Laura Bush to Host LC’s
First National Book Festival
The Library of Congress announced June 14 that it would sponsor the first-ever National Book Festival, which has been scheduled for September 8 at the library. First lady Laura Bush will host the event and President Bush is slated to attend. “It will be a wonderful day, with a lot of celebratory things—songs, readings, books galore,” Librarian of Congress James H. Billington remarked.
The idea sprang from a series of conversations between Billington and Laura Bush, inspired in part by the popular Texas Book Festival that she hosted since its 1995 inception. “She hopes to use the National Book Festival to encourage people all across the country to share in her love of her books,” Noelia Rodriguez, press secretary to the first lady, said in the June 14 Washington Post.
Laura Bush, a longtime literacy advocate, is also honorary chair of LC’s 2001–03 reading-promotion initiative “Telling America’s Stories.”
A July 30 press conference is scheduled to jump-start support for the festival.
Posted June 18, 2001.
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