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February 7, 2000
Contact: Audrey Fischer (202) 707-0022
Request ASL and ADA accommodations five days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or by email at ADA@loc.gov

New Book of Literary Maps To Be Featured at February 28 "Books & Beyond" Presentation

Martha Hopkins of the Library's Interpretive Programs Office will present a slide-illustrated talk about literary maps at the Library of Congress on Monday, Feb. 28, at noon in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. Part of the Center for the Book's "Books & Beyond" author series, the event is free and open to the public.

Ms. Hopkins's presentation will draw on an exhibition of literary maps for which she was co-director and the recently published book, Language of the Land: The Library of Congress Book of Literary Maps, which she co-authored with Michael Buscher of the Library's Geography and Map Division. An annotated and illustrated guide to more than 230 maps in the collections of the Library's Geography and Map Division, the book culminated a cooperative Library of Congress education and reading promotion project funded through a major grant to the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund. The project included the acquisition and cataloging of literary maps, a major traveling exhibition, and the creation of new literary maps by state centers for the book.

In her introduction to the book, Ms. Hopkins defines a literary map as one that "records the location and identity of geographical places and features associated with authors and their works." Such maps serve "as a guide to the worlds of novelists, poets, dramatists, and other authors of imaginative literature."

Language of the Land: The Library of Congress Book of Literary Maps, a 304-page, 10-by 10-inch hardbound book, is available for $50 from the Library of Congress Sales Shop and from the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954, fax (202)-512-2250. The GPO stock number is 030-01-00178-4, and the ISBN is 0-8444-0963-4. Credit card orders may be placed with the Library of Congress Sales Shop by calling (202)-707-0204.

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PR 00-007
2/7/00
ISSN 0731-3527