February 25, 1997 Book Historian To Speak at Library of Congress on March 5

Richard W. Clement, author of The Book in America, with Images from the Library of Congress, will speak at the Library at noon on Wednesday, March 5. Sponsored by the Center for the Book, the presentation will take place in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Memorial Building. It is open to the public.

Published last year by Fulcrum Publishing in cooperation with the Library, The Book in America tells the story of the book in the United States from 1638 to today. The 150-page book features 24 color and 94 black-and-white illustrations from the Library's rare and often unique book and special collections. Divided chronologically into five chapters ("Colonial Book Production," "Publishing in the New Nation," "The Rise of the Great Houses," "Industrialization and Expansion," "The Book in Twentieth Century America"), it also includes thematic sections on Libraries in America, Reading in America, and Books at War. The foreword is by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington; Center for the Book Director John Y. Cole contributed an afterword.

Richard W. Clement is a librarian at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he also is a professor of English and proprietor of the Hole and Corner Press. Currently he is researching another volume of book history for publication by Fulcrum in cooperation with the Library.