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Best of the National Book Festival: Edmund Morris, 2011

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Welcome to our ongoing celebration of the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Each weekday, we will feature a video presentation from among the thousands of authors who have appeared at the National Book Festival and as part of our new year-long series, National Book Festival Presents. Mondays will feature topical nonfiction; Tuesday: poetry or literary fiction; Wednesday: history, biography, memoir; Thursday: popular fiction; and Friday: authors who write for children and teens. Please enjoy, and make sure to explore our full National Book Festival video collection!

Edmund Morris won the Pulitzer Prize for the first book in his trilogy on the 26th president: “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.” “Theodore Rex” was the second in the series, and the final volume was “Colonel Roosevelt,” which brought him to the History & Biography stage of the 2011 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Jonathan Yardley, then book critic for The Washington Post, introduces Morris. The author provocatively tells his audience, “The older I get, the more I begin to understand that all is fiction,” even biography. Q&A begins at 37:00.

The 2020 Library of Congress National Book Festival will celebrate its 20th birthday this year. You can get up-to-the-minute news, schedule updates and other important festival information by subscribing to this blog. The festival is made possible by the generosity of sponsors. You too can support the festival by making a gift now.