simply type the title or the author's name at the top left of the screen and click search. >> up next immemorial for the founder and co-owner of washington d.c.'s politics and prose bookstore who passed away on october 11th 2010 at the age of 74. she started the bookstore in 1984. speakers at her memorial include co owner barbara need an author's seymour hersh, alexander's upriver, and philip sorrow. this lasts about an hour. ..

>> i also want to thank the many publishers who, out of great respect to carla, contributed to this occasion. and so if you stay, which i hope you will for drinks and food, remember that it is penguin, harpercollins, simon & schuster, norton, perseus, random house, and mcmillan who are all providing for you. [applause] >> thanks so much. about 10 years into the life of politics and prose, carla arrived one morning and announced that david, that's

carla's husband who may talk later, david says that we are the world's greatest approximate yours. and she delivered that. she pronounced that with such great pleasure. made in part because of his hyperboles. but also because she thought david had articulated another facet of our facility. and so then we had come as i0ú recollect, an interesting conversation about our partnership. one crucial ingredient we felt was our ability to tolerate a lot of balls in the air, always knowing at least one was going to drop. [laughter] >> perfection was not -- was never a quality that either of us expected from the other

person. powerless best quality can also be our worst. we made the best operating instructions of our partnership. some people called our partnership ain't mashup which0ú is actually a pretty good, i thought, definition. [laughter] spirit in the last weeks of carla's life, i reminded her of our success at being the world's greatest approximators, and the sorrow that i felt about the upcoming definitive moment that could not be approximated, and that was death. i'm sorry. so i said to her, can't we just

approximate death? [laughter] >> and actually i felt at times that carla succeeded in approximating death, because i felt her presence so much in this store since she died. and especially today. thank you all for coming. [applause] >> climate and shield for those of you who don't have a program, and the reason i agreed to speak today which is very hard, is so my husband would have a chance. [laughter] >> i first met carla on new year's eve 1968. my husband, mark, and it would have worked together on vietnam

declined during the tumultuous democratic convention in chicago that year. they invited us to their soon-to-be but not quite yet famous new year's eve party. we had just moved back to d.c. after spending the fall election season in ohio, working on john gilligan's remarkable but ultimately unsuccessful campaign to be senator from ohio. prior to that we both worked on robert kennedy's tragic campaign presidency that spring. by new year's eve i was in need of new friends, new faces, and a new outlook on the democratic process. and there at just the right moment were the coin. when we bought a house they followed us and afterwards. a close friendship was formed. card was full of life, and bigger than life. she was funny and irreverent, and analytical and smoltz he,

and demanding, and and demanding. committed to making the world a better place and committed to caring for her friends and family. we love knowing aaron and ended his children and seeing david and carla, and instill their virtues and values and hopes and dreams in them as they go into town to an independent adult. for 40 years we shared babysitters, children, yardman, and recipes, and home renovations and parenting advice, and parents, and many, many great tennis full of laughs, disagreements and priceless anecdotes. we used to share these dinners with others, but we found it didn't leave us enough time to talk, so for the last 20 years or so it was just the four of us. the one exception was our at least yearly trip to baltimore to take carla's remarkable mother out to do what the of the

great treats. i lived through many carla transformations from community planner, when she called me down to witness its rebirth, to when she handed them dresses she had someone to our daughter amy. they lasted approximately one wash cycle. [laughter] >> i told her she should south of the cookbooks she wrote, 100 ways to spell bikini. [laughter] >> carla was not amused. to "salon" keeper when she would invite interesting people to her house on sunday afternoon, for good food and conversation, and he finally declared she now seems to have been destined from the very beginning to pursue, founder of politics and prose. i remember going to one of the many pre-bookstore meetings at the house where she was brain --

brainstorming and turned inventor. i suggested readers because i said, the store was for people who really read books, not for those who just bought them to put on their coffee table. our response to that, of course i'm going to sell those books. there's a big markup. [laughter] >> she taught herself use the computer, which was not second nature to any of us at that time. she taught herself to write a business plan. she research neighborhoods that could support a store, she borrowed money from anyone who had two extra times, and from some who didn't. and chevy unparalleled foresight unparalleled foresight and good judgment to see that she needed a superbly organized manager to address the areas in which she was less competent and less interested. when barbara meade applied for the job, i real partnership was born. it's impossible to imagine the store without the two of them

working together. so now we must imagine it and some new configuration. with new owners who we hope will nurture it, and thus in the same way that carla and barber did for more than 25 years. carla started her career as a committee planner but she ended it in something far more important, a community builder. in fact, she built a community, a business, and a family, and that's all of us. we are all the better for it. [applause] >> the incomparable literary constellation comprises of two stars come each and on wake indispensably elegant barbara and carla cohen.

every day and evening in politics and prose, all the conversations, all the discoveries, as keith said, a reprieve on the larger act companies, just inside this vast browsing library that sells its books, the home away from home it is for so many people. as i see it, every day and evening convinced the cultural inheritance of barber and carla's original vision. i think of the remarkable lives of iconic women in the realm of books. i think of the history of world-class bookshelves. at 5 a.m., the morning after carla passed, a young novice, a former student of mine now working at shakespeare and company in paris, of course found by sylvia beach, and carl and i discussed so the beaches wind up letters, telephone and said -- put a bunch of her

college on a speakerphone to say the news had reached them and they just want to chat a moment. so again, the permanent elegy begin. so many moments, so many stories, so many spontaneous conversations, so much coffee, so many riders coming through sitting in the back office of their. the 10,000 emotions. anyway, over the years i have saved a lot of notes from carla. one of my favorites, and i would had and i would have to say it's very representative, as you well know, carla less generous with opinion. -- carla was generous with opinion. and equally generous in revising your opinion. [laughter] >> as a particularly famous author had just published a novel, i dropped by the store, my almost daily visit of morning

writing to a cup of coffee, then is looking into the office i saw carla deeply engaged on the telephone, but she waved me close and gave me that big smile, and handed me a copy of this novel. and on my way out i read the note she tucked in the pages. we need to talk about this. now, that sentence for those of you who knew carla, was nice ingestion. [laughter] >> it was within a friendship. and i had this experience so often that i already begun wondering exactly what was carla's opinion. allow me to say passionate judgment. and in all honesty there could be a little, well, nervous anticipation, once in speaking about a novel i said, you know, i read that novel and i want to

propose marriage to the author. and carla just tilted her head a little bit and said, i wanted to throw the damn book against the wall. [laughter] >> but, you know, full agreement would've been perhaps less satisfying than partial. like conrad said, close reading is a matter of it meetings -- of admitting one's true nature. in that note though it's the word need that to me. need, like being deliriously in love, or overwhelmingly melancholy, to read in order to feel things deeply. in one of the many synchronicity's, well, irony is i suppose that happen in this bookstore all the time, a few

evenings ago when the doctor was here, introduced by mark, to speak about his biography of cancer, the upper of all maladies, and as the evening went on with perhaps some of the most heartbreaking -- heartbreakingly urgent and educated questions from the audience, i had heard in years, a whole evening and albert is to ideas. i looked over at mark and thought, and thought i had read in his expression, carla would have loved this. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is mary kay zuravleff, and this gathering reminds me of

said, oh, this is going to be one of those nights when we talk and cry together, isn't it? that's what many of the nights have been like at politics and prose, and especially this afternoon. like many of you i have been missing carla cohen since she got too sick to be here regularly. because this is where i saw her. i was very moved by the talk at her funeral service. and her family and friends told such hear stories about her whole lifetime and i got to know and love are better that day, which i was very grateful for. connection to carla is through politics and prose as a writer, reader, and a customer. any coffee drinker. so much coffee. carla was an exuberant, feisty, well read and well meaning person. and it was uplifting to be here in her company in building this bookstore she really did build a community. i've lived in this neighborhood in the same house for 24 years, and we didn't actually buy our

house because the bookstore was here, however i was originally coined the real estate ads and that's the house advertised with the kitchen amenities and the master bedroom suite, and the merged school district, and near politics and prose. [laughter] [applause] >> we are such added customers that my daughter asked can i have my amounts and go to the bookstore? and once after my son spent his money on a book and it is very same day, he came running downstairs with a brilliant idea. what if, he said, there was a place you could go, and rather than buy a book, you could just read it there, or maybe you could borrow it and take it home? if you promise to bring it back in other people can read the same book. [laughter] >> indeed. politics and prose is truly a destination bookstore, and i used to enjoy telling carla that it was my landmark. whenever i traveled, geneva,

london, houston, if someone asks me where you live in washington, i say do you know the bookstore, politics and prose? oh, absolutely. and i would report to carla the stories about a particularly wonderful staff member, or a particularly memorable reading. many specifically remembered her, often they remember her talking about the books they wanted to buy. [laughter] >> and choosing better books, according to her. as richard of booktv wrote i also appreciated carla's fierce honesty, especially in retrospect. [laughter] >> writers are desperate for evidence that the written word matters. specifically the words they write. our presence here, our gratitude, to carla is evident that the written word matters. carla cohen believe in the written word. she was passionate about the written word.

and she believes my written words mattered, and that as the poet said, made all the difference. so often when i come in, and many, many writers would say this exact same story, carla would greet me with such enthusiasm and a radiant smile, housed the next book coming? we can't wait to read it. if i was drinking coffee with a friend she would urge me on, so good to see. when you're done here, go home and write. [laughter] >> the idea that a reader is waiting to receive your work is enough to make a swig of coffee down and get back to your desk. her encouragement really meant the world to me. after my first novel was published, december the 50th anniversary with a shindig at the new public library, and i was happy to be invited to listen to the first string. those writers voices were already in my head, because i heard them here.

and so it was a thrill to file into the reception and see barbara and carla, the first string of booksellers also at this event. live in new york. authors all over the world clamor to read your come and a friend who came to the party with me was a rep for yale university press. the four of us had a blast dishing about we just heard and he was there, and afterward, my friend confided in me that she came for a sales rep event with carla. she was both overprepared and terrified. she said, you know, she actually reads the books. [laughter] >> and she specifically told me, she to me to task for camelia paglia, as if it were her fault. when my second novel was published carla cohen read the galleys and she called me at home. it reminded me of george eliot and eleanor lipman, she said. which was about the biggest price i could possibly hope for,

and it meant we got to have a wonderful conversation about george eliot. as a writer it doesn't get any better than that. you also appreciate when she introduced me, and i of course hoped she would mention george eliot, she said and said it's nice that mary kaye at this district usually done in the children's section with someone on her lap. [laughter] >> that measure of importance actually match my daughters assessment and the reading was a big deal because the biggest celebrity in her life, her montessori teacher, meant everything. carla encouraged by her example and her support to care deeply about what we do, i got a note recently from alex mcdermid was reminiscing about her. and i'm just going to read from her no because it's so lovely that i think mostly a thing and's office and minutes before reading. it's been my experience some booksellers use this time to worry out loud or maybe just prepared a writer for the worst. the weather is often discussed, rain, snow, or an exceptionally lovely evening that portends a

small audience. hints are sometimes talked about the event that weren't posted, or even debate about how well-known you are to the people in the area. you emerge from these that the podium and certain what he should immediately apologize to the people who have come, or weep. but carla would just sit with you and chat about family and friends, politics or some in the news. she had this confidence of a great hostess. she knew her staff, she knew her gas, and her manner made you believe she knew how delightful the next hour would be. and alice talks about exactly the same thing that's happened to so many of us. she said outside the great good fortune of carla be the first real person after editor and agent, and publisher to read my last novel. it was laced may the book wasn't to be published in september. i saw carla, in the first thing she said to me, her straightforward no-nonsense way

was, it's your best yet. i exhaled three months earlier and anticipated, a great time is pride, carla cohen with smart, engaging, imaginative and bighearted. she brought us all together, and i know that together we will continue to honor her. thank you. [laughter] >> my friendship with carla actually was a family friendship over kids. writing and journalism, et cetera, et cetera. here's the thing about card in a nutshell, is she loves me and i she was able to communicate. i love her too of course but she was able to dedicate this love. you knew you were loved by carla cohen. how she did it come how she had so much spirit, how she had so much love in her, it's pretty

amazing. she was full of love and i don't think there's anything else to say. [applause] >> hi, everyone. i want to thank barbara and mark for asking me to be your. i am alexander zapruder. i'm going to read. early memories of the collins and politics and prose. i was first pulled into the orbit when i was in high school when entering join my older brother matthew, who maybe are somewhere, and a fast friendship, which lasted to this day triple threat of brains and wit. and i became friends with their and there was a season around the time of my senior year in high school when we all hung out a fair amount on hollywood street. i distinctly recall being

impressed by the chaos, allergic to the black dogs and their hair all over the furniture. and most of all trying to keep up with the intellectual banter between the junior and senior members of the household. i had a vague memory but, frankly, i'm not entirely sure of my own of an impromptu dinner at holly street in which carla was moved to tears during an impassioned assessment of something, soviet jews, or something. the feeling was memorable. the delighted discourse, the particular freedom of ideas, a deep unapologetic investment of the world. in the late '80s politics and prose moved from the west to east side of connecticut. i have to confess that i didn't hope about my brother did. i was happy to steal his t-shirt which i still have commemorating the event. on the front, why did the bookstore cross the road? and on the back, to get to the other side. [laughter] for a long time before the newton crown and olsons or kramers if you are already supercool. but politics and prose broke the

mold. i remember walking into the coffeehouse for the first time struck by the funky retro furniture thinking, who put the couch in our chairs and a coffee shop? why are all the tables and chairs different sizes? what's up with these mix-and-match coffee mugs? little did i know that would become a trend. many years later in 2002 of my book came out. and by then getting everything in politics and prose, especially in the mr. veissi desirable bookselling month of april with something of a coup. not only did i stand and just as angry to a full house, but carla devoted the focus of that month newsletter to young washington area writers, a group that she courage and never lost interest income. card introduced me and sat reassuringly nearby in an armchair, beaming, not income as proud as if i were one of her own, which in a way i suppose i was. from that time on carla always treated me with it -- greeted me

with a bright smile. and what are you working on? then later, how are the children? pause, wait for it. so, what are you working on? [laughter] even when i was a working she asked me. she took an entirely for granted that someday i would get back to it. these little things help me through as a mother, so harried and frazzled. so far away from my writers self. she told me like most of us hear what you read and what not to read. in fact, i think she wants to the book at enhancing no, no. don't read that when. and pull the over the table to be something better. but far from undermining my confidence, she bolstered a. i thought she believed in me as she did so many of us here and elsewhere. and that comment coming from someone who is well read as wise and interested and committed to the race life as carla made more than she possibly could have realized. i had my share of memories of carla as we all do. and then there are the other

memories of this place that she and barbara created. i remember, exhausted husband and i walked up to politics and prose with our newborn daughter in her stroller and roamed around the books and fell into tears while she slept and i remember mornings in the coffeehouse with my brother, all of us come home from college, that time at a time when there's nothing to do but complain about your childhood dream until lunch. i spent many hours writing downstairs finding respite for the interruptions at home, finding comfort amid the buds of others talking, thinking, clicking away on their laptops. i remember the author reading. ones that really mattered. by writers who inspired me and made me want to keep on, who said little things that i carry with me. i remember my brother matthew reading his poems here, and it is carnegie and again looking approvingly on, surveying the crowd to make sure you get the nuances and laughed at the funny parts. i remember running into my pitch during the semi-annual members,

their arms piled high with books, happy smiles on their faces. i remember seeing our children sing and dance during storytime, chasing them around the rabbit hole, cuddling up to read a story. and i remember my beloved father, now gone, who loved this place and with whom i shared countless muffins and cups of coffee on cold winter days, on summer days come anytime at all. when i walk through these rooms i remember it all and i invite, i am grateful. like so many of us i have lived meaningful important joyful moments of my life in this place. and though these are not memories of carla, they are thanks to carla. because she imagine and then created a place not only to buy books, to learn, to think, to play, to be inspired, to be with family and friends, to be part of the wider world. it is not easy to build a place that fulfills its promise to

draw people to it time and again, that contained within its layers solitary of shared experience. but this is what trendiness. now to my memories i'll have to add to cart his bright smiles and warm hug. it makes my heart hurt just to say it. i will always treasure this same without carla. i will miss her, as we all will. [applause] 1 hi. i'm e.j. dionne, and i'm proud to join you for this meeting of one of america's greatest organizations, the coalition of all who loved carla. and it's actually a sister organization to another one called the coalition of all who love david. and i think if any of us is ever asked, are you now or have you ever been a member of either of

these coalitions, we will all probably say yes. thank you. we've heard about liberals you are said to love humanity but it's just individual human beings that can't stand. i'm not sure there's no one in this room like that, and i'm sure you don't know anyone like that. but i'm told such people exist. and that came to mind because no one could be more the opposite of that than carla. as everyone has testified already, carla truly loved people. she loves the people she knew, but she also loves people she had just gotten to know. i can say that because my kids felt her love in this bookstore. they love coming to politics and prose, because two things would happen. card would greet him warmly, and give them a big hug. and then she would take them down for a hot chocolate. they really like the hug, but they love of hot chocolate.

and when i told my kids i was coming here today, they were so happy that everybody was coming together today to honor this wonderful woman. i saw it with my mom who will be 97 years old, she was a branch library in a public library, the last 16 years of her work life. she retired at age 75. and when she visited she loved coming to politics and prose. whenever great joys in life were two of the joys that carla had. one was to find adult books they would like to she did actions they don't read that, read this, without any loss. unimpeded by the profit motive. but she also loved as carla did, to get kids to fall in love with books. i suspect it's true for hundreds of kids to this day, their memory will be of hot chocolate, warmth, and that will be forever

associated with books. i was talking to my wife about what to say tonight. and, of course, mary loved carla. there was a political consultant wants to go to politician nothing ever said to a parent about their children is ever recorded as exaggeration. and carla clearly knew that political consultant, whoever he was. but mary said, politics and prose wasn't a business. and we thought about it a little bit and we decide know, it was successful because it was a successful business because it was more than a business. it was a community organization. it was a neighborhood resource. sometimes i suspect it was an all-purpose social service center. i thought of politics and prose as some combination of sal lewinsky, walt whitman, john dewey, a little danny sullivan anna quinlan, and a lot of other fine novelists all added into

the mix. carla believe as you all know in democracy, and she also believes that citizens and democracy had an obligation to know what they were talking about. which is in a sense what this organization we are at, this bookstore, is devoted to. she would also let them know if she didn't think they knew what they were talking about. but she believed in real argument, which is something that would happen up at this point all the time between the person standing out there and the people out in the audience. and real argument is really different from a lot of what passes for argument these days. i was thinking about carla and i was thinking about one of my favorite essays, which is by the story christopher lasch. and it's an essay called the lost art of argument. and in real argument, he said we have to enter imaginatively into our opponents arguments if only for the purpose of refuting them. and we may end up being

persuaded by those we sought to persuade. david can tell us how often that actually happened with carla, but nonetheless i do think that she would agree with lasch is said that argument is a risky and unpredictable process. and, therefore, educational. and he added, if we insist on argument as the essence of education, we will defend democracy not as the most efficient, but as the most educational form of government, one that extends the circle of debate as wide as possible, and this forces all citizens to articulate their views, to put their use at risk, and to cultivate the virtues to clarity of thought and expression, and sound judgment. that's what happened in this bookstore day after day, week after week. carla was an extraordinary woman devoted to extraordinary causes.

but she never gave up. the great cause that she fashioned an election might come out the wrong way as happens sometimes. but she always believed that she could repair things. repair the world. she never gave up. she never surrendered. abraham has shown, the great jewish writer, said the key to the thirst for knowledge is not doubt but wonder. and i thought about carla. carla was a person who had a magnificent sense of wonder about the world. and we all have a sense of wonder about her, about her energy, about her love, about her commitment. when she's also become she tried to kill it. what she saw a thirst for knowledge she tried to fill it. and yes, when she saw bad arguments, she tried to replace them with something better. someone mentioned bobby kennedy earlier. i guess ann shields mentioned bobby can be. i thought bobby kennedy said something that is perfect about

carla. he said now is a time for you, not a time for life but a state of mind, a quality of the imagination, a preference for adventure over the love of these. carla is not with us here physically, but she is still in the midst. she still loves adventure. and yes, she is still young. thank you. [applause] >> my name is phyllis thoreau theroux, and i'm probably the only author in this room that >> i was first introduced to me.

and the first minute i have is things were different on the different in the cohen family. talking to each other. and i would say they were eight little skinny boys. were relatives come at he is out of there.2ú2ú2ú2ú [laughter]2a2a2ú2ú2a2ú >> i couldn't believe it.2ú2ú:ú

i come from california and i2ú&ú come from indistinct political2ú roots. and a sudden in the midst of a2ú family that had opinions, that2ú went pretty far down the line, to eight-year-olds. so, here i was in washington and i have to say i was leaving my own family behind, which at first i was more than glad to do, as things got come as i get older i realize i miss them terribly come and still do. but they really became one of the families that was sort of like surrogates to me. they invited me to their passover's into their shabazz. and carla and david letterman became sort of like a sweater can account for the extra sweater for my soul. and then in the midst of the

'80s, carla started politics and prose, and it quickly became the intellectual's living room in washington. and carla, for all intents and purposes, was the wooden stove giving off heat in the center. sometimes there's a little toonx hot for comfort. [laughter] >> for instance, i left unwillingly, i left washington in the mid '80s -- know, 1988. so when i came back to washington it really was my home away from home. one time i guess i've been away for a little longer than usual and a walk in, i said hi, carla. and she said, you've gotten so old. [laughter] >> and i said thanks, carla, i needed that. then she said can but we all or. [laughter]

>> cicerone said that the best armor of old age is a well spent life preceding it. and i would ask that carla had enabled so many of us to do the same thing. she created what's known as that third place between your house and your work. it was the third way for people went to go to hungry for ideas, for good writing, for the conversation, and the ease the loneliness that% of all human beings, no matter how many people there surround it with. finally, when i'm thinking about carla, and i laid awake this morning at four in number and try to think what i want to end with, or how can i really say something that might ring a bell with some of you here. the one thing carla had was this gifted delight. she had that ability to delight in others'. i remember when i would come in, she would look, when she would

see me and should take barbara, look who's here. and instantly i felt part of something larger and more vibrant than myself. well, in conclusion all i can say is, if carla were standing behind me i was a carla, look who's here. and see what a vibrant assembly you have created. >> hi. i'm mark lafromboise. i'm a staff every year come and like many of you i am a friend of carla's. the second to last time i got to see carla we had a wonderful conversation. he was struggling, her speech had slowed but you still bring much herself. she wanted to know, she wants to

know about anything going on in the store and with a big books were. after a while it was obvious she was growing tired psyche for kids and got to lead. she smiled and said, i hope i get to see you again, marker and then she added, i don't mean metaphysically. [laughter] >> i assured her that not in a million years when i thought she meant metaphysically. [laughter] >> but there aren't sufficient words to express how much i regret that i won't see carla again. but for me, and pressure from many of us, she is doing vital presence. i have noticed it as a voice over my shoulder when looking at a catalog, or examining an inventory card on a return. it's a voice telling me to be fearless, it will tell me to not care what anyone else thinks. it's a voice telling me to know the difference between the popular and which were imported a voice i hope you never stop hearing. and also one i'm hope i'm strong enough to be. since carla's illness, and

passing away and the public announcement of the pending sale of the store, many well-wishers have said to me and my coworkers, i'm sure, words to the effect just don't change, or promise you will stay just like you are. of course, i know what they mean and i know it's an expression of love and appreciation, when i hear don't change though i your card over my shoulder, change, change. in my imagination she is shouting never stop changing. with everything that's going on in the book business, we miss her imagination and foresight more than ever. a few years ago she decided to completely change the format of our events calendar. she wanted to be what it is now, a foldout that emphasized a month agree. i told her that people love her calendar. there's nothing wrong with it. she told me that they didn't have to be something wrong with something for us to try to change it. she would be fresh and keep it new. carla was all about change. she and barbara both were, and

the partnership work anyway that made a change possible, practical, and balance with the constraints of reality. when i considered moving here from northern colorado 13 years ago, i had done barber and carver -- carte. carla did more than open her arms for me. she opened her house. she said you will stay with us until you find a place to live so i did. i packed up my honda with my clothes, my computer and to farm cats, you're pretty all but aren't doing well. and never regretted for a minute she and barbara welcoming and kind of place one in this great bookstore. these are the things by entering presence -- impressions were carla at her wisdom and imagination and incredible generosity. i feel like i have left after passion for booking bookselling, but that was so much a part of her, it's like muscle and blood, and it's a part of us all. finally, i'm aware of the

pakistani representing not only myself but also p and p staff past and present. tributes like this make clear that carla was many things and aboard to lots of different people, from consuming passion, at least in the stage of her life. as when the owners of the store opportunity to work behind the info desk, answer telephones, make recommendations and help customers find what they were looking for. during the holidays both barbara carla was a bookseller, and and as a move for the holiday this year will be thinking of she would go from watching the numbers, and asked her why she subjected herself to

[laughter] to ring at the last sale of the day on december 24, i will be reminded of carla. and a great and positive productive way i hope it will be kind of sad, too. no matter how much she would want to be otherwise, i think there's just no getting around [applause] >> thank you all for coming. this is a fantastic celebration of carla's life. her lasting contributions, our passion and love for her. from people here from many different time zones, so i think it is a reflection of what people feel about carla, and want to continue feeling about carla. this has been a demanding year

for cohens, for barbara, for the staff here, for all of you. so i really want to thank the constituents of politics and prose, who was always there this past year with active and warm support. barbara for her leadership, for her understanding of what partnership is about, for keeping that going with carla through this whole illness. the staff, which exercised your leadership with visits, good cheer, positive energy, hot interest, lots of food. the writers who sent notes, who are present, full of laughter, had their own stories. the publishers and/or editorial

workers, marketing, the salespeople, constant continuing attention. and you, the supporters, yes, you were customers but just as politics and prose is more than a bookstore, you were more than customers. you are a people to converse, they are sources of ideas, who make thoughtful suggestions, give us feedback, positive and critical. and you help anchor us. you are engaged participaparticipant in the adventure of being part of a lively and vibrant community. and we thank you. and it will continue. market referenced it was fun. carla was not the greatest with numbers. so i thought when the stores,)pb

the sales were high or low, i'm not sure she always got it right. [laughter] >> but i would question her, and then know that there were other sources to go to. [laughter] >> but it was fun. those were the last words of carla, captured by her son, aaron, in his eulogy in his own writings. and it was fun refers to her life. her life with her family, her parents, and grandparents, her oldest brother, mark, is here, and her two sisters are here, as is her 100 year old mother, as you know, his birthday card a toasted six ago today. it refers to our children and our grandchildren, and today we celebrate that fund that is the essence of her life in politics

and prose. the joy of her partnership with barbara, and are deep and loving relationships with the staff. seven days out of seven card would say, this was the best job i ever had. if she was slower than usual on a given day, i would say it's the best job you ever have to. and off she went. carla was not unlike. those of you who know her know she was not an early riser. nothing gave her more attention than a 9:00 plane. so no earlybird, she never got home early. and invariably later than she said. i learned to be patient. carla was an eclectic and reader in her 26 years i've politics and prose. she developed an interest in american history, particularly intellectual history.

south asian literature and graphic novels, just to name a few. her love of reading of course drew her to others. including our young grandchildren. georgia told me yesterday that when she reads, she's seven years old, she hears not me reading to her. nine is of course the name our grandchildren culture. the same name she called her own maternal grandmother. part of what made it fun was carla's comfort with ideas, which she developed city in the adult political conversation with her mother and father convened at home in baltimore. after first meeting, which goes back to 1956, included our admiration for orwell. animal farm, "homage to

catalonia," the road to wigan pier anchored us. carla ever pragmatic on political and policy choices, we had lots of fun watching the house debate on health care. she saved her choice of comments for the naysayers, and she tolerated my running commentary on the members i admired, and the ones i didn't. but she never lost her sense of standards. going against the herd and dominant views, and i want to tell one quick story. carla went to antioch in its heyday as a progressive thinking institution. and someone at antioch wanted to show dw griffith's birth of the nation. got a lot of students were outraged and thought they should ban the movie from being shown. carla covers a civil rights stallworth, fought to show the

movie on civil liberty, and she won. carla loves hosting events. -- carla loves hosting events. in recent years i saved her introduction that she wrote. she loved to write them as they summarize books and put them in a larger context, in a precise and economical way. her last event introducing came a day after her mother's 100th birthday. it was the novel, my name is mary sutter. robins first novel. and like you, mary kaye, and many others, she was encouraging of young writers, whether fiction or nonfiction, as we know with alex. the story, my name is mary sutter is the story of a civil

war surgeon's helper, a woman too young to be a nurse who wanted to be a surgeon. now, as appropriate that not only was robin a new novelist, but our own daughter is a hospice nurse who spent this last year constantly being with her presence, and loving and caring daughter, and a nurse. and that was hard. i miss our talking about our day, the warm spots of the day, the outrages, the annoyances, what we learned, what we would do differently. our grandson asked me who's taking care of me now? i tried to assure him about the incredible support from family and friends, and that impd well

and healthily. i would see he's in the camp of trust, but i better verify. [laughter] >> there's lots of stores about politics and prose. i used to travel outside of the country, and would come back with stories like the time going down an escalator in beijing, and someone coming up with a politics and prose bag. it might've had shoes, but at one time it had books. talking about politics and prose with people who spend time here and the american club in bangladesh, eager to come back to their home so they could visit here again. overhearing a conversation in the tube in london our last visit which people were discussing an event at politics and prose, who didn't know me,

and it was the piccadilly line. and that gave great roger -- that gave great pleasure. just last week in philadelphia where i was at meetings, to people whom i didn't know and didn't know me, were telling someone who's moving to washington why they have to hang out at politics and prose. and told about their own experience of having moved to washington in the clinton years, stayed, and having had the joy of hangout at politics and prose. and just this week at a public event, someone told me, he was talking about politics and prose with another book person in moscow, in moscow, idaho. [laughter] >> so these stories were endless, and they gave us great pleasure. and sometimes carla would say, enough, enough, but i really gave us great pleasure.

the future. the outpouring of love and respect for carla on the web, your presence here, and notes to barbara and me, and staff members, conversations on the street reinforces a measurably the importance of policy and prose as an institution, as a resource for ideas, as a public space that is self-evident, that fellas refer to the third place, interestingly enough in conversation before the event began, that conversation came up or than once, and it's a special kind of public space that makes it, that makes it so important and valuable. our son, aaron, shared his ideas

with carla about the future in animated conversations. about politics and prose, as it disseminates ideas, it's anchored by books in a physical space. he is afraid capturing his generation better than we could, he is jim for the mind. politics and prose will continue. barbara and i are dedicated to doing our very best, and even more, to have a new owner or owners passionately believe in the values and mission and legacy of politics and prose. that means it embraces the value of ideas and the importance of community. it would be people who can't sustain the store, and recognize that service of the knowledge and dedication of the staff are priceless assets. this is a staff that is the envy of all others in the independent

book business. and it's the staff that brings the dedication and imagination that carla and barbara fostered. we will be looking for a new owner, or owners, he will have the dedication and imagination that carla and barbara had when they started, and continue. it would be people who can adapt to a changing nature of the book business, and communication, while recognizing that public space is essential. book events are essential. courses are essential. book clubs are essential. and so much else is, that would be a permanent anchor. it was fun. it is fun, and it will be