>> Announcer: Please welcome the 14th
Librarian of Congress,
Dr. Carla Hayden. 
[Applause]
>> Dr. Carla Hayden: [Applause] 
Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you so much.
Welcome to the opening
celebration of the 2022 Library
of Congress National Book
Festival.
Yes [Applause] The theme of this 
year's festival is Books Bring US
Together. And after three years
since we last gathered here and
after two virtual festivals,
the theme is so, so fitting
because we are finally back
together in person. [Applause]
This is the National Book
Festival's 22nd year, and it
remains one of the preeminent
literary events in the United
States. It's also central to
the library's mission to expand
our reach and connect with all
Americans.
We want to share its rich
collection of treasures, and we
hope to inspire and energize
the next generation of thinkers
and artists, students, public
service and more to continue to
tell the American story and our
collective history.
As the largest.
[Applause]
As the largest library in the
world.
We also have the opportunity to
champion reading and literacy.
And so this weekend we're
bringing together an acclaimed,
diverse group of authors and
illustrators to our nation's
capital to celebrate books and
this central place they have in
our lives. We do this for the
benefit of thousands of book
lovers who come in person and
those who will participate
virtually. Now I have a guess
that all of you watching and
right here are book lovers.
[Laughing] [Applause]
And you know how just a single
book can change a life.
How books, unlike life, unlock
life's wonders and how they
teach us to live and flourish.
And so tonight, we're excited to
hear from five of our
distinguished National Book
Festival authors.
Those who write and illustrate
books.
They change our lives in ways
both profound and everlasting.
And assembled in this
auditorium tonight is an
extraordinary gathering of
talent.
But before we begin, we have
many to thank.
First and foremost, the United
States Congress, the library's
chief benefactor, since it was
established in 1800.
No library in history has
enjoyed such long lasting and
generous public support.
Without private sector support,
however, there would not be the
National Book Festival.
Our most generous supporter is
festival co-chairman Mr.
David M. Rubenstein
[Applause]
I have often heard David speak
of his belief that books and
reading are keys to the success
in life.
As many of you know, we share a
history at the Enoch Pratt
Free Library in Baltimore,
which was David's library
growing up. [Applause] 
Oh, okay.
David has never forgotten the
seminal role libraries played in
his life, and he demonstrates
that through his support of the
library, Congress and David, we
are most grateful. [Applause]
We are also so thankful to all
of our sponsors who make the
festival possible.
Our charter sponsors.
The Institute of Museum and
Library Services. [Applause]
The Washington Post.
[Applause]
Our patron sponsors [Applause] 
A.A.R.P. [Applause]
General Motors.
[Applause]
The James Madison Council.
[Applause]
The John W Kluge Center.
[Applause]
The National Endowment for the
Arts. [Applause]
And the National Endowment for
the Humanities. [Applause]
And our many friends, media
partners and exhibitors.
The National Book Festival is,
we think, the very best free
event in the nation's capital.
[Applause]
And it is possible because of
you. Thank all of you. [Applause]
I also, though, want to give a
special thanks to AARP, who has
sponsored this special evening.
They have been an important
partner for more than 20 years
supporting the National Book
Festival, the Gershwin Prize for
popular song and numerous
library exhibitions.
Most importantly, AARP is the
founding corporate sponsor of
the Veterans History Project.
The library's initiative to
collect and preserve first hand
interviews of U.S.
military veterans from World
War One through the present, the
largest oral history project of
its kind.
AARP CEO Joanne Jenkins is with
us tonight.
And we thank you.
[Applause]
And yes, it really does take a
village to put this festival on.
So I want to acknowledge the
more than 1000 volunteers, most
especially the Junior League of
Washington, which has supported
the festival since 2003.
The hundreds of volunteers from
the general public and, of
course, the very hard working
staff of the library Congress.
[Applause]
I want to take this opportunity
to to introduce the library's
New Literary Director, Clay
Smith, who has a distinguished
career managing book festivals
across the nation, including the
Texas Book Festival and working
with First Lady Laura Bush
during the genesis of the
National Book Festival.
So you'll be seeing a lot of
him at the festival tomorrow and
at the L. O. C. events.
[Applause]
But now...
Clay, where are you Clay?
There he is.
[Applause]
And so now it is my honor to
welcome to the stage the chair
of the library's James Madison
Council and the co-chair of the
2022 National Book Festival,
Mr. David Rubenstein.
[Applause]
>> David Rubenstein:  So how many
people have not been to the National
Book Festival for anybody here?
Oh, wow.
How many people have not been
to the Library of Congress
building before? Okay.
How many people haven't been to
the Coolidge Auditorium before?
Oh, Wow. Okay.
Well, just everybody that's
been here before.
Just think about something else
for a minute. [Laughing]
The Congress of the United
States, in its wisdom, decided
that it would be good if they
had a library.
And that was an idea actually
proposed when we had the
Articles of Confederation.
And it was an idea proposed by
James Madison and typical
Congress. They moved slowly.
[Laughing]
So about about 12 years later
or so, they finally got around
to doing it. It was legislation
signed when John Adams was
president in 1800.
And what happened was they
allocated $5,000 to purchase a
few hundred books. I think it
was 300 books and maybe four
maps or something like that.
And that was the entire Library
of Congress.
What happened was it grew a
little bit, and as the Congress
moved down here, the Library of
Congress was in the building of
the Congress, and that's where
it was.
And when the British came in
1814 to sack Washington, DC,
they burned the Library of
Congress along with the
Congress. So the books were
gone.
That's when Thomas Jefferson
said, Well, I'll sell you my
library, which he did.
He needed the money. And and a
deal was done and he sold it for
roughly $24,000, I think it
was.
And that became the Library of
Congress.
Those books were later burned in
another fire. [Laughing]
But but the Library of Congress
has done a very good job of of
getting reproductions.
And some of them are still
exist of the original ones.
And ultimately, the Library of
Congress grew and grew and grew.
And so it is now it was decided
in the late 1800s to be good to
have its own building.
And this building was built in
1897 for $10 million.
Under budget and on schedule.
It was redone, I think around
2000 or so for roughly $150
million. But I think the
Library of Congress has two of
the most beautiful rooms in
Washington, DC.
You were in one of them just a
little while ago, the Great
Hall. And some of you may have
seen the main reading room.
And those are two spectacular
buildings.
Nothing like it really isn't
existed in Washington, D.C.
And the librarian of Congress
is appointed by the president,
United States, even though it's
called the Librarian of Congress.
And there have been a number of
librarian of Congresses, but
there's only been one woman who
has served as a Librarian of
Congress. And there's only been
one African-American who served
as Librarian of Congress.
[Applause]
And. For more than 50 years.
There wasn't anybody who was
actually a librarian who was
actually the Librarian of
Congress. So and Carla Hayden,
who has come from my hometown
of Baltimore, we have the first
African-American first woman
and first professional librarian
in 50 years. And she's done a
spectacular job. [Applause]
She is celebrating.
She'll shortly finish her six
year.
It's a ten year term. It can be
renewed and no doubt, I'm sure
there will be a great outcry of
of outcry if she is not renewed.
She's done a spectacular job in
so many things, including the
National Book Festival.
Now the National Book Festival.
For those who don't know about
it, it wasn't James Maddison who
thought it was a great idea.
He didn't put it in the
Constitution. And Thomas
Jefferson, for whom this
building is named, didn't think
of it in the Declaration of
Independence either.
So where did it come from?
It wasn't the Constitution.
It wasn't a declaration.
Nobody really thought about it
at the time we were creating the
country. So what happened was
when George W Bush was elected
president, United States,
during the inaugural ceremonies,
the then librarian of Congress,
the predecessor to Carla, Jim
Billington, who served for 28
years as the Librarian of
Congress, he was at a reception
right before the inauguration.
And and Laura Bush, who a
librarian, said that to Jim
Billington, We have a book
festival in Texas.
Do you have a one in
Washington? And he said,
drinking very quickly on his
feet, We will. [Laughing]
And and so that began the first
National Book festival.
It was on the Mall. For those
who may remember it, anybody
remember the National Book
Festival on the Mall? [Applause]
So. It was it was quite
something You had to worry about
the weather and it rained from
time to time and there was a lot
of dust and there was a lot of
people from the National Park
Service saying we're ruining
the lawns and so forth.
So eventually they kind of said,
Well, maybe you're ruining this
lawn permanently. And and we
didn't worry the weather to kind
of interfere with it. So
ultimately, we were able to get
the Washington, D.C.
government to let us use the
the convention center, which if
you haven't been to it and you
haven't been to the book
festival, you may not have been
to the the convention center.
It's one of the things that is
quite amazing in terms of its
size. So tomorrow we will have
between 150 and 200,000 people
at this book festival.
And it's an incredible number
of people that come.
They come from all over the
United States.
And the last time we had it in
in person in 2019, people were
camping out at 4 a.m.
in the morning to get in.
And that was in part because
one of the features then was
Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was to
be interviewed and she was
interviewed then by Nina
Totenberg
And at that time there were
roughly 10,000 people that came
to that interview. And of
course, it was live streamed as
well. And it's incredible to
see that many people who care
about reading and books that
much.
And it's it's incredible to me,
As Carla said, I came from very
modest circumstances. And in my
family, we didn't have enough
money to go out and buy books.
And and so I went dependent on
the on the public library, like
many of you probably were.
And in Baltimore at the time,
you could borrow if you were six
years old and you got your
library card, you could take out
ten books a week, but you can
only take out ten that week.
So I would take out the ten on
like a Saturday, read them on a
Saturday, and I had to wait a
week to get another ten books.
[Laughing] But it was it began 
my love of reading.
And I've often thought that
what could be more pleasurable
than sitting down and just
reading a book and and, and
reading is great, but reading a
book is even better because when
you read a book, you have to
concentrate your mind, you have
to focus your mind.
And it really does so much to
make people a better enjoy
humanity better. And think
about it.
What separates all of us as as
as members of the human species
from all the other species on
the face of the earth.
We now know that other species
can communicate with each other,
but they can't really produce
anything in written form that is
for somebody else to read.
And so what's one of the things
that separates us from all the
other species on the face of
the earth?
We actually know how to write
and we know how to read.
Now, sadly, many of our fellow
Americans don't read as much as
they should, and maybe because
they can't read that much.
The latest Department of
Education statistics say that
this is hard to believe, but
54% of people between the ages
of 16 and 71 cannot read past a
sixth grade level.
And it also turns out that more
than 25% of Americans have not
read a book in the last year.
Or been to a bookstore in the
last year.
So while all of us are book
groupies, no doubt and we are
Library of Congress groupies,
sadly many Americans don't read
very much anymore. And if they
read anything, it's a tweet, not
a a book.
You know, I often wonder, would
William Shakespeare have been
able to write those plays if he
had to deal with responding to
tweets or maybe he just would
have tweeted things and not
written those plays. So whether
tweets are good or not.
It's incredible when you think
about the level of intellect
that it takes to write a book
and the level of intellect it
now takes to read some books.
And sadly, many of our fellow
Americans don't read books very
much anymore. One of the people
that inspired me to really get
involved with doing more in
history was David McCullough.
Now, David McCullough is an
extraordinary individual, and he
wrote two books that won the
Pulitzer Prize, the book on
Harry Truman and the book on
John Adams.
But he wrote so many other
great history books, and he was
the personification of a great
historian and a great writer.
And he looked like like what
you would expect a great
American to look like. He had
the great white hair.
He had this great voice.
And he came here many, many
times.
And he did a lot of his
research here.
And at the Dialogues program
that we have from members of
Congress where we we talk about
American history and we
interview historians.
David was there several times,
and I interviewed him and I've
interviewed him in other
occasions as well.
And he's an incredible was an
incredible person.
And let me just tell you one
story about Jackie Marsh over
here helped put together a
effort to raise money for the
Great American Prairie, which
is designed to save land out
West. And the first award is
named after Ken Burns.
And the first award was given
to David McCullough.
And so it's a big award and
comes with a lot of, I think,
honorarium, a very considerable
honorarium.
And so David got the award.
He was there in front of
several hundred, some several
thousand people. And he got up
there and he didn't talk at all
about himself. He never talked
about himself.
He talked about his wife,
Rosalie, who sadly passed away
about two months before David
did, and his wife of some 67
years, I think it was had a
unique style with David.
What David would do is he would
write the books, he'd write the
rewrite the paragraph, and then
Rosalie would read it and he'd
read it back then to make sure
it not only read well, but it
sounded well. And so that's how
they did all those books.
He would write a couple of
paragraphs, give it to her, she
would read it back to him, and
they go back and forth.
And he told a story at that
night when he talked about only
about his wife, he talked about
a time that he was writing a
book which later won the
Pulitzer Prize, and it was the
book on John Adams.
And he wrote a a line, he wrote
a paragraph, and Rosalie read it
back to him. And he said, it
sounds okay.
And she said, no, this one
sentence doesn't really work.
He said, Read it again.
She read it again? That's okay.
No, it's really doesn't work.
That sentence. It's not good.
It's okay, he said.
I really think it's not.
Not so good, she said.
God damn it. Put it in there.
Let's go with the next thing.
That was it.
So the book comes out, it wins
the Pulitzer Prize.
And where it gets the Pulitzer
Prize, There's a review in the
New York Times by Gore Vidal.
And Gore Vidal said, This is a
spectacular book.
I loved everything.
Except there's one sentence in
that book. [Applause]
That shouldn't be there.
David was a great humanitarian.
He gave an enormous amount of
his time and energy to our
country. And it's really a loss
for our country that we don't
have someone like David
anymore.
And, you know, I regard it as a
personal loss as well.
He became a friend of mine.
And we have a little video that
I'd like people to watch right.
now, if you would.
[Video of David McCullough] 
I have been devoting my working life.
To the American story for over
50 Years.
And I'm I'm ever
grateful.
That I
Somehow had the good fortune to
wander in into this way of life.
Contributing what I can to the
Betterment of our country.
I've done this on paper.
I've done it in classrooms,
I've done it on television and
on the stage and in every way I
can to convey that history.
Isn't about
Boring statistics
And quotations and memorizing
dates.
It isn't about just politics.
And the military.
History is
Human.
It is--It is.
About people.
When in the course of human
events, our declaration begins.
[End of Video]
>> David Rubenstein: So. [Applause] 
We will we will certainly miss David.
And he was a great friend of
the Library of Congress and a
great friend of mine.
Tomorrow, for those who are
going to be there and I hope all
of you will be, it's incredible
event.
You'll see, as I say, about 120
some authors signing books,
reading from their books and
answering questions about their
books. And what we've done
tonight is we have five authors
who are going to talk a little
bit about the books that they
have written recently, and I
think they are the real stars of
the book festival. The the.
The authors. But I just want to
just thank again, the sponsors
have made this possible and
thank all of you who are here
for making this possible,
because without you, obviously,
the book festival wouldn't be a
success.
But I know everybody here is a
lover of books and I hope you'll
love what we have for you
tomorrow.
And I want to thank Carla
Hayden again for getting all
that organized. Thank you all.
[Applause]
>> Dr. Carla Hayden:
Thank you, David.
David McCullough was truly an
American treasure and he will be
greatly missed here at the
Library of Congress.
He'll always be part of the
festival's legacy in history,
and we honor him tonight by
continuing the tradition with
tonight's author program.
The authors you're here reflect
the depth, the breadth and
diversity of our lineup this
year.
Speaking to topics of today and
appealing to readers of all ages
and background, please enjoy.
[Applause]
>> Announcer: Please welcome
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist,
author and associate editor of The
Washington Post, David Maraniss.
[Applause]
>> David Maraniss:
I never correct anybody.
But it is Maraniss and I didn't.
[Laughter]
I knew I was following a great
benefactor.
I didn't know I was following a
comedian as well. [Laughter]
Thank you, David. I'm thrilled
to be here tonight to honor
librarians, the Librarian of
Congress, Books, writers,
History and the Search for
Truth.
All of which are way too
vulnerable in these times.
In 1911 and 1912, there was a
young teacher at the Carlisle
Indian Industrial School
teaching business classes named
Marianne Moore.
And she loved sports and she'd
often watch the athletes there
perform. And of one of them,
she wrote, he had a kind of ease
in his gait.
That's hard to describe.
Equilibrium with no structure
But couched in football, he was
the epitome of concentration,
where he was effective plenty
in reserve.
That was before Marianne Moore
became one of the great poets of
America. She started at the
Carlisle School, and she was
talking about Jim Thorpe, one
of her students from the SAC and
Fox Nation, of what would
become Oklahoma.
He was at the boarding school
on his way to becoming the
greatest athlete America and
perhaps the world has ever seen.
You know, it's hard to compare
athletes from different
generations because of training
and diet and equipment.
But Jim Thorpe did things that
are unparalleled.
He was not only a decathlete
and pentathlete gold medallist
at the Stockholm Games in 1912.
He was an all-American football
player for two seasons, and he
was a major League Baseball
player.
He could do anything. He was
also a great ballroom dancer,
and they said he was great at
Marbles. [Laughter]
And it all began at the
Carlisle Boarding School with
its legacy of glory and
cruelty.
And. An institution that
perfectly illuminates the
American story in all its
self-absorption, duplicity and
misunderstanding. That boarding
school was founded in 1879, only
three years after the Battle of
the Little Bighorn.
In Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for
the express purpose of forcibly.
Trying to turn American Indians
into white people.
The motto was Kill the Indian,
save the man.
That meant take away their
religion, their language, their
culture. Sheer their braids.
Dressed them in uniforms of the
US Cavalry.
Try to take away everything
that was their own culture,
which makes what happened on
September 9th, 1912, so
poignant with meaning.
It was just a football game.
But more than that, the
Carlisle Indians against the
Army on the plane at West
Point.
Two of the best teams in the
nation then.
On one team, the
all-American left halfback, Jim
Thorpe. On the other, a
linebacker named Dwight David
Eisenhower. Soldiers on one
side, Indians on the other.
N. Scott Momaday,
The Native American novelist
and playwright said it was like
reinventing history.
There was something in the air
that day, he said.
Something made of omens and
prophecies.
Some old imbalance was being
set right.
Unlike their fathers and
grandfathers, they were given an
honest chance on the field at
West Point, competing against
the sons and grandsons of men
who had devastated their people
on the frontier. They were
simply grateful to play on a
level field.
Jim Thorpe was magnificent that
day.
Dwight Eisenhower limped off
the field with a bum knee.
The Carlisle Indians won 27 to
6, and it was perhaps the
greatest act of athletic
retribution in American history.
It was also the culmination
also of the greatest single year
of any athlete in history.
Before that football season,
Thorpe had competed and won
those two gold medals at the
1912 Summer Olympics in
Stockholm, trouncing the field
in 15 events that involved the
pentathlon and the decathlon.
But only two months after that
football game at West Point,
those medals were taken away
from him.
For unjust reasons.
As my book documents, he played
baseball in the Eastern Carolina
League for two summers at a
time when literally scores of
college athletes were doing the
same thing.
Most of them were playing under
aliases.
Dwight Eisenhower played under
the name Wilson in the Kansas
State League. There are so many
aliases in the Eastern Carolina
League where Jim Thorpe 
played that.
They called it the Pocahontas
League because everybody was
named John Smith.
[Laughter]
Jim Thorpe played under the
name Jim Thorpe.
But when it was revealed that
he had played there, the medals
were taken away.
And it was only this July 112
years later that justice was
done and those records and
medals were destroyed or
restored. 112 years too late.
And that's only part of the
story of the electric life of
Jim Thorpe. A path lit by
lightning.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Announcer:
Please welcome.
Please welcome bestselling
historian and author,
Candace Millard.
[Applause]
>> Candice Millard: Thank you so much.
It's such an honor to be here to be in the
Library of Congress, which is a
national treasure, to be with
the Librarian of Congress, who
is a national treasure and to be
with all of you. Thank you for
having me.
One of the great regrets of my
life happened at the National
Book Festival 11 years ago.
It was the first time I had
been invited to the festival, so
I was really excited and it was
still in the mall at that time.
Under this stunning series of
big, beautiful tents one for
history, humor, fiction,
poetry, every category.
And then there was an author's
tent where authors could hang
out. So after my event, I went
into that tent and I was talking
with one of the volunteers, and
she asked me if there are any
authors I'd like to meet.
And I'm pretty shy.
So I was about to say, No,
thank you.
But just then I looked up and I
saw David McCullough.
And I'll never forget it.
You couldn't miss him.
He was tall, straight backed,
white haired, elegant, smiling.
So before I could chicken out,
I said yes.
Is there any chance I can meet
David McCullough?
Like many, many people, I had
long admired McCullough's
writing. I had read his books
for an enjoyment.
I had read them to try to
understand how he wrote them, to
try to learn from them.
And I wanted to thank him for
that.
But the real reason I wanted to
meet him was because his work
had helped me through one of
the most difficult times in my
life. Six years earlier, when I
was finishing work on my first
book, I had had a child who was
born with stage four
neuroblastoma. Neuroblastoma is
a common childhood cancer, but
it's extremely rare to find it
in utero.
And unfortunately, even though
we had found it so early, it had
already spread to the baby's
liver.
She was given a 30% chance of
survival.
And we started down this road,
which would last for two years.
Eight rounds of chemo, multiple
surgeries, and a lot of nights
in hospital rooms.
Sleepless and scared.
The only escape I had, the only
thing that helped at all was
books. At night.
My husband was home with our
older daughter.
My baby was asleep in a crib,
hooked up to machines and
monitors, and I sat in a corner
of her room with a pen, light
and a pile of books.
And I realized that along with
all the other magical things
they do for us, books give us
one more gift.
They remind us that we are not
alone.
My sister sent me some books to
take with me to the hospital.
Books that I will always love
and be grateful for.
But I also took a few of my
own, and one of them was The
Great Bridge by David
McCullough.
It's a big book as all of his
work, but it's a page turner and
it was exactly what I needed
for just an hour or two every
night to forget.
To forget and to remember to
remember that this might be
hard, this might be scary.
But there are a lot of things
in life that are scary and you
just have to be brave or at
least pretend like you are.
So fast forward six years and
I'm standing in front of David
McCullough at the National Book
Festival and my daughter.
Is a healthy, silly six year
old. [Applause]
And I have a chance to thank
someone who is not only my hero,
but who, although he could not
have known it, helped me through
this very difficult time.
But instead of telling him
that, telling him what his books
had meant to me, I froze.
He was so kind and gracious,
but I was just nervous and
starstruck, and I couldn't do
it.
And I never did.
I never told him, and I have
regretted it ever since.
No day more than the day just a
few weeks ago that I heard that
he had died. But I can learn
from my mistakes, especially
when given another chance.
This is another national book
festival and another rare
opportunity to thank the people
I admire whose work has inspired
and educated me, broken my
heart, and given me hope.
So if you'll indulge me, I
would like to tell you what your
books, your poetry, your
histories, your novels, your
illustrations, your words of
advice and comfort have meant to
me. They are essential.
They are irreplaceable.
They are what makes us human.
What lets us understand each
other.
They make us better than we
were before we pick them up.
And I am deeply grateful for
them and for you.
So if you ever have one of
those days, which we all have,
when you think that no one is
listening, no one is paying
attention, no one cares what
you're creating.
Remember this.
You're wrong. There is always
someone on the other end.
They might be in a library or
in an office cubicle, on a farm
or in a hospital room with a
sick child.
It doesn't matter because for
that person, your work is a
lifeline. So as a grateful
reader, I thank you.
And I thank David McCullough.
I'm only sorry I didn't say it
sooner. [Applause]
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Announcer: Please welcome actor,
bestselling author,
and expert woodworker, Nick Offerman.
[Applause]
>> Nick Offerman: Thank you. If you're
on TV and you can make a table, you run
the risk of being called an
expert woodworker. [Laughter]
I'm aspiring.
[Laughter]
I'm sincerely honored to be
here in the company of such
talented writers and to be part
of this menu.
We've had erudition and
eloquence, and now you get me.
[Laughter]
We're really lucky to be
enjoying the incredible
hospitality of the Library of
Congress.
I've been most edified to
discover that it is an actual
library building, [Laughter] the 
biggest in the world, in fact.
Thanks to the founding vision
of some of our early presidents.
To quote the library's website,
Jefferson's Belief. [Laughter]
In the power of knowledge and
the direct link between
knowledge and democracy has
shaped the library's philosophy.
And after reading of this link
between knowledge and democracy.
I just wanted to make sure that
all the members of Congress are
aware that they can access this
library.
Do they have that in the in the
starter pack.
My life has been inescapably
shaped by libraries and books
and the knowledge they hold.
My high school librarian, Miss
Kinsella, helped me select my
audition pieces for my first
theatre school audition at the
University of Illinois in 1988.
Good news I got in.
[Laughter]
My family currently boasts
three librarians and a couple of
school teachers, and they are
considered the most admirable
family members by far.
[Laughter]
Second only to our brother, who
wears an even more heroic hat as
a purveyor of craft beers.
[Laughter]
With such fealty paid to books
in our family.
Imagine my surprise and theirs
when I transitioned from reader
to author, allowing me to share
both with them and the
readership I have been
fortunate enough to cultivate.
My love of the things that are
the most important to me.
The outdoors.
Working with my hands.
The legendary Seven Delicious
Meats. [Laughter]
And fidelity.
Fidelity to my bride.
The most rewarding and edifying
example of these literary
bounties is my very fortunate
fellowship with my favorite
author. Some 26 years ago, I
read my first short stories by
Kentucky farmer and author
Wendell Berry, who was awarded
the 2010 Humanities Medal by
President Obama.
I was rather swept away by the
agrarian ethos in which all his
writing is couched, and I was
working as a theater actor and a
carpenter at the time, and his
themes really appealed to the
laborer in me.
If you're unfamiliar, his work
lends a sense of nobility to the
working class, especially to
the farmers and the other
stewards of Mother Nature's
creation who do their best to
provide us with the raw
materials we need to live in a
way that is also sustainable
year in and year out, ideally
forever. Agrarianism.
Sexy. [Laughter] 
That's show biz.
Mr. Berry also enumerates the
ways in which the so called
progress of our industrial
civilization is pitted directly
in opposition to the agrarians,
as he tends to make his
protagonists.
And he does it all with humor
and affection in a way that
caused me to immediately write
him a letter and ask him if I
could please adapt one of his
stories to the stage or the
screen. Good news.
He wrote me back.
Bad news is he said no.
[Laughter]
But I have kept bugging him
over the years, auditioning
different tap dances on his
porch. [Laughter]
Until good news, I was finally
able to befriend him and his
family and share some some
meals and some good work.
And now I am delighted to stand
here before you tonight and tell
you that he still hasn't
changed his mind. [Laughter]
He did, however, give me a bit
of homework when I described my
new book to him.
He asked me, at least I think
he asked me, although I don't
recall him using any question
marks to compare the nature
philosophy of John Muir to that
of the Wisconsin agrarian Aldo
Leopold. Now, what he turned
out to mean was when talking
about nature and conservation,
to take our national gaze from
the distant beauty of places
like Yosemite or the Grand
Canyon, the locales championed
by Park Angel John Muir, and
turn that gaze right here to
the actual creation of Mother
Nature, in which we live every
day.
To steal some of that urgency
from the way we think about
protecting our publicly held
lands with its flora and fauna
and beautiful landscapes and
give that urgency to our home
places, our local watersheds.
Aldo Leopold suggested that we
employ a land ethic, a notion
that expands the definition of
community to include not only us
humans but all the other parts
of nature as well soils, waters,
plants and animals or what he
simply called the land.
In Leopold's vision, you can't
care for the people without also
caring for the land.
Now some more good news.
I was then able to travel to
gorgeous and remote National
Park lands and to humble farm
operations in the US and in
England. Not to mention a COVID
protocol Thanksgiving with my
very own family and their
Illinois backyard.
To prepare the best report that
I could muster for Wendell and
also for my readers, a book
eventually titled Where the Deer
and the Antelope Play.
And I'm grateful for that
opportunity to continue the
conversation about how we are
using our planet's resources for
good or not, especially with
regard to who is providing our
food and how.
I think we absolutely have it
in our power to get our land
ethic right.
But the big question remains,
as always, will we?
If we do, it'll be largely
thanks to incredible authors
like the ones featured in this
festival.
And the fact that I am counted
among their illustrious number
leads me to say it must have
been a very slow year. [Applause]
Thank you very much.
[Applause]
>> Announcer: award winning
author of more than 50 books for
young readers, 
Andrea Davis Pinkney. [Applause]
>> Andrea Davis Pinkney: Thank  you,
Nick. Good evening, beautiful people.
The best way to say, Come
along, children, don't you be
weary is through the pages of a
book.
Child. Do you feel it?
Do you truly know that stories
play a rhythm all their own?
Of course you do.
And so do I.
Because as the author of more
than 50 books for children and
young adults, as a parent and
as someone who travels widely
through states and nations,
here's what I witness.
From Brooklyn to Denver to
Accra to Johnson City,
Tennessee, to right here in
Washington, D.C., where I was
born, into a family of civil
rights, foot soldiers who
marched with Dr. King and who
welcomed me with hopeful arms
when I arrived in an inner city
hospital not far from this great
hall. Today when I'm on the
road, here are the young people
I meet.
The first grader has hungry
eyes.
He speaks no English, but he
wants to learn to read.
He says Me Gusta el Libros.
I like books.
Yes, His eyes are longing for
something wonderful when he
receives a free book as part of
a subsidized literacy program.
He hugs it like a pillow.
Gracias, he exclaims.
Muchas Gracias.
His excitement needs no
translation.
And I am thinking, you little
one, are my apple pie.
You like a book?
Bring us together.
The shy teenage girl approaches
me.
Timid, but with an open face
and an open heart.
Wide, wide open.
Her teacher introduces us.
The girl's name is Hanifa.
Hanifa is ready for a story to
be poured into her wide, wide
openness. But first, she shares
her story with me.
It's a poem she's written
herself.
Dare I respond in the little
bit of Arabic I know.
Shukran, Hanifa.
Shukran. Thank you.
Thank you.
Hanifa, you are my butterfly,
taking flight on the beauty of
your very own wings.
Shukran, Hanifa.
Thank you.
You like a book?
Bring us together.
The teenager with pierced ears,
a nose ring and hint of a
goatee. Living out loud in
lemon jello, high tops.
Yeah, that's what I'm talking
about. [Laughter]
Uh huh. He knows he's cute.
[Laughter]
Did I mention that he's fluent
in American Sign Language?
He shows me how the deaf
express gratitude.
Little Boy-Q, So proud to live
out loud.
You are my rainbow.
You are my pretty prism of
multicolored letters that spell
pride and joy.
You so beautiful, filled with
wonder and like the magical ride
of a merry go round, we sing
again.
Let's go around again.
Yes, again.
Let's take another joy ride.
Like in our favorite book.
Let's rejoice over and over.
No price to the ticket.
Because you see, reading is
free freedom.
You little boy-Q,
Free freedom.
You kid, like so many books,
bring us together.
Here's another young person
I've met in my travels.
Ten year old Tybre Fall,  a
determined kid from Johnson,
Tennessee, reads a book and
learns all he can about
Congressman John Lewis and his
heroic march across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge in the fight for
voting rights.
Determined to meet his hero, Tybre
takes hold of a dream that
sets a miracle in motion.
Tybre’s two grandmothers take
him on the seven hour drive to
Selma, Alabama, on the off
chance that their grandson might
meet Congressman John.
When they arrive with thousands
of people who also have the same
idea the sun's fingertips reach
down to point Tybre in the right
direction. John Lewis picks
Tybre out from the crowd and so
begins a remarkable friendship.
When I learn of this, I am
thinking you, Tybre, are the
chosen one.
You and your modern activism
can show us the way through you
and so many kids.
We will all rise on the wings
of wade in the water.
We will all work our way up,
up, up, straight to the soul of
lift every voice and sing,
and I have a Dream and Black
Lives Matter.
Here we go.
Soaring through book pages that
fill us with an undeniable
flutter, lifting us to the
windows and mirrors of Caritas
Vision, swinging open the front
door and holding an open seat at
the front of the bus to give us
a good view of Rosa's
determination, carrying us on
the shoulders of John Lewis's
invitation.
Yes, y'all.
Let's get in to good trouble.
[Applause]
And this, ladies and gentlemen,
is where our kids come in.
Apple Pie. Butterfly. Rainbow.
Determined Tybre from
Tennessee. You are turning the
pages on history.
And now I'd like to close with
a short excerpt from Because of
You, John Lewis, the book that
celebrates the friendship
between Tybre Fall and the
congressman, and is illustrated
with the evocative paintings of
New York Times award winning
artist Keith Henry Brown.
Here's the excerpt.
When Heaven's cloak called John
Lewis home when the world said
goodbye to the Crusader name
Good Trouble Tybre Fall stepped
up, stood tall, spoke, spoke
about courage, spoke about
strength, spoke about the
determination of moving pass
doubt Tybre from Tennessee.
He knew because of you, John
Lewis.
We shall not be moved because
of you, John.
We can all look to the sky.
You've given every child
permission to fly.
Do you see it up there?
The wide, wide blue.
Because of you.
And you and you.
We will lace new shoes, cross
big bridges, wake up, wish and
march toward a brighter
tomorrow.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
please join me in applauding 14
year old Tybre Fall from
Johnson City, Tennessee, the
subject of the book Because of
you, John Lewis, who is here
tonight with his two
grandmothers.
Tybre, please rise so that
we can acknowledge you.
[Applause]
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Announcer: Please welcome the
Pulitzer Prize winning science
writer Ed Yong. 
[Applause]
>> Ed Yong: So I want you to imagine
that there is an elephant on the
stage next to me.
This is not a fancy metaphor.
I really want you to imagine an
elephant. [Laughter]
Don't. Don't think about why
it's here, how it got here.
Those are all details. Just
work with me.
There's an elephant. Imagine
also that there is a dog, a bat, a
robin, a rattlesnake and a
mosquito.
Because it's D.C., there's
always a mosquito. [Laughter]
All of these creatures would be
sharing the same physical space
as me, but each of us would
have a radically different
experience of that space.
The elephant and the dog would
see that flag as yellow, white
and blue. The elephant would be
able to hear infrasonic sounds
too low for my ears while the
bat and the dog would hear
ultrasonic sounds too high for
me to hear.
If we switched off the lights
in this room, the rattlesnake
would still be able to find the
other animals by the body heat
that they gave off because it
can see in infrared.
The robin would be able to
point in exactly the right
direction it needed to go in
order to migrate, because it can
read the magnetic field of the
earth itself and use that to
guide its migrations, even when
no other landmarks are obvious
to it. To be a dog.
The room would be rife with
odors, with swirling, wafting
scents that it could detect and
that I would be oblivious to,
but that the elephant and
perhaps even the rattlesnake
with its tongue might be able
to pick up and the mosquito
would be able to scent, smell
the scent of carbon dioxide
wafting from my breath and use
that to home in for a bite.
I hate mosquitoes.
[Laughter]
Even when animals exist in the
same space, they have very, very
different realities.
They are. Each creature is
trapped within its own sensory
bubble, within its own world of
sights, smells, sounds and
textures that it is privy to
and that others might not be
able to even detect.
There is a beautiful word for
these sensory bubbles.
It is Umvvelt.
It comes from the German for
environment.
But it doesn't mean the
physical environment.
It's not the podium in front of
me, the floor underneath my
feet. It is the sensory
environment, that unique
cocktail of stimuli and
information that each animal is
privy to. And the thing about
the umvvelt is that it is always
partial. Each creature is only
it can only access a thin sliver
of this immense world, a small
slice of the fullness of
reality. And for that reason, I
think that the umvvelt concept
is one of the most beautiful
and most wondrous in all of
nature. It is inherently
humbling.
It tells us that despite our
vaunted intelligence as humans,
our experience of the world is
incomplete.
It certainly doesn't feel that
way.
Our senses create this very
powerful illusion that we are
perceiving all there is to
perceive.
But that is very much an
illusion, and it is one that we
share with all other creatures.
There is so much around us
colors, electric fields,
magnetic fields that we do not
tap into and that other animals
can. And I think that by
considering those other senses,
the the umvvelt concept makes
us see the world in a more
expansive way.
By thinking about it,
We understand animals in in
their own right.
We understand the incredible
things that they are capable of.
A dolphin swimming through the
water can sense its surroundings
through echolocation, a
biological form of sonar, which
also allows it to peer into
living tissue.
A dolphin is essentially a
living medical scanner.
It could sense the skeleton
inside you if you were diving
next to it. Even more familiar
creatures are extraordinary in
their own right. Whenever I go,
whenever I go for a walk with my
dog in the morning, I always
pass sparrows and starlings, two
of the most common urban birds
around.
Each of these creatures can see
an entire dimension of colors
that I cannot see.
They can hear qualities in their
own songs that my ears are too
slow to perceive.
They can feel the movement of
air blowing over their wings as
they fly and as they move.
Their eyes are so placed that
they're visual that they can see
behind them too.
So while my visual world always
moves towards me as I walk, a
bird always moves towards it
and away from it at the same
time, something that I do not
experience and struggle to
imagine. By thinking about the
experiences of these other
creatures. We also see our own
world in new and wondrous and
frankly, quite trippy ways to a
bird.
Paper isn't white, to a cod, a
fish swimming the Arctic Ocean.
Ice isn't cold.
When we think about this, Umvvelting
of other animals, we
understand that birdsong isn't
meant for our ears.
It is meant for the ears of
other birds, which can pick out
those qualities that we can't
hear.
We understand that the colors
of flowers that we find so
beautiful will not have not
evolved to tickle our eyes, but
to specifically delight to the
eyes of pollinating insects,
which can see markings and
colors and patterns on those
blooms that are oblivious to
us.
To a bee a sunflower is not
obvious.
It's not uniformly yellow, but
has a blazing ultraviolet bull's
eye at its center.
When I walk my dog, his name is
Typo.
It's great writer name.
When I walked Typo in the
morning, I watched him sniff his
way along our neighborhood.
Stopping for minutes at a time
to examine a plant or a bit of
sidewalk that I would have
walked by oblivious when I
consider the world through his
nose.
I understand that even the most
mundane parts of my existence
are full of change, full of
hidden delights.
And this is one of the things I
want people to take away from an
immense world. The book that
I've just written, a sense of
the magical and the mundane,
the extraordinary and the
ordinary flickers of the
fantastic and the familiar.
The book is a tribute to the
necessity of curiosity and of
empathy, of trying to take the
perspectives of lives that are
very, very different to ours.
This is a theme that runs
through much of my writing,
including when I'm not writing
about the senses or the other
animals of other animals.
The COVID pandemic.
I have spent much of this week
and certainly all of today
interviewing and writing about
people who have been disabled by
the persistent symptoms of long
COVID.
One of the most common symptoms
of this condition is brain fog,
a term that in no way captures
the debilitating nature of what
it is like to have your most
fundamental cognitive skills
stripped away from you.
Brain fog is not a hangover.
It is not anxiety or
depression.
It is not psychosomatic.
It is very specifically and a
disorder of executive function.
The set of skills that includes
focusing attention, holding bits
of information in your mind and
blocking out distractions.
Those skills are so
foundational that without them,
much of normal life becomes
impossible, including reading.
And one of the most common
things that I hear from people
who have this badly is that
they can no longer read.
So when we think about all the
things that we're going to hear
during this wondrous festival,
when we move about these spaces
in the coming days, I urge you
to extend the full force of your
empathy to people who have had
very different experiences of
the last two years, people for
whom there is no normal to
return to. People who do not
get to move past the pandemic.
I urge you to think about in
the face of all of the rhetoric
of individual responsibility
that we always hear our
collective responsibilities to
each other and the things that
we still need to do to stop
more people from losing this
immense source of joy that we
all get to take part in.
Thank you.
[Applause]
>> Dr. Carla Hayden: Thank you to all of
our extraordinary presenters, to all
of the distinguished authors in
the audience and to our
sponsors. I hope you have had a
wonderful time tonight.
And please enjoy the festival
tomorrow.
Thank you.
[Applause]