Related Resources at the Library
- Events at the Library of Congress
- Exhibitions at the Library of Congress
- Library of Congress Information Bulletin
- Wise Guide to loc.gov
- About the Library of Congress
- More Than a Library
For More information
The Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave., S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20540-1400
Voice: 202.707.2905
Fax: 202.707.9199
Email: pao@loc.gov
Public contact: (202) 707-5221
February 1, 2002
Historian Jill Lepore to Discuss Her New Book on February 26
Prize-winning historian Jill Lepore will discuss A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States (Knopf, 2002) at the Library of Congress at 6:45 p.m., Tuesday Feb. 26, in the Mumford Room, sixth floor, James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. Part of the Center for the Book's "Books & Beyond" author series, the program is free and open to the public. No tickets are required. The event is cosponsored with the Library's Manuscript Division and the American Antiquarian Society, located in Worcester, Mass.
A Is for American is a fascinating, well-illustrated account of how language was used in the early American Republic to define national character and shape national boundaries. An Alternate Selection of the History Book Club, its official publication date is February 14.
Jill Lepore is associate professor of history at Boston University and the author of The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity (Knopf, 1998), which won the Bancroft and Ralph Waldo Emerson prizes and other awards. She is co-founder and co-editor of Common-Place, an online history magazine (www.common-place.org) sponsored by the American Antiquarian Society and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. In her research for A Is for American, she used several collections in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, in particular the papers of Alexander Graham Bell, Noah Webster, Samuel Morse, William Thornton, and the Gallaudet family. The American Antiquarian Society, one of the cosponsors of Ms. Lepore's talk, is a founding partner of the Massachusetts Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book.
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate public interest in books, reading, and libraries. For information about its program and the activities of its affiliated centers in 44 states and the District of Columbia, visit its Web site at www.loc.gov/cfbook.
# # #
PR 02-009
02/01/02
ISSN 0731-3527