David Rubenstein Donates Additional $5 Million to National Book Festival
David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, announced his donation of an additional $5 million ($1 million per year for the next five years) to support the Library of Congress National Book Festival, bringing his total support since 2010 for the free public event held yearly since 2001 to $10.3 million.
The announcement came as the 2013 festival opened for the second of its two days on the National Mall. Event organizers estimated attendance at this year’s event at more than 200,000. This year’s festival featured talks and book-signings by 112 authors, poets and illustrators.
"The Library of Congress National Book Festival is a much-loved event that has brought the joy of reading to hundreds of thousands of people," Rubenstein said. "It allows them to meet authors in person, discover new books and explore new genres, and it makes reading exciting for children — an uplifting way to provide them with a crucial skill for living."
The Rubenstein gift helps ensure that the popular event — funded by sponsors — will continue.
"The Library of Congress gratefully accepts David Rubenstein’s generous gift," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "He is our longtime benefactor, a special friend of books and reading, and we are thrilled that he has provided another $5 million in support for this unique national event."
David M. Rubenstein in 2012 also provided $1.75 million over five years in support of a set of awards administered by the Library of Congress that recognize organizations, both in America and around the world, that effectively address illiteracy. Winners of the first awards in that program were announced at the festival on Sunday: Reach Out and Read of Boston; 826 National of San Francisco and PlanetRead of Pondicherry, India.
Sponsors of the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival also include Charter Sponsors the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Target, The Washington Post and Wells Fargo; Patrons the National Endowment for the Arts and PBS KIDS; Contributors AT&T and Digital Bookmobile Powered by OverDrive; and--in the Friends category--the Hay-Adams, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Small Press Expo (SPX). Thanks also to C-SPAN2’s Book TV, The Junior League of Washington and The Links.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may be accessed through its website, www.loc.gov.
