seymour hersh, alexandre and philip faeroe. this lasts about an hour. >> good afternoon. thank you, all of you for coming. carla who is 100-year-old sitting right here. [applause] >> i also want to thank what the publishers with great respect to carla contributed to this occasion, and so if you stay, which i hope you will, for food and drinks, remember that it is

hanging in, harper collins, simon and schuster, norton, perseus, random house and mcmullen, who are all providing refreshments. [applause] >> thank you so much. now ten years into the life of politics and prose, carla and arrived one morning and announced david, that is carless's husband who you will be talking to leader, david says we are the world's greatest approximate your, and she delivered a that, she pronounced that with such great pleasure maybe in her part because carla was driven on hyperbole. [laughter] but also because she thought the fed had articulated another facet of synergy.

and so then we had, as i recollect, an interesting0ú0ú conversation about our partnerships. one crucial ingredient we felt was our ability to tolerate a lot of balls in the air always knowing that at least one was going to drop. perfection was never a quality any of us expected from the other person.0ú carla's >> guest: these can also be our worst, named best operating instructions or partnership. some people call her partnership a mash up which i thought also. [laughter] in the last weeks of her life, baiji reminded her of our success as being the world's

greatest approximate terse and the sorrow that i felt about the upcoming definitive moments that could be approximated and that was debt -- death. sorry. so i said to her can't we just approximate debt also? [laughter] ayaan also i felt at times that carla succeeded in approximating debt because i felt her present so much since she died a and i felt it especially today. thank you for coming. [applause]

>> ibm anne scheels for those who don't have a program and the reason i agreed to speak which is very hard is so my husband wouldn't have a chance. [laughter] i first met carla on new year's eve, 1968. my husband mark and david worked together on the vietnam peace plan during the that to launch was democratic convention that year, and they invited us to be off to their soon-to-be but not quite yet famous new year's eve party. we'd just been back to d.c. after spending the election season and no audio working on the remarkable would ultimately unsuccessful campaign to be elected u.s. senator from ohio. prior to that we worked on robert kennedy's the five tragic campaign that spring by new

year's eve i was in need of new friends, new faces and a new outlook on the space process. [laughter] and there had just the right moment were the comments. when we bought a house in the neighborhood in the northwest washington they followed us soon afterward and a close friendship was formed. carla was full of life and bigger than life. she was funny and irreverent and analytical and demanding and undemanding, committed to making the world a better place and committed to caring for her friends and family. we left knowing their children and seeing david and carla and in still their virtues and values and hopes and dreams and in them as they grew into talented and independent adults. for four years we shared babysitters children and yard

men and recipes and home renovations and parenting advice and many great and dinners full loaf laughs and disagreements and priceless anecdotes. we use to share these dinners with others but we found it didn't leave enough time to talk, so for the last 20 years or so it was just the four of us. it fell one exception was our yearly trips to baltimore to take the remarkable mother out to dinner. one of the great tracks. i lived through many of carla's transformations from community planner when she called me down to witness the rebirth to seamstress when she handed down dresses she had sown for our daughter amy the last of approximately one of the wash cycle. [laughter] a cookbook author i told her she should subtitle the book she wrote 100 of ways to spill

zucchini. [laughter] carla was not amused. [laughter] to the salon keeper when she would invite interesting people to her house on sunday afternoon for good food and conversation, and to finally the career she now seems to have been destined from the very beginning to pursue, the founder of politics and prose. i remember going to one of the bookstore meetings at the cohens house where she was brainstorming names for her venture. 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. her response to that, of course i'm going to sell those books, there's a big markup. [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 borrowed money from anyone who had two extra dimes and some who didn't and she had the imperiled foresight and good judgment to see that she needed a superb organized manager to address the areas and which she was less competent and less interested. when barbara applied for that job a real partnership was born. it's impossible to imagine this store without the two of them working together. so now, we must imagine it in some new configuration. with new owners we hope will8a8a nurture it and us in the same way that carla and barbara did for more than 25 years. carla started her career as a community planner with ended it as something far more important, a community field. in fact, she built a community, e-business, a family and we are

all the better for it. [applause] >> the lamken terrible literally constellation comprised of two stars on each in their own way indispensable the elegant, barbara and carla cohen. every day and evening in politics and prose, all the conversations come all the discoveries, as keith said, are reprieved from the larger air agonies. just to be inside this vast library that sells its books, the home away from home a this for so many people. as i see it every day and evening contains the cultural inheritance of barbara and carla original vision.

i think of the remarkable lives of iconic women in the realm of books. i think of the history of world class bookshops. at 5 a.m., the morning after carla passed a young novelist, former student of mine now working at shakespeare and company founded by sylvia and carl and i discussed her volume of letters telephoned and put a bunch of her colleagues on speaker phone to say the news had reached them and they just wanted to chat for a moment. and so again the permanent elegy began. so many moments, so many stories, so many spontaneous conversations, so much coffee, so many writers coming through sitting in that office the 10,000 demotions. anyway, over the years i saved a lot of notes from carless.

one of my favorite, and i have to say it's fairly representative and as you well know, carless was generous with opinion. [laughter] and equally generous in revising your opinion. [laughter] while as a particularly famous author just published an awful, i dropped by this story, like almost daily visit after the morning of dividing, a cup of coffee, dennett looking into the office i saw carless deeply engaged on the telephone but she waved me close and give me the debate is lively and handed me a copy of this novel. and on my way out i read the note she talked in the pages. we need to talk about this. now, that sentence for those of you who knew carla was not a

suggestion. [laughter] it was a set accompli within a friendship. and i had this experience so often that i had already begun wondering exactly what was her opinion? allow me to see passion that judgment, and in all honesty there could be a little will nervous anticipation ones in speaking about unlawful i said you know, i read that awful and i wanted to propose marriage to the author. and the carless 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 have been perhaps less satisfying than a partial agreement. like conrad said, close reading is a matter of admitting once true nature.

in that note though, it is the word need that got to me like been deliriously in love for overwhelming melancholy to read in order to feel things deeply. in one of the many synchronous cities while irony is i suppose that happened in this book store all the time a few evenings ago when the doctor was here introduced by mark to speak about his biography of cancer the emperor of formality, and as the evening went on with perhaps some of the most heartbreaking, urgent and educated questions from the audience i have heard in years for the whole evening and alertness to ideas i looked over at clark and i thought i

had read in his expression carlo would have loved this. [applause] >> good afternoon. my name is mary kay zuravleff, recent gathering and 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? that is what many of the knights have been like at politics and prose and 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 and i was moved by the talk of her funeral service and when her family and friends told dear stories and i got to know

her better that day which i was very grateful for. mike connection to carla is to politics and prose as a writer, a reader and customer and a coffee drinker, so much coffee. carla was an exuberant well read and well-meaning person and was uplifting to be here in her company and building this bookstore she did build a community. i've lived in this neighborhood in the same house for 24 years and we didn't buy our house because the bookstore was here however i was recently patrolling the real-estate ads and saw a house advertised with the kitchen amenities and master bedroom suite and the school district and mere politics and prose. [applause] we are such as it customers my daughter asks can i have my allowance and go to the bookstore and once after my son spent his money on a book and read it the 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 may be borrowed and to get home and if you promise to bring it back and other people could read the same book. [laughter] indeed. politics and prose is truly a destination bookstore and i used to enjoy telling carless that was my landmark. wherever i travel, geneva, london, key west, houston if someone asks me where do you live in washington i say do you know the bookstore politics and prose? absolutely. then i would report the stories about a particularly wonderful staff member or a particularly memorable reading. many specifically remember her. often they remember her talking them out of the books they wanted to buy. [laughter] and choosing better books according to her. [laughter]

as richard of booktv brooch i always appreciated her 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 barbara and carl law is evident the written word matters. carvel believe in the written word she was passionate about the written word, and she believed mauney written words mattered and that as the poet said has made all the difference. so often when i come and many riders will tell you the same story carlo would agree to me with such enthusiasm and her smile, house 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 you. when your done here, go home and write. [laughter] the idea that a reader is

waiting to receive your work is enough to make you throw your coffee down and get back to your desk. her encouragement that the world to me. after my first novel was published, they celebrated the 50th anniversary of the public library and i was happy to be invited and get to listen to the first string, susan, calvin and many more. those writers voices were already in my head because i had heard them here. and so it was a thrill to fly away to the reception and see barbara and carla, the first string of booksellers also at this event life and new york. authors all over the world clamor to read here and the friend who came to that party with meeks from the university press the four of us had a blast about what we had just heard and who was there and then afterwards, my friend confided in me that when she came for a sales representative event with

carless, she was both over prepared and terrified. she said you know, she actually reads the books. [laughter] and she specifically told me she took me to task for camille as the what was her fault. [laughter] when my second novel was published, she read the galleys and she called me at home. [laughter] if it reminds me of choice eliot and eleanor, she said which was about the biggest praise i could possibly hope for fast and event we got to have a wonderful conversation about george eliot. as a writer it doesn't get better than that. and you will also appreciate when she introduced me coming and i of course hope she would mention george eliot, she said instead it's nice to have mary kay of stairs. she is usually in the children's section with someone in her lap. [laughter] that measure the importance matched my daughter's assessment who knew the reading was a big deal because the biggest celebrity in her life, her story teacher came to the reading.

[laughter] carless encouraged us by her example and support to care deeply about what we do and i got a note recently from alice mcdermott four its a menacing and i am going to read it because it is lovely. i think most sitting in the office before the reading it's been my experience some booksellers use this time to worry out loud or maybe prepare the writer for the worst. the weather is often discussed, rain, snow or exceptionally lovely evening that portends of small audience. hints or sometimes brought about announcements that didn't make it into the paper or were not posted. there's even the dates how well known you are to the people in the area. hughie merge into the light of the podium and a certain whether you should immediately apologize to the people that have come more from your arms around them. carlo would sit with he and chat about family and friends of news. she had a confidence of the great. she knew the staff, her guests,

and she knew or recklessly her manner me to believe she knew how delightful it was going to be. and then she talks about the same thing that's happened to so many of us. she's a i had the great good fortune to have carless be the first real person after editor and agent and publisher to read my last novel. in late may it wasn't published until september and i saw convention and the first thing she said to me in her no-nonsense way is it is your best yet. i exhaled three months earlier and anticipated a great kindness on her part to say the least. like the books she price, carla cohen was smart, engaging, imaginative and big hearted. she brought us all together and i know that together we will continue to honor her. [applause]

>> my friendship with carla was a family friendship over kids. we go back we before book writing and journalism etc., etc.. here's the thing about carless and may not show is she loved me she was able to communicate. i loved her, too that she was able to communicate this love. you knew you were loved by carla. how she did it, how she had so much spirit, so much love is pretty amazing. she was full of love and i don't think there is anything else to say. [applause] hi, everyone i want to thank barbara and mark for asking me here. i'm going to read. ives thinking before coming here about some of the early memories

of politics and prose i was first pulled into the orbit when i was in high school when erin joined my older brother matthew who may be here somewhere in a fast friendship which lasts to this day for pool threat of brain and wit. then i became friends with his cousin, sarah and it was around those time of my senior year in high school that we hung out in the house around the street. bp and pressed by the chaos allergic to the black dogs and their hero of the furniture and most of all to keep up with the intellectual junior and senior members of the household i have a vague memory that frankly i am not entirely sure was my own at an impromptu dinner at which carless was moved to tears during a discussion about something, soviet jews may be some other specific is the feeling in the home was memorable, the delight and discourse, in particular freedom of ideas, deep unapologetic

investment sit in the political world. in the late 80's politics and prose moved from the last to the east side of connecticut. i have to confess i didn't help but my brother did and i was happy to steal his t-shirt which i still have commemorating but even to be on the front why did the bookstore across the road, and on the floor of fishback, to get to the oversight. there have been books like olson's or creamers, but politics and prose broke the mold. i remember walking into the coffeehouse for the first time struck by their retro furniture and thinking who put the couch and arm chairs in the coffee shop. why are the tables and chairs different sizes and what is up with the coffee mugs, nor did i know the would become a trend. many years later in 2002 my books aldridge came out and why did get a reading and politics and prose especially in the mysteriously desirable month of april was something of a coup.

not only did i stand in justice and retrieve full house but carla focused that months this letter to the washington area writers a book she unfailingly never lost interest with even if tnt can't national reputation. she introduced me and sat nearby in an armchair nodding as proud as if i were one of her own which in a way i suppose i was. from that time on she always treated me with a smile country levis. how are you, and unfailingly what are you working on? then leader, how were the children? paz, wait for it, so what are you working on? [laughter] tauscher evin i wasn't working she asked me to issue tickets for granted someday i would get back to it and this helped me form a line in my early days as a mother so. and frazzled, so far away from myself. she often told me like most of us here what to read and what

not to read the in fact i think she wants to get out of my hand saying no, no, don't read that one and pulled me to a table to hand me something better. but far from undermining my confidence she bolstered it. i felt she believed in me as she did so many of us here and elsewhere and that, coming from someone as well read, wise and interested and committed to the literary life as carla meant more than she possibly could have realized. i have my share of memories as we all do and then the or the other memories of this place she and barbara created. i remember how my husband and i walked up with our newborn daughter in her stroller and fell into the chairs while she slept. i remember the mornings in the coffeehouse with my brothers, also from college. that type of time when there is nothing to do but complain about your child and drink coffee until lunch. i have spent many hours writing downstairs finding from the interruptions at home, finding

comfort with others talking, thinking, clicking away on their laptops, too. i remember the author reading ones that really mattered. right terse to inspired me and made me want to keep on who said little things i carry with me. i remember my brother matthew reading his poems and there is carla again looking on surveying the crowd to make sure they get the nuances and laugh at the funny parts. i remember running into my parents during the semiannual sale with their arms piled high with books and happy smiles on their faces. i remember seeing her children singing and dancing story time, chasing them around the rabbit hole cuddling up to read stories and remember my beloved father now gone who loved this place and who are sure countless muffins and cups of coffee, laughing on cold winter days on summer evenings and any time at all really. when i walk through i remember it all and moved comforted and

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 de our thanks to carless. because she imagined and create a place not only to buy books but to learn, to think, to play come to be inspired, to be a family and friends come to be part of the world. it isn't easy to build a place that fulfills its promise to draw people to wait time and again that can contain leaders of solidarity shared experience but this is what politics and prose is. now to my memories i will have to add seeing her smile and warm hugs. it makes my heart heard to say it. place but it will never be the same without carless. [applause]

>> i am proud to join you for this meeting of one of america's greatest organizations, the coalition of all who love carla and it is a sister organization to another one called the coalition of all who love david. [laughter] and i see if any of us is ever asked are you now or have you ever been a member of either of these collisions we will all proudly say yes. we have heard about liberals who are said to love humanity it is just individual human beings they can't stand. i am sure that there is no one in this room like that and i assure you don't know anyone like that, but i hope such people exist and that came to mind because no one could be more the opposite of that than

carla. as everyone testified doherty, carla loved people, she also loved people she had just gotten to know. i can say that because my kids felt her love in this book store. they love coming to politics and prose because two things would happen. she would greet them warmly and give them a big hug and then she would take them down for hot chocolate. they really like the chug to the code but they like the hot chocolate and when i told my kids i was coming here today they were so happy everybody was coming together today to honor this wonderful woman. i fought with my mom would be 97-years-old she were still around, she was a branch library and at a public library the last 60 years of her work life she retired at age 75 and when she visited she loved coming to politics and prose. one of herd shlaes of life or

two of the shlaes carla hata, one was to find books they would like she could actually say don't read that, read this without any loss of and, being a public institution, a unimpeded by the profit motive. but she also loved, as carla did come to get kids to fall in love with books and i know in the case of my books and i suspect it is true for hundreds of kids in this neighborhood their memory would be of hot chocolate, warmth, and that will be forever associated with books staff. i was talking to my wife about what to say to my and of course she left, the tuesday, too and a politician once was told nothing ever said to a parent about their children is ever regarded as an exaggeration. and carla clearly knew that political consultant, whoever he was. but he said politics and prose was a business and we thought about a little bit and we decided no, it was successful,

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 a combination of so wilensky, walt whitman, john dewey, a little of devotee, and not quinoline and a lot of other fine novelists all added into the mix. carla believed, as you all know in democracy and she knew citizens and not proceed had the right to know what they were talking about which is in a sense with this organization we are at this bookstore is devoted to. she would also let them know what she didn't think they knew what they were talking about what she believed in real or which would happen at the podium all the time between the first

standing up there and the people in the audience this and it is what passes for arguments these days. i was thinking about carla and one of my favorite essays which is by the historian christopher and it's called the lost art of documents 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. now david can tell us how often that actually happened with carla, but nonetheless i do think she would agree who said that argument is a risky and an unpredictable process and therefore is educational, and he added if we insist on the argument as the essence of education, we will defend democracy not as the most efficient, but as the most

educational for of government, one that extends the circle of the date as widely as possible and all citizens to articulate their views and to cultivate the virtue of eloquence, clarity of thought and expression and sound judgment. that's what happened in this bookstore day after day and week after week. carla was an extraordinary woman devoted to the extraordinary causes but never gave up. a great cause she cared about might be a setback might come out the wrong way. that does happen sometimes but she was a fixture, not a record, she prepared the world and never gave up, she never surrender to. abraham, the great jewish writer said the key to the first to the cutters for knowledge isn't doubt but wonder, and i thought about speed, she had a sense of

wonder about the world, and we all have a sense of wonder about her, about her energy, her love, her commitment, where she's all suffering she tried to heal it, where she saw a first for knowledge she tried to fill light, and yes, where she saw that arguments, she tried to replace them with something better. someone mentioned bobby kennedy earlier and i thought bobby kennedy said something that is perfect about carla. he said now is a time for youth, not a time in life to the state in the mind, quality of the imagination, preference for adventure over the life of ease. carla is not here with us physically but she is still in our midst. she still loves a venture and is still young. thank you. [applause]

>> my name is phyllis and i am probably the only author in this room that can say that carla didn't like all of my books. these cases in front of me. to washington to innocence starr realized things were a little little different in the

main house i saw two little their. 2úaughter]2ú2ú2ú i couldn't believe it.:ú:ú:ú:ú:ú [laughter]2ú i2ú came from california and i come from instinct, and i was2úú suddenly in the midst of a2ú2ú:ú family that had opinions that went pretty far down the line. so, here i was in washington and i have to say i was leading my own family behind which at first

i was more than glad to do but as things got -- as i got older i realized that i missed them terribly and still do. but they became one of the families that were like surrogates. the invited me to their passover's and carless and david's living room became like a sweater for me, sort of like an extra sweater for my soul and in the midst the 80's, carla started politics and prose and quickly became the intellectual living room in washington and carla for all intensive purposes was giving off peace in thenx center. sometimes it was too hot for comfort. [laughter]nx for instance, i left, unwillingly i left washington in the mid 80's, no, 1988, and so when i came back to washington

it really was my home away from home and one time i guess i had been a a leal over the unusual and i said hi, carla and she said you gotten so old. [laughter] and i said thanks, steve, i needed that. and she said we all are. [laughter] it was said the best are mur of old age is a well spent life preceding it. and i would ask if carla enabled us to do the same. she created that third place between your house and your work. a third place people went who were hungry for ideas for good writing, good conversation and to ease the loneliness that

descends upon human beings no matter how many people you are surrounded with. finally, when i am thinking about carla, and i sort of laid awake this morning at 4:00 in the morning trying to think what do i want to employ or how can i say something that might bring a bill with some of you here, one carla the had was a gift of the light. she had that ability to be light and others. i remember when i would come she would see me and say barbara, look who's here. instantly i felt part ofnx something larger and more vibrant than myself. well, in conclusion all i can see is 68 were standing behind me i would say carla, look who's here and see what a vibrant assembly you have created. [applause]

>> i am a staff member and like many of you a friend of carla's. the second to last time i got to see carla we had a wonderful conversation. she was struggling, her speech had slowed and her body, too but she was very much herself. she wanted to know about everything going on at the store and with the big books work. after a while it was obvious 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 and then she added i don't mean metaphysically. [laughter] i assured her not in a million years would i have thought she meant metaphysically. [laughter] but there aren't sufficient words to express how much i

regret i won't see her again. but for me i am pretty sure for many of us she is still a vital presence to it i noticed as the voice over my shoulder when looking at a catalog or examining in inventory while creating a return in place that told me to be fearless, to not care what anyone thinks, the police to know the difference between the popular and the truly important, the voice i hope to never stop hearing and also when i hope i'm strong enough to heed. since her illness and passing the way in the public announcement of the seals the store many have said to me and my co-workers, to ensure, just don't change or promised he will stay just like you are. of course i know what they mean and i know it is an expression of love and appreciation. when i hear don't change on here carla over my shoulder the loudest. change, change. [laughter] imagination she is shouting never stop changing.

with everything 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 calendar. there had been a book she wanted to be what it is now, a full note that emphasized. i told her people love her and there's nothing wrong with it and she told me there didn't have to be something wrong with something for to be time to change it did keep it fresh and new. carla was all about change. she and barbara of both word and the partnership worked in a way that may change possible, practical and balanced with constrained of reality. when i considered moving here from northern colorado 13 years ago, i had known barbara and carla through functions. carla did more than open her hours for me, she opened her house and said stay with us until you find a place to live, so i packed up my clothes, a computer and to farm cats who are pretty old now but still

doing well, thanks, and haven't regretted it for a minute. she and barbara welcomed me and from the place for me in this book stores. she said these are the things my impressions of s.p.a. for humor, imagination and incredible generosity i somehow left out her passion for bookselling but that was a part of her and it's a part of all of those things. finally, i am aware of the fact i'm standing here representing not only myself but also the staff past and present to make it clear carla was many things to lots of different people her passion at least in this stage of her life of bookselling as one of the owners she was pulled in many directions but never let go with the upper to the to work behind the desk coming answer and help customers find what they're looking for. during the holidays there on the floor without fail right after closing the door on christmas

the sales carla as a bookseller move toward the dejection watching the numbers and i asked flashy subject herself to that when it was going to come out of it was she said because it is fun. freeing of the last sale of the day of december 24th we will be reminded of carla and a great positive productive way i hope it will be kind of sad, too. no matter how much she would want to be otherwise i feel [applause]

thank you all for coming. this is a fantastic celebration of carla's life, her lasting contributions, passion and love for her. 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 barbara and the staff and all of you so i really want thank the constituency of politics and prose who is always there this past year with active and former support. barbara fourth leadership, her understanding of what partnership is about, keeping that going with carla through

this illness, staff which exercise their leadership with visits, good cheer, positive energy, highly interest lots of food. other writers who sent their notes for present, full of laughter, had their own stories, the publishers and their editorial workers, marketing and sales people, constant continuing attention and you the supporters for customers but just as politics and prose is more than a bookstore you are more than customers. you are people who converse who are sources of ideas who make thoughtful suggestions, give us

feedback, positive and critical and helped anchor us. door engaged participants in the adventure of being part of a fly flic and vibrant community and we think you and will continue. mark referenced it was fun. carla wasn't the greatest with numbers, so i thought when the sales were high or low i'm notq sure she always got it right. [laughter] i would question her and know there were other sources to go to. it was fun to read those for the last words of carla captured by her son and his eulogy in his own writings and it refers to her life, the life with her

family, her parents caught per grandparents, her oldest brother and her two sisters are here as is their hundred-year-old mother as you know whose birthday she toasted six months ago today. it refers to our children and grandchildren and me. today we celebrate that fund that is the essence of her life with politics and prose, the jolie of her partnership with barbara and her deep and loving partnerships with the staff. seven days out of seven, carla would say this is the best job i ever had. if she were slower than usual on a given day, i would say it's the best job you ever had and off she went. carla know she was in vienna

early riser. nothing gave her more attention than a 9:00 plane. [laughter] node early bird she never got home early and invariably later than she said. i learned to be patient. she was an of eclectic and catholic reader for 26 years at 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 through to others including our young grandchildren paths. georgia told me yesterday that when she reads, she's 7-years-old, she hears her reading to her. miers' the man our grandchildren called her, the same she called her own grandmother.

hoesch part of what made it fun as carla's idea of comfort which she developed sitting in the political conversations her mother and father convened at home in baltimore. our first meeting which goes back to 1956 and with our admiration for or well, animal farm, homage to catalonia, the road to the peak year to the co -- year. however political policy choices had lots of fun watching the house debate on health care. she saved her comments for the naysayers and tolerated my 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 a dominant views, and i want to tell one quick story. carla went as a progressive thinking institution and someone wanted to show dw griffith birth of the nation and a lot of students were outraged and thought they should ban the movie from being shown. carla, who is a civil rights stalwart fought to show the movie of celebrities and she won. carla loved hosting evin what's. in recent years i saved her introductions stock that she wrote. she loved to write them as they summarize books and put them in a larger context and a precise and economical way. her last even to introducing came a day after her mother's

100th birthday. it was a novel "my name is mary sadr," and like you, mary kay and many others, she was encouraging of young writers whether of fiction or nonfiction , as we know with alex./ the story my name is mary miers' the story of a surgeon's helper, a woman too young to be a nurse who wanted to be a surgeon. it is appropriate not only was mary -- robin es new novelist, but our own and daughter is a hospice nurse who spent the last year constantly being a loving

and caring daughter and eight nurse and that was hard. i miss talking about our day, the warm spots of the day, the outrageous and alliances, we learned, we do differently to read our grandson asked me who is taking care of me now? i tried to assure him about the incredible support from family6@ and friends and that i am eating well and healthy. i would say he is in the camp of trust but i better verify. [laughter] there are lots of stories about politics and prose. i used to travel outside of the country and i would come back with stories like the time going down an escalator in beijing and someone coming up with politics

and prose bag. it might have 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 for their home week so they could visit again. overhearing a conversation and london and in our last visit which people were discussing at politics and prose who didn't know me and was at the line and that was great pleasure. just last week in philadelphia where i was at some meetings, to people who i didn't know and who didn't know me for 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 and have the

chollet of hanging out of politics and prose, and just this week at a public event someone told me who was talking about politics and prose with another book person in moscow, idaho. [laughter] so, these stories with endless and they gave us great pleasure, and sometimes carla would say enough, enough, but they gave us great pleasure. the future, the outpouring of love and respect on the web, your presence here and note from barbara and me and staff members in conversation on the street reinforce a measure the importance of politics and prose as an institution, as a resource for ideas, as a public space that is self-evident that is

referred to as the third place, and interestingly enough in conversation, before the defense began, that conversation came up more than once and it is a special kind of public space that makes it so important and valuable. our son shared his ideas with carla about the future and animated conversations about politics and prose as it disseminates ideas and is anchored by books and the physical space. his phrase capturing his generation better than we could is gin for the mind. politics and prose will continue. barbara and i are dedicated to doing our very best and even

more to have the new owner or owners passionately believe in the values and mission and legacy of politics and prose. that means it increases the value of ideas and the importance of community. it will be people who can sustain the store and recognize the service and the knowledge and the dedication of the staff are priceless asset. this is a staff is the envy of all others in the independent business. as the staff that brings the dedication and imagination that carla and barbara fostered. we will be looking for a new owner or owners who have the dedication and imagination carless and barbara had when they started and continued.

it will be people who can adapt to a changing nature of the book business and communication while recognizing public space is essential. bouck even score essentials. the courses are essential, book clubs are essential, and so much else but will be a permanent anchor. it was fun, it is fun, and it will be fun. thank you.2q2q