The Library’s Pop Persona

171. Popular novelist David Baldacci has been one of the most frequent speakers at the Library’s annual National Book Festival, appearing in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2015. He visited the Library of Congress several times while writing The Collectors (2006), a thriller set partially in the Library that became his twelfth consecutive New York Times bestseller. Here he signs a book for a fan at the 2007 National Book Festival.

Throughout its 200-plus-year existence, the Library of Congress has faithfully chronicled American culture, so much so that the institution itself has become a symbol of who we are—free people who cherish knowledge. Its physical grandeur, priceless treasures, and accessibility to the public have won it a following in Hollywood, publishing, and the popular music industry. And it has extended its influence beyond its walls, through online exhibits, live-streamed events, and websites for educators, students, and researchers. No longer simply the “book palace” of Librarian Spofford’s dreams, it is a festival site, concert venue, protector and conserver of manuscripts and ephemera, and sometimes even a movie set.

Perhaps two dozen major films have been set in part at the Library of Congress. Six of the most popular are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Born Yesterday (1950), All the President’s Men (1976), National Treasure (2004), National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007), and J. Edgar (2011). Whether it be an idealistic senator (Mr. Smith), the self-educated girlfriend of a mobster (Born Yesterday), the Washington Post reporters who broke the story of the Watergate cover-up (All the President’s Men), an amateur historian who unveils secrets in the founding documents (both National Treasures), or an FBI director who was once employed at the Library as a messenger and clerk (J. Edgar), all these characters knew that the Library of Congress could aid them in their quests. With open access, miles of resources, and an untarnished reputation as a protector of democracy, it has played a small but heroic role in American cinema.

The Library manages to hold onto its integrity in popular literature, but often there is blood on the floor. Mystery novels that depict the Library of Congress—and occasionally its staff members—in some detail include Steve Berry’s The Lincoln Myth (2014); David Baldacci’s The Collectors (2006); two titles by former Library of Congress staff member Charles A. Goodrum, Best Cellar (1987) and A Slip of the Tong (1992); and Margaret Truman’s Murder at the Library of Congress (1999). Clearly there is more going on in the stacks than meets the eye in these intriguing tales of mayhem.

When it is not appearing in dramatic scenes, the Library is creating them. It hosts an annual book festival that, since its inception in 2001, has become wildly popular. The more than 100,000 attendees at the 2016 festival heard from 120 writers, poets, and illustrators. Herman Wouk, Stephen King, John Grisham, Toni Morrison, E.L. Doctorow, Louise Erdrich, and Marilynne Robinson are among the novelists featured in recent years, along with strong contingents of graphic novelists. Since 2014, the festivals have also featured poetry slams that draw great crowds. Additionally, Poets Laureate Robert Pinsky, Robert Haas, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Ted Kooser, Natasha Trethewey, and Juan Felipe Herrera have created special poetry projects that reach beyond their offices at the Library to inspire students and readers nationwide.

There has been a consistent “soundtrack” at the Library throughout its history. The Archive of American Folk Song, established in 1928, only three years after the first chamber music concert series took place in the Coolidge Auditorium, served as the core of today’s American Folklife Center. The Library commissioned Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, which premiered at the Library in 1944. A reprise performance of that work in 2016 was still exhilarating after more than 70 years. In addition to manuscripts by George and Ira Gershwin, the Music Division has rich collections of manuscripts from American composers John Philip Sousa, Victor Herbert, Irving Berlin, Richard Rogers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern, and Leonard Bernstein, among others. And beginning in 2007, the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, awarded by the Library to notable performers, has honored Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Carole King, and Willie Nelson, among others. In performances that have literally rocked the walls, these artists have delighted Library audiences and those who watched them broadcast on PBS.

The Library will continue to document and collect popular culture well into the future. Through special exhibitions and acquisitions, it will add to its amazing trove and offer it for the study and enjoyment of all visitors and users. And there is no doubt that creators of film and fiction will find future inspiration in what started out as a book room in the US Capitol but is now a beloved icon of American history and culture.

172. The Library is the setting for several scenes in the 1950 film Born Yesterday.