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Posted by: Robert Casper
For all of my adult life, I have felt connected to poetry. I started as a poet, then became a poetry publisher, then worked as a literary presenter, and am now here at the Poetry and Literature Center. And so, when PBS NewsHour shot the first segment for the Laureate’s second-year project a few weeks …
Posted in: News and Events, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Peter Armenti
One day in late August or early September, 1941, a 19-year-old Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot named John Gillespie Magee, Jr., who was then serving with the No. 412 Squadron in Royal Air Force Digby, England, sent a letter to his parents. “I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day,” he began. …
Posted in: Ask a Librarian, Collections, Digital Resources
Posted by: Peter Armenti
The following is a guest post by Abby Yochelson, English and American Literature Reference Specialist at the Library of Congress’s Main Reading Room. While the upcoming District of Literature program on September 30th celebrates literature throughout the District of Columbia, my district on Capitol Hill is astonishing. I both work at the Library of Congress …
Posted in: Guest Posts, News and Events
Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo
The following is a guest post written by Lee Ann Potter, the director of Educational Outreach at the Library of Congress. Fourteen years ago, when I was pregnant with my son, I began keeping a journal. It is not a daily activity for me, but I do write something nearly once a month. Mostly, I …
Posted in: Guest Posts
Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo
Yesterday marked the 100th birthday of Robert Hayden, who was the first African American to be named to the Library of Congress Consultant in Poetry position–what we today would call the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry–in 1976. NPR commemorated Hayden’s birthday by featuring an archived recording: “In His Own Words.” Over at the Los Angeles …
Posted in: News and Events, Poets Laureate
Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo
Summer at the Library of Congress is a magical time. The halls of the Library’s Jefferson Building seem to fill with students and families, just as the desks in our office spaces seem to mysteriously go quiet and colleagues make a break for their own vacation. For me, it’s the season of the perfect lunch …
Posted in: Collections
Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo
The Bank of England announced last week that beginning in 2017 Jane Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the 10-pound note. The Times asks the question: which American authors would you choose to grace the dollar bill? You might want to start with a perusal of the Library’s Books That Shaped America beforehand. Wouldn’t want …
Posted in: Collections, News and Events
Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo
The following is a guest post written by Jessica Edington, a summer intern at the Library of Congress. In my summer internship in the Library’s Humanities and Social Services Division I’ve worked with “old media,” or soon-to-be old media. One of my projects is helping sort and catalogue the pre-1998 software in the Machine Readable …
Posted in: Guest Posts
Posted by: Caitlin Rizzo
Last Saturday was Cormac McCarthy’s birthday, and BookRiot celebrated with “A Beginner’s Guide to Cormac McCarthy.” We don’t have all the YouTube videos, but the Library does have quite a stash on Mr. McCarthy. You can come listen to Cormac read from The Crossing or just follow the links to the sample text here for …
Posted in: Interviews, News and Events