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National Book Festival future uncertain

By Ken Herman | Friday, September 21, 2007, 01:00 PM

There’s no guarantee that the National Book Festival, a project started by Laura Bush, will continue after the Bushes leave town in January 2009, Librarian of Congress James Billington said Friday.

Seventy-one authors will be on hand next Saturday for the seventh annual version of the festival that draws tens of thousands of people to the National Mall.

“We hope it will live beyond the Bush administration,” Billington said in a Friday interview. “We can’t prejudge that. We certainly think it has become something of a national tradition.”

The event is privately funded. Billington said $1.75 million was raised for this year’s event. Major sponsors include Target, AT&T, the Amend Group, the Washington Post, AARP and others.

The first National Book Festival took place in 2001, the Bushes’ first year in the White House. Mrs. Bush also had been instrumental in starting the Texas Book Festival in 1996.

“Generally speaking, all White Houses and presidential spouses support reading. It’s kind of a no-brainer,” he said.

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