![]() ![]() ![]() Lehrer read an astonishing bunch of quotes from Boorstin's 1961 book "The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America." News anchor Jim Lehrer recalled that his friend and neighbor knew something about everything and was always ready to interject a thought or an idea, regardless of the subject. One speaker after another painted Boorstin as an energetic and congenial genius who opened the library to a wider public and embraced computer technology and television as a way to spread the words. There were some chuckles during the ceremony and some choked-back tears. Billington, his successor as librarian, said Boorstin "was, above all else, a man of the book." He quoted Boorstin, who believed that "the book remains our symbol and resource for finding the unanswered question and the unwelcomed answer." ![]() Boorstin served as the 12th librarian of Congress, from 1975 to 1987, and he died in late February of pneumonia at age 89. More than 200 people gathered in the Thomas Jefferson Building to honor the bookish, bespectacled, super-brainy man who was given to wearing bow ties. Boorstin yesterday at the Library of Congress also turned into a lovefest for books, reading and the power of the written word. What started out as a memorial service for Daniel J. ![]()
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