Baltimore Book

On a Tuesday night, about a dozen people have taken refuge from the cold in a Fells Point restaurant to discuss a 1970s book by a dissident Czech writer. Some in the group hadn't quite made it all the way through The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera. But that doesn't stop them from debating whether they should laugh or maybe cry about this tale of a communist Czechoslovakia now vanished into history. Oprah Winfrey may have put book clubs in the news, but while she has been creating best-sellers and taking James Frey to task for making up stories, Maryland book clubs ranging from the Dear Sisters Book Club of Upper Marlboro to the Ruth Enlow Libraries in Garrett County, have long been quietly selecting, dissecting and endorsing their favorite reads.

How better to brighten up a party than with a guest famous for his utter lack of joy! Ah, but this was a party to thank supporters of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, on opening night of the Baltimore Book Festival. And the guest of honor? The Baltimore-connected writer Edgar Allan Poe, as portrayed by actor David Keltz."They don't make melancholics like they used to in the 19th century," sighed Dr. Sarah Begus, as she listened to Keltz recite Poe's "The Raven."Among those sharing the good cheer in the Literary Salon tent at the Mount Vernon book festival site were Carla Hayden, library director; Ronald Owens, president of Friends of the Enoch Pratt Free Library; Bob Hillman and Peggy Heller, library board trustees; Primus St. John, poet; Fred L. Miller and Sujata Massey, authors; and Charles Longo and Willis White, vice presidents of SlingShot Publishing Co.

The art of literature took center stage yesterday in the heart of Baltimore's arts and cultural district.For thousands of book lovers, the Baltimore Book Festival in Mount Vernon Place offered a rare opportunity to meet lots of authors, buy lots of books and revel in all things having to do with words."

As thousands of Maryland book lovers descended on Mount Vernon Place yesterday, Dexter Durant settled on a shady bench with 6-year-old son Daniel for the main purpose of the Baltimore Book Festival -- reading.Opening a copy of "Bermuda's Sidney the Sailboat" purchased minutes earlier at a used-books tent, the father and son enjoyed a few minutes of their nightly at-home ritual. The elder Durant read while the younger one smiled and turned the pages."By the end of the weekend, we'll have read all of these books," the elder Durant said, showing off the three children's books he had just bought for $3.Similar scenes were repeated throughout the streets adjacent to Baltimore's Washington Monument yesterday as readers found empty patches of grass or sidewalk to sit down and explore their purchases.

Chris Bready never had a chance.His mother was a librarian, his father a book editor. He married a librarian. He grew up in "The City That Reads." What else was there for him but books.That's what it's been about: books, books, books. And not just any old books, rather rare books, books that certain people want, sometimes passionately, even desperately -- but almost never to read.Last Monday night he was surrounded by an especially large quantity of such books, maybe 3,000 of them, all up for auction at a Timonium hotel.

Three blocks from the Baltimore Book Festival II, the city's literary set had little to cheer about yesterday.A demolition contractor hired by the city chose yesterday to begin tearing down the historic Peabody Book Shop and Beer Stube at 913 N. Charles St., a former speakeasy and gathering place patronized by such writers as F. Scott Fitzgerald and H. L. Mencken."

Stanley "Bunjo" Butler is a natural-born storyteller. But it wasn't until 13 years ago that he became a professional one."I have found it an art form that allows me to be my creative self," says Butler. "And I have a commitment to perpetuate the African oral tradition."Butler will be spinning his tales, along with other storytellers, at Baltimore Book Festival II, going on this weekend at Mount Vernon Place.Storytelling wasn't too much of a leap from Bunjo's more traditional profession, a librarian and branch manager of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Emeril Lagasse, chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and TV personality from the town he calls "Nawlins," is expecting the good times to roll when he hits town this weekend for the Baltimore Book Festival II."I'm really excited about this event," Lagasse said. Lagasse is using his day off to come to Baltimore, he said, and besides cooking and signing books, "We hope to eat some food and have a lot of fun."Lagasse will be one of a number of chefs and food professionals demonstrating dishes and signing copies of their new cookbooks at the festival, now in its second year.

Call it an inspiration. What better place to launch a celebration of books than in Baltimore, where the motto is "The City That Reads"?It all began a few years ago when Mayor Kurt Schmoke pulled together a broad range of people for a brainstorming session on ways to improve the city. Bill Gilmore, who sat on the committee for tourism and culture, participated in that economic incentive task force."It was the mayor's suggestion to create an annual event at a time when discretionary tourism is over because the kids are back in school and before the big conventions start in October," says Gilmore, who is the executive director for the city's office of promotion.

OVER THE YEARS, Baltimore has produced an impressive array of writers, ranging from poets and novelists to scholars. That's why the Baltimore Book Festival -- Saturday and Sunday around Mount Vernon Place -- is such a wonderful concept. The free program will feature readings by local authors, a wide variety of music, cooking demonstrations and, of course, victuals of various sorts and imagination.For more than eight years, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke has touted Baltimore as "The City That Reads."

Twelve-year-old Katherine Lippincott wasn't even born when "The Brady Bunch" went off the air in 1974, but Sunday afternoon she was first in line to get Maureen "Marcia Brady" McCormick's autograph at the Baltimore Book Festival. Lippincott of Baltimore County became a fan when watching DVDs of the sitcom while carpooling to school. The seventh-grader was less interested in McCormick's autobiography, "Here's the Story," that the actress was promoting and more eager to ask McCormick a question about one of the episodes.

James McBride had no idea Maryland's Eastern Shore would be the setting for his next novel when he first headed there about seven years ago. In fact, he says, he was on his way to Washington to research a book on the death of Abraham Lincoln when he impulsively decided to turn left on U.S. 50 instead of right. "I wanted to visit the house where Lincoln died," says McBride, a Brooklyn native with homes in New York and Bucks County, Pa. "I started driving down that way, but then I just veered off at Annapolis and started heading in the other direction."

On a Tuesday night, about a dozen people have taken refuge from the cold in a Fells Point restaurant to discuss a 1970s book by a dissident Czech writer. Some in the group hadn't quite made it all the way through The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera. But that doesn't stop them from debating whether they should laugh or maybe cry about this tale of a communist Czechoslovakia now vanished into history. Oprah Winfrey may have put book clubs in the news, but while she has been creating best-sellers and taking James Frey to task for making up stories, Maryland book clubs ranging from the Dear Sisters Book Club of Upper Marlboro to the Ruth Enlow Libraries in Garrett County, have long been quietly selecting, dissecting and endorsing their favorite reads.

Hundreds of people in Mount Vernon were shopping. They were eating. They were dancing - some of them in puddles. But at the Baltimore Book Festival yesterday, Holger Staude was reading. The used book that the Princeton sophomore had picked up was too good not to pause and flip through. "It's How to Do Just About Anything, and it's actually very interesting," Staude said. He'd stopped at a chapter called "How to Ease Family Tension at Your Wedding," even though the German native visiting a friend in Baltimore had no immediate plans to marry.

Nearly 50 years ago, Arthur Frommer self-published 5,000 copies of a tiny book called Europe on $5 A Day, which he wrote while stationed with the U.S. Army in West Germany. Frommer earned nothing on that first printing because his distributor -- "a friend with a truck" -- went bankrupt. Nonetheless, the company born of Frommer's endeavor quickly grew and is now the world's preeminent publisher of travel guides with 2,000 titles in print. But the publishing business -- on display yesterday at the Baltimore Book Festival in downtown's Mount Vernon neighborhood -- is a tricky trade.

SCHEDULE HIGHLIGHTS This weekend's events run the gamut from spoken-word poetry to book signings to musical performances and more. For a complete list, see baltimorebookfestival.com. MUSIC STAGE Tomorrow 5 p.m. -- LVT, acoustic rock 6:15 p.m. -- David Bach, contemporary jazz 7:45 p.m. -- Unity Reggae Band, reggae Saturday 11:30 a.m. -- Mambo Combo, soco/sambo 1 p.m. -- Almost Recess, a cappella 2:30 p.m. -- Charles "Big Daddy" Stallings, blues 4 p.m. -- Marc A. Evans, R&B/soul 5:45 p.m. -- The Players, ska/reggae Sunday 11:30 a.m. -- Rude Dog, blues 1:30 p.m. -- Chopteeth, Afro-funk 3 p.m. -- Melanie Mason, acoustic blues 4:30 p.m. -- Junkyard Saints, zydeco 6 p.m. -- The Carl Filipiak Group, contemporary jazz CITY LIT STAGE Tomorrow 5 p.m. -- Reception 6 p.m. -- "Camera Stories: Photographs & Narratives" featuring t.p. Luce, thaBloc, John Slaughter, Brother in the Bush Saturday 11 a.m. -- Maryland Writers Association Novel and Short Works Contest Winners 12:15 p.m. -- Jack Fruchtman, Atlantic Cousins: Benjamin Franklin and His Visionary Friends 1 p.m. -- Paul Mandelbaum, Garrett in Wedlock 1:45 p.m. -- Buzz Williams, Spare Parts 2:30 p.m. -- Masha Hamilton, The Distance Between Us and Staircase of a Thousand Steps 3:15 p.m. -- Writers on Publishing 4:30 p.m. -- Matt Bondurant, The Third Translation 5:15 p.m. -- Litapalooza, music and reading Sunday 11 a.m. -- Nurturing the Culture of Literature: What Is CityLit?

Barbara S. Elliott, former owner of a Baltimore book bindery, died of heart failure Tuesday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Oak Crest Village resident was 91. Barbara Smith was born in Baltimore and raised in Hamilton. After graduating from the old St. James Commercial School in East Baltimore in 1929, she went to work as a secretary at the Elliott Bookbinding Co., which had been established by her future husband in the basement of his home in 1924. In 1934, she married Charles L. Elliott Sr., who later moved the business to Rosedale Street in Walbrook.

Baltimore, once known as "The city that reads," became a vision of its former bus-bench slogan yesterday as thousands of bibliophiles gathered around the Washington Monument for poetry, prose and all the literary trappings that make up Baltimore's annual book festival. The most devoted among the attendees sifted through stacks of the latest best sellers and local releases, pausing to hear authors read literary passages. They left, balancing stacks of hardbacks and pamphlets, full from pretzels and gyros, and convinced that they had seen every display -- no easy feat with 150 exhibitors who promoted everything from Muslim culture and vegan recipes to local theaters and regional wines.

AS BALTIMORE CELEBRATES all things literary this week with the annual book festival on Mount Vernon Place, it's worth noting who won't be there. While book-lovers savor a who's who of famous names, area literacy advocates have planned a read-a-thon to raise money for training programs to reach those who cannot read well enough to appreciate the Baltimore Book Festival's eclectic charms. According to the nonprofit advocacy group Baltimore Reads, an estimated 38 percent of city adults read at a sixth-grade level or below -- more than 200,000 residents.

A half-century ago, the city school system came up with an ambitious idea: Recruit a group of high school students, led by history teachers, to write a textbook about how Baltimore worked. The task was divided among 12 senior high schools. Eastern did a chapter on history, Douglass delved into the ethnic and religious diversity of the community, Southern looked at how Baltimore fit into the regional geography. Poly described governance, Forest Park investigated economic resources, Patterson described occupational patterns and living standards.