Book Festival Opens on Mall
By Erik Milster
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9– More than 70,000 people gathered on the National Mall Saturday to take part in the fourth annual National Book Festival hosted by First Lady Laura Bush.
The festival, organized by the Library of Congress, featured more than 70 award- winning authors, illustrators and poets, including several from Massachusetts. Children’s book authors Marc Brown and Patricia McLachlan and mystery writer Robert B. Parker were among the Bay State participants.
Authors were stationed in pavilions based on the genre of their work. As the event began at 10 a.m., Parker, Brown and six other authors appeared in their respective tents to talk to audience members and answer questions. Even before the authors kicked off the festival, hundreds of eager people had begun arriving on the Mall, some two hours early.
Fans filled just about every seat in the Mysteries & Thrillers Tent to listen to Parker, who entered doing an impression of Richard Nixon. He discussed a wide range of topics, including his upcoming projects and his creative process.
“I wake up every morning, and write 10 pages. I do that 5 days a week for 50 weeks a year,” Parker said. “Once I finish a project, I move on to another. It is actually quite mechanical.”
Parker, who was born and raised in Massachusetts and who lives in the Boston area, is most famous for his novels based on his Spencer character. Parker began writing Spencer novels in 1971 while teaching at Northeastern University and they have gone on to inspire the ABC television series “Spenser: For Hire” and two television movies.
Parker, who was acknowledged as the Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2002, joked about not going to Nova Scotia to see the filming of his next TV movie.
“I think I’ll sit this one out and end my streak of cameo apperances,” Parker said. “I just don’t think I want to travel to Nova Scotia in November.”
Brown, who has created more than 100 picture books for children, delighted a much younger audience than Parker’s in the Children’s Tent. Around 300 children and parents turned out for Brown’s morning appearance. A resident of Hingham and Marthas Vineyard, Brown is best known as the creator of Arthur the Aardvark whose cartoon TV show has won five Emmy Awards.
Brown asked kids to name their favorite character and he proceeded to draw each one on a large poster board while describing where he found the inspiration for each character.
“Arthur’s sister D.W. is a mold of my three sisters,” Brown said. “It was interesting living with three sisters and all of them come out in her personality and actions.”
This year’s festival was the first for MacLachlan. The Williamsburg author has penned many critically acclaimed books for children of all ages, most notably “Sarah, Plain and Tall.” Aside from appearing in the Childrens Tent and the book signing area during the afternoon, MacLachlan visited the Massachusetts Pavilion to talk with residents of the Bay State in attendance.
The Pavilion of States was one of the most popular attractions at the festival. Representatives from all 50 states distributed materials and talked about reading and literacy promotion programs in their home states. Visitors also could find out about home-state authors.
Robert Maier, director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, was just one of the volunteers representing the Bay State. He expressed joy in the number of of people who were visiting the state’s pavilion. “It is great to see people from Massachusetts stopping by the tent to learn more about authors and programs back home,” Maier said.
He explained that each state has played an important role in organizing and supporting the book festival over the last four years. “It really takes the efforts of all the states to make this happen and everyone has done an amazing job this year,” Maier said.
