Library of Congress's Blog, page 61

Cartography of Contagion in the 19th Century

This is a guest post by Edward Redmond, a reference specialist in the Geography and Maps Division. It was originally published on the Worlds Revealed blog on April 3. Here, he discusses how maps of the 19th century documented the spread of diseases across the U.S., much as we lean on more sophisticated maps today to understand the spread of COVID-19.

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 This is one of six maps depicting the distribution of typhoid, pneumonia, rheumatism, tuberculosis, and malarial infections. “Carney’s series of medical charts showing location in the United States.” L.H. Carney. New York: G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co., 1874. Geography and Map Division. 

Originally published in 1874, these maps of the eastern half of the United States were designed to show the distribution of diseases including typhoid, malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis, and rheumatism. The maps were published by one “L.H. Carney, M.D.,” but we have found no biographical data on the author. Medical data (in the form of statistics) is not shown and the maps are simply shaded to show the severity of infection.

The map shown above, interestingly enough, shows few malarial infections in West Virginia, just as it the Mountain State was unaffected in the early stages of the current pandemic of COVID-19. Is it an accident of geography? Topography? Or was the area so sparsely inhabited that there were fewer reported infections than in other locations?

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 This map shows the distribution of tuberculosis in 1874.”Carney’s series of medical charts showing location in the United States of America,”  L.H. Carney.  New York: G.W. & C.B. Colton & Co., 1874. Geography and Map Division.

Conversely, this map showing the distribution of tuberculosis (red shading), focuses on major population centers rather than the map showing malarial infections (green shading) along major river systems. Even though medical statistics are not provided, one can infer by comparing the two maps that 19th-century tuberculosis cases may have been accelerated due to close living conditions in major population centers.

At roughly the same time the above maps were being prepared by commercial publishers, the United States government was producing — in association with “eminent men of science” — statistical atlases from information gathered during the 1870, 1880, and 1890 censuses. Each atlas contains statistics, displayed in a graphic form on a map, denoting the approximate number and type of mortal diseases in the late 19th century.

The image below, for example, is from the 1870 “Statistical atlas of the United States” and provides a graphic illustration of the ratio between deaths from malarial diseases as opposed to all other causes of deaths. The darker the shading translates to a higher number of deaths.

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Plate showing deaths from malarial diseases in 1870. ”Statistical atlas of the United States based on the results of the ninth census with contributions from many eminent men of science and several departments of the government.” Francis Amasa Walker. United States Census Office. Ninth Census, 1870.  New York. J. Bien, lith, 1874. 

In 1978, the government issued its last published National Atlas representing demographics and statistics in the mid-20th century. According to the 1970 census, the number of regular and specialized care hospital beds differed greatly by state. The two plates below provide information on the number of hospital beds (general, specialized, and federal) as well as the number of medical professionals in each state.
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Plate shows distribution of hospital beds and medical services by state in 1970. “The national atlas of the United States of America.” Geological Survey, U.S., and Arch C. Gerlach. Washington, 1970. Geography and Map Division. 

 

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Plate show mortality and distribution of medical professionals by state. “The national atlas of the United States of America.” Geological Survey, U.S., and Arch C. Gerlach.  Washington, 1970. Geography and Map Division.  

Finally, the maps provided above are intended as a way to use the historical collections of the Library to help understand the tragic situation that we now face.  There will undoubtedly be statistical information published in the form of maps and digital data from this pandemic to help later generations understand the spread of disease.

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Parents! Dav Pilkey Shows The Kids (And You) How to Draw Flippy! Plus Music!

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Happy Friday!

We are delighted that our friend Dav Pilkey is back with another of his how-to-draw videos. He’s the creator of the “Captain Underpants” and “Dog Man” series (among lots of other stuff). This week he shows us how to draw — claw by claw and fin by fin — Flippy the Fish!

It also features the first ever Flip-o-rama video with music from “Dog Man: The Musical,” so it’s pretty much a day of unlimited entertainment. Give it a shot. It’s fun.

If you missed it last week, he showed us how to draw Big Jim, the seven-foot-tall cat from “Dog Man.” He’ll be back next Friday with more, so be sure to come back. Or, easier, just hit the subscribe link below.

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Reading Music in Braille

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Ayaka Isono, courtesy of  the pianist. 

Ayaka Isono lost her vision to a rare retinal disorder at age 29 and, devastated, figured her career as a pianist was over.

Isono had spent her adult life teaching and performing at a high level, playing professionally in chamber ensembles and with the San Francisco Symphony and the Oakland Ballet.

But now she was just trying to learn the basic skills of everyday life all over again, to live independently as a blind person. Perform with the ballet or symphony again? She was just trying to learn how to go outside for a walk by herself.

Depressed and unmotivated, Isono quit doing the things she loved most, the things she’d built her life around. She stopped playing piano, stopped going to concerts, stopped listening to music altogether.

“For three years, I didn’t touch any piano or play any music,” she said. “I was just focusing, learning to live as a blind person. Since I didn’t know any blind people, I didn’t know where to start.”

Today, Isono is performing and teaching again, using braille music scores and instructional material she gets from the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), a program of the Library.

She is one of thousands of blind or visually impaired musicians whose work and passion depend upon the braille music collections at NLS — the largest source of such material in the world.

Those collections are a place to turn to for musicians in need of braille or large print versions of, say, a libretto for “La Bohème,” an instruction book for the accordion, a biography of Billie Holiday, a transcription of Beethoven’s “Pathétique” sonata or even a lead sheet for “Achy Breaky Heart.”

NLS holds more than 25,000 braille transcriptions of musical scores and instructional texts; large-print scores, librettos, reference works and biographies; instructional recordings in music theory, appreciation and performance; and music-related talking books and magazines.

The NLS Music Section filled over 7,000 requests for such material in the past fiscal year, an important resource for blind or visually impaired musicians trying to adapt to an impairment, learn their craft or make it in the music business — no matter their age.

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Tristen Chen. 

Tristen Chen was just 21 months old when he lost his vision because of an eye nerve development delay. But he was a precocious kid, and his parents, Haiyu Chen and Renee Hu, soon noticed he had an unusual talent.

He could, they discovered, listen to recordings of songs, then play them on the piano. When he was 3, Tristen sat at a keyboard and, with no instruction and using both hands, played the Carpenters hit “Yesterday Once More” — the first song he ever played.

“That caught our attention,” Renee said. “He was very good at music, so we started looking for a music teacher.”

Tristen began taking lessons at 4 and, because he couldn’t see printed sheet music, still played by ear. If Tristen gets serious about music, the teacher told Renee, he would need to learn to read braille music. Classical music is too complex to play by ear — Tristen would need to read the notation himself to understand the nuances written into a piece.

“When you’re at a very low level, the kids probably can only remember the notes,” Renee said. “But when the music starts to get complicated, there is a lot of detail — dynamics and a lot of things — he has to read himself. Without braille music, he couldn’t get to this level.”

So, Tristen spent two years learning to read braille music and eventually began borrowing material from NLS. He is now 11 and has been performing in competitions and recitals since 2018, including several performances at venues in Carnegie Hall.

There aren’t many places to which musicians such as Chen and Isono can turn for material.

They could pay to have music transcribed themselves, but it’s expensive — Renee recalled a company charging over $100 to transcribe just four pages of music. Libraries for the blind in Great Britain, Italy, Switzerland and elsewhere commission transcriptions, and NLS buys some material from them. NLS also commissions 40 to 50 transcriptions each year — last year, it produced a braille version of the massively popular musical “Hamilton.”

All of that material is offered free to the public.

“The Library is the only resource I have, the place I can get the braille version of the piece,” Renee says. “We really appreciate this service. It helps a lot financially.”

Advances in technology have made it easier for musicians to access the material. At one time, NLS offered only a limited number of hard copies of braille scores that would be mailed to patrons. Now, about 20 percent of the collection — a figure that increases each year — is digitized and available via download.

All this was new to Isono when she lost her sight in 2001. She didn’t know any blind people, didn’t even know braille music existed. But she learned to read braille text, then taught herself to read braille music — a challenging task even for an accomplished musician.

Eventually, Isono made her way back to her place at the piano. She now performs chamber music with members of the San Francisco Opera, has done recitals in Japan and twice performed at a festival for blind musicians in Morocco.

“Without braille music, I can’t do anything I’m doing right now, including performing,” Isono says. That wouldn’t happen. It’s not possible.”

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John Prine: American Poet at the Library of Congress

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John Prine on stage at the Library of Congress, March 9, 2005.

John Prine wrote songs that sounded simple but weren’t. He sang in a voice that wasn’t pretty but was honest in its unvarnished immediacy. Some of it was funny. Some of it broke your heart. Some people called it Americana; others, folk music.

By any name, the man produced poetry.

He died late Tuesday night from complications of COVID-19. He was 73. He’d survived a host of health problems, including cancer.

It was sad and awful. It was like someone you knew died.  You stared out the window at the rain and there was nothing for it. Sometimes you lose and that’s just all there is.

One night in 2005, the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center hosted an onstage conversation between Prine and Ted Kooser, U.S. Poet Laureate. It’s always been one of our most popular interviews.

Prine’s parents were from Kentucky but they raised him in a Chicago suburb. He worked as a mailman and an Army mechanic. He sang at a low-rent Chicago bar called the Fifth Peg. His songs, conversational and without pretension, sounded like all of that. Just about everyone who wrote songs in post-Vietnam America admired or adored his work. It was the real thing. Like crystal, if you tapped his music, it tinged. It was that pure.

“Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism,” Bob Dylan once said. “Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree.” Bruce Springsteen, who, like Prine, was once dubbed a “new Dylan,” remembered him fondly in a tweet: “…he was never anything but the loveliest guy in the world. A true national treasure and a songwriter for the ages.”  Kooser, from their onstage conversation: “He did a better job of holding up the mirror of art to the ’60s and ’70s than any of our official literary poets. And none of  our poets wrote anything better about Vietnam than Prine’s ‘Sam Stone.’ ”

“Sam Stone” may well be one of the most heartbreaking and effective songs written in the last half of 20th-century American music. Introduced by a funereal organ, it’s a four-minute tale of an American soldier, a young father who comes back a hero from the war in Vietnam. But the war, Prine tells us, had shattered all of Sam’s nerves and “left a little shrapnel in his knee.” Sam becomes a drug addict to ease the pain. He spends all of his family’s money on drugs. (“There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes.”) His kids have to wear donated clothes. Sam overdoses and dies. The end.

It was sad and bitter and true, the angst of a nation that seemed to have lost its way. The chorus? “Sweet songs never last too long on broken radios.”

If he’d just written about heartbreak and sorrow, that would have been okay, but that wasn’t what elevated his stuff, because the man could just as easily be hilarious. There was an ironic, witty joy to his music. It couldn’t help but make you smile. “Sally used to play with her hula hoops/Now she tells her problems to therapy groups,” he wrote in the dazzling “Sins of Memphisto,” a surreal song from his 1991 album, “The Missing Years,” one of his best. The next line: “Grandpa’s on the front lawn staring at a rake/wondering if his marriage was a terrible mistake.”

In a later duet with Iris DeMent, he found a happy ending for one of his trademark offbeat couples: ”In spite of ourselves we’ll end up a-sittin on a rainbow/Against all odds, honey, we’re the big door-prize.”

So long, John Prine. America wouldn’t be America without you.

“The Great Influenza” — Library Resources on the 1918 to 1919 Pandemic

This article draws on material from the Veterans History Project and the Library’s 2017 exhibit, “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I.”

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A nurse takes a patient’s pulse in the influenza ward at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. , 1918 or 1919. Prints and Photographs Division.

The 1918 to 1919 influenza pandemic killed some 50 million people worldwide, with about 675,000 of those deaths in the United States, according to figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. The Library records those terrible days in diaries, veterans oral histories, books, photographs, prints, newspaper stories and an array of other documents.

Tonight at 8 p.m. (ET) on the Library’s Facebook account, John M. Barry, a prizewinning historian of and author of “The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History,” discusses the 1918 pandemic and what it can teach us about the coronavirus. He’ll be in conversation with David Rubenstein. The program will repeat this Saturday, April 11, at 3 p.m. (ET). The conversation will also be available on our YouTube channel and will be archived for viewing on Facebook, YouTube and the Library’s website.

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Alice Duffield. Veterans History Project.

It’s been a hundred years, but the immediacy of the documents in the Library’s collections can take the breath away. Alice L. Mikel Duffield served as a Captain in the Army Nurse Corps at Camp Pike, Arkansas, when influenza ravaged the place. The camp, a staging ground for soldiers both heading to the conflict and returning from it, sometimes held as many as 100,000 troops. At one point, there were so many bodies in the morgue, she told the Veterans History Project in 2002, that they couldn’t keep up with the living or the dead.

“You couldn’t find room in the morgue for all the patients,” she said, recounting an incident when a corpse fell on one orderly. “…We couldn’t possibly have had enough help with as many as were sick! It was just too many.”

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Red Cross nurse with a bus transport of patients, 1918 or 1919. Photo: Lewis Hine. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Library’s Red Cross collection documents how nurses were often on the front line of the battle against the disease. Nearly 24,000 Red Cross nurses enrolled for military service. After Germany surrendered on Nov. 11, 1918, the Red Cross continued working with the U.S. Public Health Service to provide nurses and motor corps workers until the pandemic receded in 1919.

Some of the pandemic’s overlap with World War I was presented in the Library’s “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I” exhibit in 2017. The pandemic wasn’t started by the conflict but was spread by the vast movements of civilians and soldiers across continents.

One of those in transit was Dorothy Kitchen O’Neill. An American Red Cross volunteer, she sailed for Europe in October of 1918 — a month in which, incredibly, 195,000 Americans died of the flu. She and forty other women came down with influenza on the voyage. Four died. Dorothy wrote to her family on October 10, 1918: “Forty girls came down with the Influenza and if it had not been for the little unit of fifteen R.C. nurses — goodness knows what might have happened.” She continues: “I was down for a week and have only been up for two days so feel shaky.”

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Dorothy Kitchen O’Neill letter to her family. Manuscript Division. 

The Library’s Chronicling America archive captures newspapers of the day, far and wide, and how they reported life around them. In the summer of 1919, fearing a deadly relapse in the fall like the kind that had devastated the country the year before, thousands of people wrote to their congressional representatives, demanding action on a “flu bill.” On July 29, The Bismarck Tribune (Bismarck, North Dakota) urged its readers to join the letter-writing campaign in an article on the front page, above the fold. One of the leaders of the bill was U.S. Sen. Warren G. Harding (R-Ohio), who would be elected as president in 1920. He died of a heart attack on Aug. 2, 1923, while on a public speaking tour in San Francisco. He was 57 and had been suffering from pneumonia — often caused by the flu.

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Front page of The Bismarck Tribune, July 29, 1919. Chronicling America.

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Everyday Mysteries…Solved!

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Bactrian camel, Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, MD. 1906. Detroit Publishing Co. Prints and Photographs Division.

This delightful guest piece is by Jennifer Harbster, head of the Library’s science reference section. She chooses some of her favorite questions submitted to Everyday Mysteries. It’s adapted from the Library of Congress Magazine’s March-April 2020 issue. 

Can it rain frogs, fish and other objects?

There have been reports of raining frogs and fish dating back to ancient civilization. Of course, it doesn’t “rain” frogs or fish in the sense that it rains water — no one has ever seen frogs or fish vaporize into the air before a rainfall. However, strong winds, such as those in a tornado or hurricane, are powerful enough lift up a school of fish or frogs and “rain” them elsewhere.

Why do geese fly in a V?

Scientists have determined that the V-shaped formation that geese use when migrating serves two important purposes: Energy conservation and visual assurance.

Who invented the toothbrush and when was it invented?

The toothbrush as we know it today was not invented until 1938. However, early forms of the toothbrush have been in existence since 3000 B.C. Ancient civilizations rubbed a “chew stick,” which was a thin twig with a frayed end, against the teeth.

How does a touchscreen work?

By using your finger to disrupt an electrical current.

What causes flowers to have different colors?

Anthocyanins and carotenoids are the main sources of flower coloration, but there are other factors that can affect how colors present themselves. The amount of light flowers receive while they grow, the temperature of the environment around them, even the pH level of the soil in which they grow can affect their coloration.

How much water does a camel’s hump hold?

None. A camel’s hump does not hold water at all — it actually stores fat.

Why is it hot in the summer and cold in the winter?

It is all about the tilt of the Earth’s axis. Many people believe that the temperature changes because the Earth is closer to the sun in summer and farther from the sun in winter. In fact, in the Western Hemisphere the Earth is farthest from the sun in July and is closest to the sun in January.

How high can a nine-banded armadillo jump into the air?

Of the 20 species of armadillo that exist throughout the Americas, the nine-banded armadillo (dasypus novemcinctus) is the only one found in the United States. When startled, it can jump straight upward about 3 to 4 feet into the air. Another interesting fact: armadillos can hold their breath for six minutes or more.

Why and how do cats purr?

No one knows for sure why a domestic cat purrs, but many people interpret the sound as one of contentment. Our understanding of how a domestic cat purrs is becoming more complete; most scientists agree that the larynx (voice box), laryngeal muscles and a neural oscillator are involved.

What is the strongest muscle in the human body?

There is no one answer for this question since there are different ways to measure strength. There is absolute strength (maximum force), dynamic strength (repeated motions), elastic strength (exert force quickly) and strength endurance (withstand fatigue).

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Hey Kids! Dav Pilkey Reads From “Dog Man,” Shows You How to Draw Big Jim

Friends and fans of “Dog Man” have we got a fun few minutes for you! The one and only Dav Pilkey is teaming up with the Library to keep you jazzed about reading. Today, he’s got a couple of treats. First, he shows you how to draw Big Jim.

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Big Jim (aka Commander Cupcake) is seven feet tall in the “Dog Man” books. But here, Dav shows you how to bring him down to size in just a few strokes. You can replay it as often as you need to so that you can get Big Jim just right.

Second, because everyone loves a good story, here he is reading from “Dog Man Unleashed.” Check out those sound effects!

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Dav will by stopping by the blog each Friday for a few weeks, so be sure to check back in!

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Best of the National Book Festival: Stephen King

Each weekday,  the National Book Festival blog  is featuring a video presentation from among the thousands of authors who have appeared at the National Book Festival and as part of the new year-long series, National Book Festival Presents . We’re spotlighting some of them here. Today? No less than Stephen King. Their schedule: 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 the full National Book Festival video collection!

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Today, this series features America’s undisputed king of horror and suspense, Stephen King, looking back on his long and prolific career.

In 2016, King walked onto the Main Stage at the National Book Festival in D.C. and was greeted by a standing-room-only crowd, many of whom had traveled from across the country to see and hear their favorite author. King didn’t disappoint. He was at turns extraordinarily clever, bitingly satirical and hilariously funny.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden introduces King, and presents him (at 4:40) with the Library of Congress Literary Champion medal for his “tireless” devotion to literacy and other worthwhile causes. King’s most recent work at the time was “End of Watch.” The author takes audience questions at 46:00.

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Erik Larson: True Tales from the Library of Congress

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Erik Larson. Photo by Nina Subin.

Erik Larson’s latest book, “The Splendid and the Vile,” tells the story of Winston Churchill during the London Blitz of World War II. His earlier nonfiction bestsellers include “The Devil in the White City,” a saga about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair that was a National Book Award finalist; “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania,” about the British passenger liner sunk by a German U-boat in 1915; “In the Garden of the Beasts,” the tale of America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany; and “Isaac’s Storm,” Larson’s first book in the genre about the 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston, Texas. Here, Larson answers a few questions about his writing and research, including at the Library.

How did you get started writing nonfiction?

I started writing nonfiction as a career when I got my first newspaper job, back in 1978, and have been doing so ever since, along a progression from small newspaper to large, to magazines and finally to books, this after realizing that for the amount of effort I was putting into my larger magazine pieces, I might as well write a book. And needless to say, books have a much longer shelf life.

 

How do you select topics? Your subjects are fairly diverse.

It’s a mystery, actually. I don’t have a must-do list of book ideas; I wish I did. Each comes to me along a unique path, though I’m a big believer in putting oneself in the way of luck — that is, reading extensively, traveling, visiting museums and so forth, with the idea that at some point, an idea will occur to me. I’m driven entirely by story, not epoch or specialty. But it’s got to be the right story, amenable to being told in a compelling fashion, with a beginning, middle and end. When I lived in Baltimore, once a month I would drive to D.C. and spend a day in the Library of Congress’ Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room, reading randomly, one month starting with magazines beginning with A, the next month, with Z. I don’t think the exercise ever generated a book idea, but I firmly believe that filling your head with obscure details is a useful pursuit, because you never know when one of those details will set your imagination on fire.

What drew you to write about Churchill — someone whose life has been extensively covered?[image error]

It wasn’t Churchill per se who attracted me. It was a question: How on earth did the British actually go about surviving the German bombing campaign of 1940–41? In deciding to try to answer it, I first considered focusing on a typical London family, but then I thought, wait a minute, what about the quintessential London family? And so, Churchill, his family and his close advisers became my cast of characters. Incredibly, no one had focused a book on this question before, on the nuts and bolts of how they all survived that first year of Churchill’s premiership. Using this as a fresh lens on the past, I was able to unearth new material and, equally important, to tell the story in a fashion that, I hope, provides new insights into the man and the time.

Which books have you researched at the Library, and what is a favorite story about finding something here?

I’ve relied on the Library of Congress throughout my career, mainly the vast holdings of the Manuscript Division, which always seem to provide a rich seam of material, no matter what subject I’m investigating. My favorite moment was when I was going through the papers of Martha Dodd, the daughter of America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany, for my book, “In the Garden of Beasts,” and came across a clear plastic archival envelope containing two locks of Carl Sandburg’s hair, thereby providing additional confirmation that Martha and he had indeed had an affair, as per rumor. His hair, by the way, really was strikingly white.

Do you have any advice for other researchers wondering about how to navigate the Library’s enormous collections?

My best advice is, dive in. I try not to be too focused, because an important letter, diary or report could lie in a completely unexpected location. In my view, there’s no substitute for simply starting with the first box in a collection and moving forward through the rest. The Library is a necessary first stop for me on all my books, because there’s always something of incredible value, be it the personal memoir of the killer H. H. Holmes or love letters written by a Russian spy to the daughter of America’s first ambassador to Nazi Germany.

What’s next for you?

I wish I knew. I’m back in the mode of putting myself in the way of luck. A couple of ideas are lurking in the shadows, but so far none has chosen to step forward to declare itself. But, I’m hopeful that I’ll be back on the case, and back in the Library, by year’s end.

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Library of Congress buildings are closed because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The Library’s digital collections, however, remain accessible to researchers who may want to replicate Larson’s brainstorming method.

José Andrés: Best of the National Book Festival

This is a guest post by Marie Arana, the Library’s Literary Director. In it, she explains how the National Book Festival blog will be featuring an author talk from our archives each day during the current public health crisis. We’ll be featuring one or two per week on this blog as well, given the level of talent the NBF features.

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José Andrés speaks with Diane Rehm on the National Book Festival Main Stage, August 31, 2019. Photo: Shawn Miller.

Welcome to our ongoing celebration of the Library of Congress National Book Festival! If you’re looking for food for the mind, heart and soul, you’ve come to the right place. Sit back and let our authors take you to other worlds.

There is nothing so rewarding to a reader than seeing a favorite writer in person and hearing how a book or idea came to be; and there’s nothing so rewarding to a writer than being seen, heard, and applauded for work done. That is why the National Book Festival, established twenty years ago, has become one of the most beloved public book events in the country. For a full two decades now, hundreds of thousands of writers and readers have come together to celebrate the joys of reading.

The Literary Initiatives group of the Library is delighted to present this retrospective. In the weeks (and perhaps months) to come, we will roll out an assortment of author talks, bringing you highlights from the many stages of the NBF, from its beginnings on grounds of the Library, to its expansion to the Mall, to its later incarnation in the vast halls of the Washington Convention Center. Most recently, the NBF has found new life as National Book Festival Presents, a year-long series of talks that will also be represented here.

Whatever your tastes, you’re bound to be entertained and enlightened. Here is what we’ll be offering on a daily basis over on the NBF blog:

Monday—Topical nonfiction

Tuesday—Literary fiction and poetry

Wednesday—History, biography, or memoir

Thursday—Popular genre fiction

Friday—Children’s and Teens

We begin this series with world renowned chef and author José Andrés on the Main Stage at the 2019 National Book Festival, talking with Diane Rehm about his proactive spirit in the wake of a devastating hurricane, as recounted in his book “We Fed an Island: The True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time,” and about his cookbook “Vegetables Unleashed.” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden introduces the presentation, which begins at 4:45; the Q&A begins at 47:15.

Enjoy!

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