Press Release

Public Libraries Nationwide Receive 50-Volume American Literature and History Series

WASHINGTON, (June 22, 2001)

$1 million public-private partnership funds national Millennium Project for Public Libraries

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) announced today that 512 public libraries in communities throughout the nation have been selected to receive 50 recently published volumes from The Library of America collection, the distinguished series of American literature and history. The libraries join 293 others that were awarded the volumes earlier this year. A list of the libraries is available in the box to the right.

The awards are part of the Millennium Project for Public Libraries, a partnership initiative of NEH, The Library of America and the American Library Association. Carnegie Corporation of New York is funding the initiative and awarded $1 million to NEH last year to develop and administer it.

The initiative is designed to help public libraries build their collection of American literature and history and expand opportunities for educational programs within their communities. As part of the program, libraries will host a program or event to increase community awareness of the nature and content of The Library of America volumes, encourage patrons to read the volumes, and promote their long-term use. Smaller libraries participating in the program are also eligible for programming stipends to help defray the cost of a program or event.

"Public libraries serve as vital centers for learning in every community in the nation. By enriching the collections of these 800 libraries across the country, The Millennium Project for Public Libraries is helping to make the humanities more widely accessible, " said NEH Chairman William Ferris. "This initiative honors the fundamental place of public libraries in American community life. The Library of America's editions of our nation's great writers are outstanding humanities resources that libraries can use to develop reading and discussion groups, lecture series and displays. We hope that every American will have an opportunity to discover the pleasures of reading and the treasures of knowledge that The Library of America volumes provide."

"We are grateful to NEH and Carnegie Corporation of New York for helping libraries build their core collections in the humanities. These are editions that all libraries want but not every library can afford. The programs organized to promote the collection will entice many more readers to experience great American writing-perhaps for the first time-an accomplishment that would make Andrew Carnegie proud," said The Library of America President Cheryl Hurley.

"Partnerships like this help libraries not only build their collections, but also provide opportunities for libraries to increase their communities' awareness of great American writers," said American Library Association President Nancy Kranich. "The initiative is especially beneficial for smaller libraries, which are eligible for programming stipends through ALA's Public Programs Office."

"This investment in regional libraries commemorates Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic work 100 years ago," said Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. "Our founder believed that ignorance was the enemy and knowledge man's answer to most problems. We hope that thousands of men and women, young and old will find and explore ideas and gain knowledge through these volumes."

More information about the Millennium Project for Public Libraries can be found at http://www.ala.org/publicprograms/millennium/.

Each library will receive the following 50 Library of America volumes:

African-American Writers

  • JAMES BALDWIN, EARLY NOVELS Go Tell It On The Mountain, Giovanni's Room, Another Country (Toni Morrison, editor)
  • JAMES BALDWIN, COLLECTED ESSAYS incl. Notes of a Native Son, Nobody Knows My Name, The Fire Next Time (Toni Morrison, editor)
  • FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AUTOBIOGRAPHIES (Henry Louis Gates Jr., editor)
  • ZORA NEALE HURSTON, NOVELS AND STORIES incl. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Jonah's Gourd Vine (Cheryl Wall, editor)
  • ZORA NEALE HURSTON, FOLKLORE, MEMOIRS, AND OTHER WRITINGS incl. Mules and Men, Dust Tracks on a Road (Cheryl Wall, editor)
  • SLAVE NARRATIVES (William L. Andrews and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editors)

Colonial and Revolutionary America

  • THE DEBATE ON THE CONSTITUTION, PART ONE: September 1787 to February 1788 (Bernard Bailyn, editor)
  • THE DEBATE ON THE CONSTITUTION, PART TWO: January to August 1788 (Bernard Bailyn, editor)
  • JAMES MADISON, WRITINGS 1770-1830 (Jack Rakove, editor)
  • THOMAS PAINE, COLLECTED WRITINGS Common Sense, The American Crisis, Rights of Man, The Age of Reason (Eric Foner, editor)
  • GEORGE WASHINGTON, WRITINGS (John Rhodehamel, editor)

Nature & Travel

  • JOHN J. AUDUBON, NATURE WRITINGS, JOURNALS, AND LETTERS (Christoph Irmscher, editor)
  • WILLIAM BARTRAM, TRAVELS AND OTHER WRITINGS (Thomas P. Slaughter, editor)
  • HENRY JAMES, COLLECTED TRAVEL WRITINGS: GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA (Richard Howard, editor)
  • HENRY JAMES, COLLECTED TRAVEL WRITINGS: THE CONTINENT (Richard Howard, editor)
  • JOHN MUIR, NATURE WRITINGS incl. The Mountains of California, My Summer in the Sierra, The Story of My Boyhood and Youth (William Cronon, editor)

Fiction & Essays

  • JOHN DOS PASSOS, U.S.A. The 42nd Parallel, 1919, The Big Money (Daniel Aaron and Townsend Ludington, editors)
  • WILLIAM FAULKNER, NOVELS 1942-1954 incl. "The Bear," Intruder in the Dust, A Fable (Joseph Blotner and Noel Polk, editors)
  • WILLIAM FAULKNER, NOVELS 1957-1962 (Noel Polk, editor)
  • SARA ORNE JEWETT, NOVELS AND STORIES (Michael Bell, editor)
  • SINCLAIR LEWIS, MAIN STREET AND BABBITT (John Hersey, editor)
  • VLADIMIR NABOKOV, NOVELS AND MEMOIRS 1941-1951 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight; Bend Sinister; Speak, Memory; (Brian Boyd, editor)
  • VLADIMIR NABOKOV, NOVELS 1955-1962 incl. Lolita, Pnin, Pale Fire (Brian Boyd, editor)
  • VLADIMIR NABOKOV, NOVELS 1969-1974 Ada, or Ardor; Transparent Things; Look at the Harlequins (Brian Boyd, editor)
  • JOHN STEINBECK, NOVELS AND STORIES 1932-1937 incl. To a God Unknown, Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men (Robert DeMott, editor)
  • JOHN STEINBECK, THE GRAPES OF WRATH AND OTHER WRITINGS 1936-1941 incl. The Harvest Gypsies, The Long Valley, The Log from the Sea of Cortez (Robert De Mott and Elaine A. Steinbeck, editors)
  • JAMES THURBER, WRITINGS AND DRAWINGS incl. "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," Fables for Our Time, My Life and Hard Times (Garrison Keillor, editor)
  • GERTRUDE STEIN, WRITINGS 1903-1932 incl. Three Lives, Portraits, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (Catharine Stimpson and Harriet Chessman, editors)
  • GERTRUDE STEIN, WRITINGS 1932-1946 incl. Stanzas in Meditation, The Geographical History of America, Brewsie and Willie (Catharine Stimpson and Harriet Chessman, editors)
  • EUDORA WELTY, COMPLETE NOVELS incl. The Robber Bridegroom, The Ponder Heart, The Optimist's Daughter (Richard Ford and Michael Kreyling, editors)
  • EUDORA WELTY, STORIES, ESSAYS, AND MEMOIR incl. A Curtain of Green, The Golden Apples, One Writer's Beginnings (Richard Ford and Michael Kreyling, editors)
  • NATHANAEL WEST, NOVELS AND OTHER WRITINGS incl. The Day of the Locust, Miss Lonelyhearts (Sacvan Bercovitch, editor)

Twentieth Century Journalism

  • REPORTING WORLD WAR II, American Journalism 1938-1946 (2 vols.)
  • REPORTING VIETNAM, American Journalism 1959-1975 (2 vols.)

Poetry

  • AMERICAN POETRY: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, (John Hollander, editor) (2 vols.)
  • AMERICAN POETRY: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (2 vols.)
  • RALPH WALDO EMERSON, COLLECTED POETRY (Harold Bloom and Paul Kane, editors)
  • ROBERT FROST, COLLECTED POEMS, PROSE, & PLAYS (Richard Poirier and Mark Richardson, editors)
  • WALLACE STEVENS, COLLECTED POETRY AND PROSE (Frank Kermode and Joan Richardson, editors)

Mystery and Crime

  • CHARLES BROCKTON BROWN, THREE GOTHIC NOVELS Wieland, Arthur Mervyn, Edgar Huntly (Sidney Krause, editor)
  • RAYMOND CHANDLER, STORIES AND EARLY NOVELS The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window, Pulp Stories (Frank MacShane, editor)
  • RAYMOND CHANDLER, LATER NOVELS AND OTHER WRITINGS incl. The Lady in the Lake, The Long Goodbye, Playback (Frank MacShane, editor)
  • CRIME NOVELS: AMERICAN NOIR OF THE 1930s & 40s incl. The Postman Always Rings Twice, They Shoot Horses Don't They?, Nightmare Alley, I Married A Dead Man (Robert Polito, editor)
  • CRIME NOVELS: AMERICAN NOIR OF THE 1950s incl. The Killer Inside Me, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Pick-Up, Down There (Robert Polito, editor)
  • DASHIELL HAMMETT, COMPLETE NOVELS (Steven Marcus, editor)

Religion and Spirituality

  • AMERICAN SERMONS: THE PILGRIMS TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. (Michael Warner, editor)
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