By JOHN Y. COLE
Yossarian met Captain Ahab at the Library of Congress on Sept. 10 as celebrities, politicians, book lovers and television producers came together to celebrate books and reading.
"It's a fantastic occasion" said Yossarian's creator, Joseph Heller, who read excerpts from his novel Catch-22 to an appreciative audience packed into the Jefferson Building's Northwest Gallery.
The evening reception and program promoted "Great Books," a series of 16 one-hour films about classic works of literature produced by The Learning Channel at Discovery Communications Inc. The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress is cooperating with The Learning Channel in the development and production of the series (see LC Information Bulletin, May 13, 1996). The programs aired continuously in a Great Books Film Festival on Sept. 14 and 15. Nine of the films - based on Homer's The Odyssey, Plato's Republic, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Melville's Moby-Dick, Machiavelli's The Prince, Wright's Native Son, Swift's Gulliver's Travels, Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams and Catch-22 - premiered during the festival. Also part of the festival were seven films previously shown on The Learning Channel: Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Darwin's The Origin of Species, Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Sun Tze's The Art of War, Shelley's Frankenstein, and H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds.
"I am honored and pleased that Catch-22 is considered a 'contemporary classic' - and it is a thrill to see it celebrated as a 'great book' here in the Library of Congress's Great Hall," said Mr. Heller, who happily posed beside a display of various paperback editions of Catch-22 from the Dell Paperback Collection in the Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Curators Thomas Noonan from the Rare Book Division and Marvin Kranz of the Manuscript Division also displayed other "Great Books" and related materials from the Library's collections: the first printed edition of Homer in the original Greek; the first edition of The Interpretation of Dreams, plus original letters by Freud; and Thomas Jefferson's own copies of the Republic and The Prince.
Guests also enjoyed meeting costumed characters from the "Great Books" and a light buffet featuring food related to the eras and themes represented by four of the books: Catch-22, Moby-Dick, The Scarlet Letter, and Plato's Republic.
In his welcoming remarks, Dr. Billington invited guests to cast their eyes "upward in the Great Hall." Once they took a careful look, he asserted, "you will see why this dazzling and ebullient structure is truly a temple of the book. Names of great authors of great books embellish the ceilings, along with dozens of quotations about books and learning. You also can find nearly 100 printers' marks representing the best known printers and publishers in Western civilization at the turn of the century."
He also explained that the Great Books project was only the latest of several Center for the Book efforts to use the power of television to introduce viewers to the world of books and reading. Other current projects are "Read More About It" on CBS Television and "Cap'n O.G. Readmore" on ABC Children's Television. In the past, the center has cooperated in similar ventures with NBC Television, the Arts & Entertainment Network and the Bravo Network.
The program in the Northwest Gallery featured brief readings from five of the featured Great Books, each followed by an excerpt from the film. The presenters, in addition to Joseph Heller, were: Walter Cronkite (The Prince), actress Zoe Caldwell (Native Son), Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) (The Republic), and Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Moby-Dick).
The evening ended, appropriately enough, with an Alice in Wonderland "Madhatter Tea Party, Coffee and Dessert" in the Great Hall.
John Y. Cole is the director of the Center for the Book.