured more than 100 speakers, including bestselling authors, children’s writers, historians, illustrators, novelists and poets. Aligned with this year’s theme — “Books bring us together!” — some of the subjects tackled included civil rights, cultural diversity and climate change.
Mitch Albom delivered one of the more inspiring presentations, reflecting on his seminal work, “Tuesdays with Morrie External,” one of the bestselling memoirs of all time, even now, 25 years after its original publication.
Actor Nick Offerman, who played the outdoorsman-slash-office manager Ron Swanson on “Parks and Recreation,” in his new book, “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play,” talked about his connection to America’s natural landscape. Offerman shared the podium with a park ranger. Several of his legions of fans waited in line for over three and a half hours to have Offerman sign their books.
Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss discussed “Path Lit By Lightning,” his new biography of Jim Thorpe, by some measure, one of the greatest and mistreated athletes of all time. Harshly treated in a series of boarding schools designed to assimilate Native American children and youth into Euro-American culture, Thorpe would later win gold at both the pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm 1912 Olympic Games and competed in 17 separate events. He was later stripped of his medals for minor violations of contemporary amateurism rules that were not applied to other athletes at the time.
Historian Candice Millard provided a captivating account of long since forgotten explorers in her “River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile.”
Ed Yong’s “An Immense World” took an insightful look into the super-sensory world of animals and insects.
Marc Brown, the creator of “Arthur,” the animated TV series for children, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his award-winning series at the festival. Local news anchor Alison Starling who moderated his talk brought along her two young daughters.
Professor Jack Davis gave an interesting presentation about Americans’ relationship to the bald eagle and how it became a national symbol.
Author presentations and panel discussions were streamed live and archived by C-SPAN and the LOC and can be accessed at https://www.c-span.org/series/?bookfairs and on youtube .
In the years before the pandemic, the National Book Festival was drawing upwards of 200,000 attendees. This year’s attendance was noticably below pre-pandemic levels due in part to a slightly slimmed down program and a lingering aversion by some to attend indoor public gatherings. Gone this year were the long lines associated with previous festivals. An apples-to-apples comparison to the last in-person event in 2019 would be unfair. That year’s event preceded the outbreak of Covid-19 and was bolstered by the participation of Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in one of her final public appearances.
View a slideshow of Jeff Malet’s photos from the 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival by clicking on the photo icons below. be replayed online.
- David Maraniss discusses his new book “Path Lit by Lightning: The Life of Jim Thorper” at the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Marc Brown appears at the Library of Congress National Book Festival on Saturday, September 3, 2022 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington D.C. Brown is the creator of the bestselling Arthur Adventure book series and creative producer of the children’’s PBS television series “Arthur.” Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Jack E. Davis discusses his new book “The Bald Eagle: The Improbable Journey of America’s Bird” at the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Mitch Albom speaks about his bestselling memoir, “Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson, 25th Anniversary Edition. Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Katie Gutierrez discusses her new book “More Than You’ll Ever Know” Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Becca Rothfeld (“Sanctimony Literature”) discusses the power of the modern essay. Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Books being ready for sale at the National Book Festival.. Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Elisabeth Williamson discusses her new book for Book TV with C-SPAN’s Peter Slen “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth” Williamson spoke about historic and modern-day conspiracy theories in America.. Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Derrick Barnes and Vanessa Brantley-Newton discuss their books“The Queen of Kindergarten” and “The Queen of Kindergarten.” Photo by Jeff Malet.
- Johnnie Christmas discusses his book “Swim Team” at the National Book Festiva.l Christmas is a No. 1 New York Times bestselling graphic novelist.
- Fred Bowen and James E. Ransome discuss their book “Hardccout.”
- Jennifer Close signs her book “Marrying the Ketchups: A Novel External,” a comedy about three generations of a Chicago restaurant family as they navigate their ever-changing lives.
- Donna Barba Higuera signs her book “The Last Cuentista” for Patti Sabik of Ashburn Va. and her nephew Sean.
- Donna Barba Higuera signs her book “The Last Cuentista.”
- Donna Barba Higuera signs her book “Book of Night.”
- Waiting to have their books signed at the Library of Congress National Book Festival .
- Nick Offerman is an actor, author and woodworker, best known as the character of Ron Swanson on NBC’s “Parks and Recreation.” He is also co-host and executive producer of NBC’s “Making It.”Offerman’s is holding his newest work, “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside”.
- Devoted fans, Elizabeth and Victoria of Arlington Va. have already waited over three and a half hours in line to have their books signed by Nick Offerman.
- In this program, Liberties Journal External contributors Morten Høi Jensen (“The Fiction That Dare Not Speak Its Name”), Shawn McCreesh (“The Hatboro Blues”) and Becca Rothfeld (“Sanctimony Literature”) discuss the power of the modern essay. Moderated by Celeste Marcus.
- Kelly Lytle Hernandez discusses her book “Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire and Revolution in the Borderlands External.” It is about the migrant rebels, the magonistas, that started the 1910 Mexican Revolution.
- Marc Brown with Alison Starling and family appear at the Library of Congress National Book Festival on Saturday, September 3. Brown is the creator of the bestselling Arthur Adventure book series and creative producer of the children’’s PBS television series “Arthur.” Alison Starling-Alexander is a co-anchor of WJLA-TV’s weekday 4 PM and 5PM newscasts.
- Ed Yong discusses his book “An Immense World”. Yong’s goal is to expand our understanding of animals in order to help us move beyond our own sensory perceptions. Moderated by Kirk R. Johnson.
- Hekima Hapa discusses her new book “Black Girls Sew”
- Rachel Aviv and Daniel Bergner discuss their new books “Strangers to Ourselves: Unsettled Minds and the Stories That Make Us” and “The Mind and the Moon: My Brother’s Story, the Science of Our Brains and the Search for Our Psyches”.Aviv is a staff writer at The New Yorker, where she writes about medicine, education, criminal justice and other subjects
- Tomiko Brown-Nagin’s book “Civil Rights Queen” tells Constance Baker Motley’s story as an activist lawyer who became the first Black woman appointed to the federal judiciary.
- Kate Clifford Larson. Larson’s book “Walk with Me” covers the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, containing new interviews and materials about her life.
- Mitch Albom speaks to David Rubinstein about his bestselling memoir, “Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson, 25th Anniversary Edition
- Will Bunch discusses his new book “After the Ivory Tower Falls: How College Broke the American Dream and Blew Up Our Politics?and How to Fix It.”
- Candice Millard discusses her book “River of the Gods: The Search for the Source of the Nile.”
- Juli Berwald (n pho photo) and Edith Widder discuss their book “Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs.”
- Grant Ginder is the author of five novels, including “The People We Hate at the Wedding,” which has been adapted into a major motion picture.
- Xochitl Gonzalez talks about her New York Times bestselling debut book, “Olga Dies Dreaming: A Novel External”.
- Shawn McCreesh (“The Hatboro Blues”) discusses the power of the modern essay.