"Language of the Land: Journeys into Literary America," an exhibition that explores the nation's rich literary heritage through literary maps, photographs, and quotations is the first in a series of events and publications in the Center for the Book's "Literary Heritage of the States" project, which is supported by a three-year grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. Additional support was provided by the James madison Council of the Library of Congress.
The colorful exhibition, developed by the Library's Interpretive Programs Office in cooperation with the Geography and Map Division and the center, opened in the foyer of the Library's James Madison Memorial Building on Aug. 5 and will remain on view through Jan. 17, 1994.
Designed primarily as a traveling exhibition, two identical versions of "Language of the Land" will travel to libraries, museums and other institutions around the country under the auspices of state centers for the book in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington. The first two sites will be the Currigan Exhibition Hall in Denver (Oct. 1-Oct. 30, 1993) and the Susquehanna Art Museum in Harrisburg, Pa. (Nov. 14, 1993-Jan. 8, 1994). A complete list of locations and dates will appear in a subsequent issue of the LC Information Bulletin.
Symposium Papers Published
Carol Armbruster of the Library's European Division is the editor of Publishing and Readership in Revolutionary France and America, a scholarly monograph based on the proceedings of a 1989 international symposium sponsored by the Center for the Book and the European Division and recently published by Greenwood Press.
The symposium was organized to commemorate the bicentenary of the French revolution, to recognize the work of scholars and other specialists in France and the United States who are studying the history of publishing and reading, and to contribute to the development of a comparative methodology in the international study of book history. The book includes papers from three French (Roger Chartier, Henri-Jean Martin, Daniel Roche) and nine American scholars. The Americans are: Robert Darnton, James Gilreath of LC's Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Jane C. Ginsburg, David Hall, Carla Hesse, Lynn Hunt, Marcus A. McCorison, Michael Warner, and Larzer Ziff. Carol Armbruster wrote the introduction and John Y. Cole contributed the foreword.
Publishing and Readership in Revolutionary France and America, a 215-page book, is available from the Library of Congress Sales Shop, in bookstores, and directly from Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881. The ISSN number is 1041-2751 and the ISBN number is 0-313-28793-7. The price is $45.
New NEH Chairment Visits Center for the Book
Sheldon Hackney, the new chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, visited the Library of Congress and the Center for the Book on Aug. 11. After he was greeted by Dr. Billington, Dr. Hackney interviewed John Y. Cole, the center's director, for an article about books and reading that will appear in the November/December issue of NEH's magazine Humanities.
Partnership Activities with the Department of Education
On July 1, John Cole and the center's Michael Thompson visited Augusta Souza Kappner, the newly named assistant secretary for vocational and adult education at the Department of Education to talk about the center's reading promotion partnership program. A display of 12 of the center's reading promotion posters adjacent to Dr. Kappner's office was unveiled, along with a new jointly produced banner, "Lifelong Learning Changes Lives."
Book Development in Russia and the New States
At the Library of Congress on July 20, the center and PUBWATCH sponsored the first meeting of the "Task Force on Book Development in Russia and the Newly Independent States," a group that grew out of a workshop held at the Library on March 9-10 (see LC Information Bulletin, April 19, 1993). The 40 participants reviewed assistance programs that have already been undertaken in support of book culture in the former Soviet Union and measures that might be taken in the future. The areas of concern included: library initiatives; publisher education and training; bookseller and distribution support; book production; textbook development; rights initiatives; legal initiatives (copyright law and piracy); and publisher information programs. Committees were formed and a date was set for a fall meeting.
For further information, write or call PUBWATCH, 35 W. 67th St., New York, NY 10023; telephone: (212) 362-4618.