The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Deliver the Letter, the Sooner the Better

Deliver the Letter, the Sooner the Better

“I wrote down a sentence from your book [“Taylor”] and keep it on my desk. You said, ‘Life, like anything else, can knock you down. You will have problems every day in your life. But sometimes…sometimes you just got to go play. The crime is not being knocked down, the crime is not getting up again,’” wrote Hunter Hastings to author Lawrence Taylor.

Third grader at the Elmer Avenue Elementary School writing a story on Children's Day. The open notebook is a personal speller. Schenectady, N.Y. 1943

Six national winners of the “Letters About Literature” contest are pictured with Target’s Beth McGuire (left), Librarian James H. Billington (center) and Center for the Book Director John Cole (right). 2005

“Janet Shaw, your book has changed my life. Nobody bully's me about my heritage anymore. I'm proud of being a Micmac Indian and I will always take a stand for myself. Thank you sincerely for the cherished inspiration that you've given me,” said Dana Vigue’s letter to the “Meet Kaya” author.

Maggie Tighe wrote to Aldous Huxley, “With ‘Brave New World,’ you have shown me that my circle of friends, my community, and my world require the personal sacrifice of time and energy to achieve meaningful happiness. Thank you for this gift.”

Sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in association with Target, Letters About Literature invites students on three competition levels (elementary, middle school and secondary) to write a personal letter to an author explaining how his or her work somehow changed the reader’s view of the world or of himself or herself. The letters written by Hunter, Dana and Maggie were three of the six 2008 national winners. Each earned for their community or school library a $10,000 Letters About Literature Reading Promotion Grant. Twelve 2008 national honorable mention winners were also awarded a $1,000 grant for the community or school library of their choice.

The Center for the Book was created in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books and reading by drawing on the resources of the Library of Congress. Throughout the year, the center sponsors book talks from authors who have used the Library’s collections for their fiction and non-fiction works. Search the webcast page for “Books & Beyond” to pull up a variety of these programs.

A. Third grader at the Elmer Avenue Elementary School writing a story on Children's Day. The open notebook is a personal speller. Schenectady, N.Y. 1943. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Information: Reproduction No.: LC-USW3-033729-C (b&w film neg.); Call No.: LC-USW3- 033729-C [P&P]

B. Six national winners of the “Letters About Literature” contest are pictured with Target’s Beth McGuire (left), Librarian James H. Billington (center) and Center for the Book Director John Cole (right). 2005. John Harrington Photography. Reproduction Information: Reproduction information not available.