>> good afternoon. this is just a wonderful out pouring. he thank you to all of you for coming to this tribute to carla. i especially have to have knowledge edythe furstenberg, carlos brother was 100 years old who was sitting right here.

[applause] edith drove over from baltimore. i also want to thank the many publishers who have great respect to carla contributed to this occasion. and so at the state, which i hope you will, for drinks and food. remember that it's penguin, harpercollins, simon & schuster, norton perseus, random house and macmillan who are all providing today. [applause] thanks so much. about 10 years into the life of politics and prose, carla arrived one morning and announced that david, that is carla's husband who will be talking later, david says edward the world's greatest approximate

errors and she delivered that. she pronounced out with such great pleasure, maybe in part because karla thrived on hyperboles. [laughter] but also because she thought david had articulated and other facile at a very synergy. and so, then we had come as i recollect, an interesting0ú conversation about our partnership. one crucial ingredient is our ability to tolerate a lot of in the air, always knowing at least one was going to drop. perfection was never a quality that either of us expect it from the other person. carla is much in our best

qualities can also be our worst remains the best operating instructions for partnership. some people call that partnership a man shop, which was actually a pretty good, i thought, definition also. [laughter] in the last weeks of carla's life, i reminded her of her success as being the worlds greatest approximate as an aside the sorrow that i felt about the upcoming definitive moment that could not be approximated and not least. sorry. so i said to her, can't we just approximate death? and actually, i felt at times

that car looks succeeded in approximating death because i felt her presence so much since he died and i feel it especially today. thank you all for coming. [applause]a8 >> i'm and shields who doesn't have a program that would speak so my husband would have a chance. [laughter] i first met carla on new year's eve 1968. my husband mark and david had worked together on the vietnam peace plank during that tumultuous democratic convention in chicago that year. and they divided us to their

soon-to-be but they're not quite 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 reelect did senator. we both worked on robert kennedy's campaign. and by new year's eve, i was in need of new friends, new faces and a new outlook on the democratic process. and adjust her right moment for the collins. when we bought a house in northwest washington, the collins follows is soon afterwards. a close friendship is formed. carla was full of life and bigger than life. she was funny and irreverent and analytical and schmaltz be in demanding and undemanding, committed to making the world a

better place and committed to caring for her friends and family. we love knowing the children and seeing david in carla and still their virtues and values and hopes and dreams in them as they grew into talented and independent adults. through 40 years we shared babysitters in children and recipes and home renovation and parenting in ice and many, many great generous full of laughs, disagreement and priceless anecdotes. we used to share these dinners with others, but we found it didn't leave us enough time to talk. over the last 20 years or so it was just the four of us. the one exception was or at least yearly trip to baltimore to take carlos remarkable out to dinner, one of the great treats. i lived through many transformations from community

plan which he called me to anacostia to witness its rebirth, to seamstress when she handed down to ease is down to her daughter amy. it lasted approximately one wash cycle. [laughter] the cup book author. i told her she should title the cookbook she wrote, 100 ways to spell zucchini. [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 into finally the career she now seems to have been bested from the very beginning to pursue, founder of politics & prose. i remember going to one of the pre-bookstore moving at the cohens house where she was brainstorming names. i suggested readers because i said the store was for people who read books, not for those

who thought them to put on their coffee table. her response to that was, of course i'm going to sell those books. there's a big market. [laughter] she taught herself to use a computer, which was not second nature to any of us at that time. she taught herself to write a business plan. she researched neighborhoods that could support a store. she bred money from anyone who had two extra dimes and from some who did. and she had the 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 that job, a real partnership was born. it's impossible to imagine the store without the two of them working together. for now we must imagine that with some new configuration.

the new owners who we hope will nurture and the same way that carla and barbara did for more than 25 years. carla started her career as a community planner wishing and it's something far more important, a community builder. in fact, she built a community, a business and a family that@@ includes all of us and were all the better for it. [applause]ax the incomparable literary constellation comprised of two stars, each in their own way indispensably elegant, barbara and carla cohen. every day and evening at politics & prose, all the conversations, all the

discoveries, as keith said, are reprieved from the larger agonies. just to be 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 contains the cultural inheritance of barbara and carlos original vision. i think of the remarkable likes of iconic woman in the realm of books. i think of world-class bookshops. at 5:00 a.m., the morning after carla passed, a young novelist, a former student of mine now working shakespeare shakespeare company in paris, of course funded by sylvia beach. carla knight discussed her volume of letters, telephone and put a bunch of her colleagues on speakerphone, to say that the news had reached them and they just wanted to chime a moment. and so again the permanent elegy

begin. so many elements, so many stories, so many spontaneous conversations, so much coffee, so many writers coming through, sitting in the back office they are the emotions. over the years i saved a lot of notes from carla. one of my favorites and i'd have to say it's fairly representative good as you well know, carla was generous with opinion. and equally generous and revising your opinion. [laughter] well, as a particularly famous author had just published a novel, i drop by the store, my almost daily visits after a morning of writing. a cup of coffee. been looking into the office i saw carla deeply engaged on the

telephone, but she waved me close and given that big smile and handed me a copy. on my way out i read the note chetek in the pages. we need to talk about this. now, that sentence for those of you who knew carla was not a suggestion. it was a fait accompli but then friendship. and i had this experience so often that i've begun wondering exactly what was carla's opinion. allow me to say passionate judgment. and all honesty that there can be a little nervousness -- nervous anticipation. once in speaking of a novel i said, you know, i read that novel and i wanted to propose to the author. and carla just tilted her head a little bit and said, i wanted to throw the book against the the

wall. [laughter] but you know, full agreement -- full agreement would've been less less satisfying than partial agreement. click on that side, close reading as a matter of admitting -- of admitting one's true nature. and not note though, it's the word needs to cut to me. neat, like being deliriously in love are overwhelmingly melancholy. to read an order to feel things deeply. in one of the many synchronicity's, while ironies i suppose, that happened in this bookstore all the time. a few evenings ago when dr. mukherjee was here,

introduced by mark, to speak about his cancer, of all the formalities. the evening went on with some of the most heartbreaking, urgent and educated questions i've heard in years. the whole evening and alertness to ideas. i looked over to mark and thought and thought i had read in its expression, carla would have loved this. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is mary kay zuravleff reading in which the first question from the audience she said this is going to be one of those nights when we talk and cry together, isn't it?

and that is what many of the nights have been like at politics & prose and especially this afternoon. many of you, i have been missing carla cohen since she got to sit to be here regularly because this is where i saw her. i was very moved by the talks at her funeral service and when her family and friends told such dear stories about her whole life. i got to know and love her better that day, which i was very grateful for. my connection to carla is through politics & prose, as a writer, reader and a customer and a coffee drinker. so much coffee. carla was an exuberant, feisty, well read and well meaning person and it was 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 a house because the bookstore was here. however, has recently joined the real estate add-in i thought a house advertised with the

kitchen amenities and the master bedroom suite and the merged school district and mere politics & prose. where such are the customers and my daughter asked, can i have my allowance and go to the bookstore? once after my son to spend his money on the book and read the the same day came down 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. and then other people could read the same book. [laughter] indeed. politics & prose is truly a destination bookstore and i used to enjoy telling carla that it was my landmark. wherever i travel, geneva, london, key west, houston. if someone asked me where do you live in washington?

i say, dean of the bookstore politics & prose? absolutely. and then i would report to carla there is stories of a particularly wonderful staff member or reading. many specifically remembered her. often they remembered her talking them out of the books they wanted to buy and choosing better books according to her. as richard hollow roads, put tv and i also appreciated her fierce honesty, especially in retrospect. writers are desperate for evidence that the written word matters, specifically the words they write. our presence here are attitude to carla is evident that the written word matters. carla cohen believes in the written word. she was passionate about the written word and she believed my written words matter. and that is the poet says, has made all the difference.

so often when i come in and many, many writers will play the exact same story. carly would greet me with such enthusiasm in her radiant smile. how is the next book coming? i cannot wait to read it. if i was drinking coffee with a friend, she would urge me on. so good to see you. when you're done here, go home to write. the idea that a reader is waiting to receive your work is enough to make you sweat that coffee down and get back to your desk. her encouragement really meant the world to me. just after my first novel was published, they celebrated their anniversary with the new york public library and is happy to be invited to get to listen to assess used for string, don mcphee, and many more. those riders voices were already in my head because i had heard them here. and so, it was a thrill to file into the reception of the barbara and carla, the first

string of booksellers also at the event, life in new york. authors all over the world clamored to read here as a friend you came to that party with me with a rep for yale university press or the four of us just had a blast dishing about what we just heard and who was there. and then afterward come my friend confided in me that when she came for a sales representative carla, she was both overprepared and terrified. she said, you know, she actually reads the books. [laughter] she specifically told me, she took me to task for camille paglia as if it was her fault. when i second was published she read the galleys and called me at home. it reminds me of george eliot and elinor lipman she said, which was about the biggest praise i could possibly hope for and that meant we got to have a wonderful conversation about george eliot. as a writer, it doesn't get any better than not. and you'll also appreciate she

introduced me and i hope she can mention george eliot, she said instead, it's nice to have mary kay upstairs. she's usually in the children's section with someone in her lap. [laughter] .measure of importance actually matched my daughter's assessments, and that the reading was a big deal because the biggest celebrity in her life, her montessori teacher came to the reading. carla encouraged us by her example in her support to care deeply about what we do. and i got a note recently from alice mcdermott to his reminiscing about her and i'm just going to read from her note because it is so lovely. i think mostly sitting at carla's office in the minutes before reading. it's been my experience some booksellers use this time to worry out loud or maybe just repair the writer for the worse. the weather is often discussed, rain, snow, or an exceptionally lovely evening that portends a small audience. hence there sometimes announcements that didn't make it into the paper or weren't

posted. the event debates about how well-known you are to the people in the area. you emerged from these into the light of the podium, uncertain whether you should initially around them. but carla would just sit with friends or politics or something in the news. she had to find confidence of a great hostess. she never staff, her gas and she knew early stir men are made to believe she knew how delightful the next hour was going to be. then alice talks about exactly the same thing that happened to so many of us. she's that i also do great good fortune to carla be the first real person after editor and agent and publisher to read my last novel. published until september and i saw carla at a dinner during the booksellers convention. the first thing she said to me and are straightforward no-nonsense way was this her best yet. i axtell per month earlier

a book she prius carla hearted. she brought us all together and i know that together we will continue in her honor. [applause] >> my friendship with carla actually was a family friendship over kids at the school and we and journalism, et cetera, et cetera. here's the thing about carla in a nutshell is the she loves me and i knew it. she was able to communicate. i loved her too of course, but she was able to communicate this love. you knew you were loved by carla cohen. how she did it, how she had so much spirit, how she had so much love and i was pretty amazing. she was full of love and i don't think there's anything else to

say. [applause] barbara and mark zapruder -- i want here about some my early memories of the colons of politics & prose. i was first pulled into the orbit when aaron joined my older brother matthew and arthur burrus who may be here somewhere. in a vast friendship, which lasts to this day, a triple threat of brains and wit. then i became friends with parents cousins there and there was a season around the time of my senior year in high school when we all hung out a fair amount at the house on holly street. i do think being impressed by the chaos, allergic to the black dogs in her hair all over the furniture and most of trying to

keep up with the intellectual banter between the junior and senior members of the household. i have a vague memory that frankly i'm not entirely sure my own of an impromptu dinner at holly street and which carla was moved to tears during an impassioned discussion about some name. another specific feeling an almost memorable, delight and discourse, in particular freedom of ideas, apologetic investment in the world. in the late 80s, politics & prose move to the west and east side of connecticut. i have to confess that i didn't help, but my brother did and i was happy to steal his t-shirt, which i still have commemorating the event on the front of the book store right across the road and on the back to get to the other side. [laughter] for a long time before then, there've been, books a million or maybe creamers if you are already supercool. the politics & prose are the mold. i remember walking into the coffee house for the first time,

start thinking who puts a couch couch and armchairs in the coffee shop? are the tables and chairs different sizes and what is up with these mismatched coffee mugs? little did i know that would become a trend. many years later in 2002, my books out which people just cannot buy them getting a reading of politics & prose, especially in the mysteriously desirable bookselling month of april was something of a coup. not only do they stand injustice place and read to a full house, but carla devoted the focus of that month's newsletter to young washington area fighters, a group she unfailingly urged and never lacked interest even if it was reputation. carl introduced me and sat thought reassuringly nearby in a chair, beaming, nodding, as part of the fire whenever a commotion way i suppose i was. from that time on, carla always greeted with a bright smile, twinkly eyes, alex, how are you? and unfailingly, what are you working on?

and later, how are the children? pause, wait for it. so, what are you working on? [laughter] even when i wasn't working, she asked me. she took entirely for granted i would get back to it in this helped me form a true line in the early days as a mother so harried and frazzled, so far away from a writer self. she also told me like most of us hear what you read and what not to read. in fact i think she actually wants to the book out of my hands say no, no, don't read that one and pulled me to a table to hand me something better. far from undermining the confidence, she bolstered it. i fell she believed me if she did so many of us here and elsewhere in coming back from zone as well read, his wife interested and committed to literary lives of carla, that more than she possibly could have realized. i have my share of memories for carla as we all do and then there are the other memories of this place that she and barbara created. our ever home exhausted husband

and i walked up to pnp with their newborn daughter and her stroller and roamed around and fell into chairs to read while she slept. i remember mornings in the coffee house, with my brothers, all of us home from college at that time on a time when there is nothing to do but complain about her childhood and drink coffee until lunch. i spent many hours writing downstairs, finding respite from the interruptions at home, finding comfort among others talking, thinking, clicking away on their laptop, too. i remember the author readings, ones that really mattered. by writers who inspired me and made me want to keep on, just little things they carry with me. i remember my brother matthew reading his poems here and there is carla again i'm a look, surveying the crowd to make sure they get the nuances and laugh at the funny parts. i remember running into my parents in the senate in november sale, or 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 wisdom ushered countless muffins and cups of coffee i'm a talking and laughing on cold winter days, on warm summer evenings, anytime at all really. when i walked through these rooms, i remember it all and i moved from aggrieved, comforted and grateful. like so many of us, i have been 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 imagined and created a place not only to buy books, but 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 could taint within a layers of solitary and shared experience, but this is what

politics & prose is. now my share of memories you can see his bright smile and warming hut. it makes my heart hurt just to say it. i will always treasure this place, but it will never be the same without carla. i will miss her as we all will. [applause] >> hi, i am e.j. dionne and i a% proud to join you for this meeting of one of america's greatest organizations, the coalition of all who love carla. and it is 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 third of either of these coalitions, we will all probably say yes. thank you.

we've heard about liberals who are said to love humanity. it's just individual human beings they can't stand. now i'm sure there's no one in this room like that. and i'm sure you don't know anyone like that, by am told such people exist beard and that came to mind because no one could be more the opposite of that than carla. as everyone has testified already, carla truly loves 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 loved coming to politics & prose because two things would happen. carlo would greet him warmly and give them a big hug. and then she would take them down for a hot chocolate. they really like a hug, but they love the 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 sat with my mom who would be 97 years old if she were still around. she was a branch library in any public library in the last 60 years of her work life. she retired at age 75. when she visited, she was coming to politics & prose. whenever great joys in life were two of the jury for carla. one was the adults books they would like. she could actually say, don't read that, read this without any loss of income, be not a public institution, unimpeded by the profit motive. but she also loved, as carla did come in to get kids to fall in love with books. i know in the case of my kids and i suspect it's true for hundreds of kids in this neighborhood, their memory will be of hot chocolate, warmth and that will be forever associated with her looks. i was talking to my wife mary about what to say tonight. of course very loved carla, too.

there was a political consultant who once told the politicians, not the never say to a parent about their children is never regarded as an exaggeration. and carla clearly knew that political consultants, whoever he was. mary said, you know, politics & prose wasn't a business. we thought about it a little bit and decided 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 & prose of some combination of solid ski, walt whitman, john dewey, baby furniture thrown in, in equipment and a lot of other fine novel if all added into the mix. carlo believed, as you well know and democracy. and she also believed that citizens in democracy had an

obligation to know what they were talking about, which is in a sense what this organization were at this bookstore is devoted to. she would also let them know if she didn't think they knew what they were talking about. she believed in real argument, which is something that would happen up at the podium all the time between the person standing up there that people out of the audience. real argument is really different from a lot of what passes for argument these days. i was thinking about carla and one of my very favorite essayist, which is by the historian, christopher lasch. it's an essay called the lost art of argument. and in real argument i'm a lasch said, we have to enter imaginatively into her opponents arguments, if only for the purpose of refuting them. we may end up being persuaded by those we sought to persuade. but david can tell us how often that actually happened with

carla. but nonetheless, i do think she would agree with lasher 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 widely as possible and does force us all citizens to articulate their views, put their views of risk and to cultivate the virtues of eloquence, clarity of thought and expression and sound judgment. that's what happens in this bookstore day after day, week after week. a great -- you know, carla was an extraordinary woman devoted to extraordinary causes, but she never gave up. a great cause she cared about might suffer a setback, and election might come out the wrong way. that does happen sometimes.

but she always believed that she could repair things. she was a fixer, not a rocker. repair the world, she never gave up, she never surrendered. abraham daschle, the great jewish writer said the key to the thirst for knowledge is not doubt, but wonder. and i thought about carla. carlo was a person who had a magnificent sense of wonder about the world. and we'll have a sense of wonder about her, but her energy, her love, commitment. were she saw suffering she tried to heal it. where she sought a thirst for knowledge, she tried to halt the river she thought better arguments, she tried to replace with something better. someone mentioned bobby kennedy earlier. i guess and shields mentioned bobby kennedy. i thought bobby kennedy had said something that is perfect about carla. he said now is the time for you, not a time and life, but a state

of mind, equality of the imagination, a preference for venture over the love of these. carla is not here with us physically, but she is still in our minutes. she still loves adventure and yes she is still young. thank you. [applause] >> my name is phillis theroux and i'm probably the only author in this room that can say that carla didn't like all of my [laughter] faces in front of me. what i call the middle kingdom

birth or something like that on things were little different on saw two little children who on a pure just talking to each other. but they were relatives. i don't think i give the speaker mccormac another year before he's out of there.2ú2a2ú2ú2ú [laughter]2ú2ú2a2ú2a2ú i come from california and i2ú2a

come from indistinct political2ú roots. and i was suddenly in the midst of a f2úamily that had opinions, that went pretty far down the2ú8 line, to an 8-year-old.nx so, here i was in washington. and i have to say, is leaving my my own family behind, which at first i was more than glad to do.nx but as things got -- as i got older i realized i missed them terribly and still do. but the collins and furstenberg's really became one of the families that were sort of like surrogates to me. they invited me to their skaters and their passover is the shabazz. carla and david's living room became like a sweater, sort of an extra sweater for my soul. and then in the midst of the 80s, carla started politics & prose. and it quickly became the

intellectual's living room in washington. and carla, for all intents and purposes was giving off heat. sometimes it was a little too hot for comfort. last night for instance, i left unwillingly i left washington in the mid-80s. now, 1988. so when i came back to washington, it really was my home away from home. at one time -- i guess i've been away for a little longer than usual. i walked in, said hi, carla. she said philly, you've gotten so old. [laughter] and i said thanks, carla. i needed that. and then she said, but we all are. cicero said that the best armor of old age is a well spent life

preceding it. and i would add that carla has enabled so many of us to do the same thing. she created what is known is that third place between your house and your work. it was the third place where people went to go who are hungry for ideas come up for good writing, for good conversation and to sort it used to ease the loneliness that descends upon all human genes, no matter how many people they are surrounded with. finally, when i'm thinking about carla and i sort of lay awake this morning at four in the morning thinking what do i want to end with or how can i really say some things that might ring a bell with some of you here. i thought, but one thing carla had with this gift of delight. she had that ability to delight in others'. i remember when i would come in, she would look -- she would see me and say 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 that carla were standing behind me, i was a carla, look who's here and see what a vibrant assembly you have created. [applause] >> hi, i am mark laframboise, a staff member here and like many of you, a friend of carless. the second to last time i got to see carla we had a wonderful conversation. her speech has flowed in her body, too, but she was so very much herself. she wanted to know about everything going on at the stored with the big bucks were. after a while it was obvious that she was growing tired, so i gave her a kiss and got up to

leave. she smiled and said, i hope i get to see you again, mark. and then she added, i don't mean metaphysically. [laughter] i assured her that not in a million years would she thought she meant metaphysically. last night that there are sufficient words to first, democrat but i won't see carla again. for me are pretty sure for many of us she is still a vital presence. i've noticed is the voice over my shoulder when looking at a catalog or examining an inventory for creating a return. it's a voice telling me to be fearless, a voice telling me to not care what anyone else thinks. the voice telling me to know the difference between a popular and truly important spirit of voice i hope to never stop. and also one i hope i'm strong enough to heat. since carless illness and passing away in the public announcement of attending scale of the stork on many

well-wishers are said to me and my coworkers to ensure to the effect, just don't change or promise to 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, your carla over my shoulder the loudest. 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 in forsyth or the never aired a few years ago she decided to completely change the format of our events calendar. she wanted it to be what it is now, a foldout that emphasizes the great. i told her people of our calendar is there something wrong with it. and she told me that there didn't have to be something wrong with something for it to be time to change it. keep it fresh and keep it to. carla was all about change. she and barbara both were in a partnership that worked in a way to make change possible, practical and balance the constraints of reality.

when i considered moving here from northern colorado 13 years ago, i don't barbara and carla a little 3-d functions. carla did more than opened her hours for me, she opened her house. she said to stay with us until you find a place to live. so i did. i talked to my honda with my clothes, computer and to colorado farm cats, were pretty old now, but still doing well, thanks and haven't regretted it for a minute. she and barbara welcome to mean and funny place for me this great book story. so these are the things my enduring prescience of carlo, her extraordinary humor, wisdom and imagination and incredible generosity. i feel like i somehow left out her passion for books and bookselling, but that was so much a part of muscle and blood and it's a part of all of those things. finally, i'm more of the fact i'm standing here representing not only myself, but also pnp status past and present. it's clear she was important to

us to different people for consuming passion, at least in the states your life with bookselling as one of the owners of the store, she was pulled in many directions, but never let go of the opportunity to work in the input us, answer telephones can't make recommendations and help customers find what they're looking for. during hollidaysburg and carla were in the fourth outfielder after closing the door and so yes responsibilities bookseller and reclaim her as the time from staff lunches, comparing daily totals you should go from ecstasy to other deduction watching the numbers. asked why she subjected yourself out whatever was. fun. [laughter] tübingen at the last sale of the day and a four, will be reminded

of carla. and a great and positive. will be kind of sad, too pedometer, should want to be otherwise, i did dishes no getting around it. [applause] >> thank you all for coming. this is a fantastic celebration of carless life. her lasting contributions, her passion and love for her. there are 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 the cohens, for the staff here, for all of you. so i really want to thank the

constituency of politics & prose, who was always there this past year with dave and warm support. her brother, for her leadership, for her understanding of a partnership is about, for keeping that going with carla through this whole illness. the staff, which exercised their leadership with this it, they cheered, positive energy, high interest, lots of food. the writers who sent their note, were present, were full of laughter, had their stories. the publishers in their editorial workers, marketing the

salespeople, constant continuing attention. in either supporters, as fewer customers, just as politics & prose is more than a bookstore, you are more than customers. fewer people who converse, who are sources of ideas, who make thoughtful suggestions, give us feedback, positive and critical can you help anchoress. you are engaged participants in the adventure of being part of a lively and vibrant community and we thank you. and it will continue. mark referenced it was fun. the stores -- the sales were high ox low, i'm not sure if she always got it right.

[laughter] but i would question her and know there were other sources to go to. 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 for their family, her parents, her grandparents, her oldest brother, marcus here and her two sisters and in a late are here as is their 100 year old mother as you know, edith furstenberg, whose birth date code toasted six months ago today. it refers to her children and our grandchildren and to me.ç today we celebrate that fun that is the essence of her life with politics & prose. joy for partnership with barbara in her deep and loving

relationships with staff. seven days out of seven, carla would say this was the best job i ever had. if she was slower than usual on a given day, i would say it the best job you ever had and off she went. carla was an al-anon delurk. those of you who know her know she was not an early riser. nothing gave her more tension than a nightclub plane. so note earlybird, she never got home early and invariably later then she said. i learned to be patient. carla was an eclectic and captive reader and a 26 years at politics & 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 chorister

through to others, including area grandchildren. george had told me yesterday that when she read she is seven years old, she hears nonreading to her. nonny is of course the name our grandchildren called her come the same name she called her own maternal grandmother. part of what made it fun was carless comfort with ideas, which she developed sitting in the adult political conversation that her mother and father convened at home in baltimore. our first meeting, which goes back to 1856, 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 choices comments for the naysayers and she tolerated my running commentary on the members i admired the ones itunes. but she never lost her sense of standard. going against the herd and dominant views. and i went to one quick story. kailua to antioch in its heyday as a progressive thinking institution. and someone at antioch wanted to show dw griffith first of the nation. and a lot of students were outraged by what they should be on the movie from being shown. carlo, who is a civil rights stalwart thought to show the movie on civil liberties grounds and she won.

carl loved hosting events. in recent years, i saved her recent introductions that she wrote. she loved to write them as the samurai spokes and put them in a larger context in a precise and economical way. her last event introducing came a day after mother's 100 birthday. it was the novel, my name is mary sutter, robin oliveira's first novel. unlike mary kate and others, she was encouraging of young writers, whether it's fiction or story, my name is mary sutter, is the story of the civil war surgeon's helper. a woman to young to be a nurse

who wanted to be a surgeon. now, it's appropriate that not only with mary olivera a new novelist, but her own daughter is a hospice nurse who spent this last year constantly being with her presence, the loving and caring daughter and a nurse. and that was hard. i miss are talking about our day, the warm spots of the day, the outrages come the annoyances, what we learned, what we would do differently. our grandson asked me, who is taking care of me now? i tried to assure him about the incredible support from family and friends and that i'm eating well and hopefully. i would say, he's in the camp of

trust, but i better verify. [laughter] there are lots of stories about politics & 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 prose bad. it might've had shoes, but at one time books. talking about politics & prose with people who spent time here in the american club in bangladesh, eager to come back for their home lead so they could visit here again. overhearing a conversation in the tube in london in our last visit, in which people were discussing an event at politics & prose, who didn't know me and it was the piccadilly line and that gave great pleasure.

just last week in philadelphia, where i was at the meeting, two people whom i didn't know and didn't know me or telling someone who is moving to washington why they have to hang out at politics & prose and told about their own experience of having moved to washington in the clinton years in state and having the joy of hanging out at politics & prose. just this week at a public event, someone told me he was talking about politics & prose with another person in moscow, moscow, idaho. [laughter] through the stories are endless and they give us great pleasure. and sometimes carla would say enough, enough, but they 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 in conversation on the street reinforces and measurably the importance of politics & prose as an institution, as a resource for ideas, as the public's taste that is self-evident, that philly referred to the third place. interestingly enough in conversation, before the event began, that conversation came up were then once. and it is a special kind of public space that makes it so important and valuable. our son, aaron, shared his ideas with carla about the future and animated conversations about

politics & prose as it disseminates ideas, is anchored by folks in a physical space. disgrace capturing his generation better than we could his gym for the mind. politics & prose will continue. r. brett and i are dedicated to doing our very best in even more to have a new owner or owners passionately believe in the values and mission and the legacy of politics & prose. that means it embraces the value of ideas and the importance of community. it will be people who can sustain the store and recognize that service on the knowledge and dedication of the staff are priceless asset. this is a staff that is the envy of all others in the independent book business.

and as a staff that brings the dedication and imagination that carla and i were fostered, we will be looking for a new owner or owners who will have the dedication and imagination that carla and barbara had when they started and continued. it will be people who can adapt to changing nature of the book business and communication, while recognizing that public space is essential. both events are essential. courses are essential. book clubs are essential in so much else is that we'll be a permanent anchor. it was fun. it is fun. and it will be fun. thank you. [applause] ..