Inauguration Day
To mark Joe Biden’s Inauguration day we thought we’d share with you some bookish news that's surrounded the event in recent days.
Tickets are Scarce
Today’s inauguration is certainly one for the history books, partly because it will be a much smaller affair than usual.
Traditionally members of Congress get 200,000 tickets to hand out for the ceremony at the US Capitol, but this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, they are limited to one guest each. The luncheon and parade have been cancelled and the inaugural ball has been replaced by a ‘Celebrating America’ TV program with musical entertainment, hosted by actor (and collector of typewriters) Tom Hanks.
This scaling down of the event is likely to have an impact on individual ticket collectors, such as user eagle33 from Collecting Universe, who recently showed off his collection of Inauguration Tickets on the Memorabilia forum.
Lori Ferber Presidential Collectibles boasts the nation’s largest collection of official inaugural tickets of presidents of the United States, most of which are currently valued at around $20.00USD. Will Biden's Inauguration tickets be worth more?
Publishers unite to block Trump administration book deals
500 American authors and literary professionals (and counting) have signed a letter calling on US publishers not to sign book deals with members of the Trump administration, saying “those who enabled, promulgated, and covered up crimes against the American people should not be enriched through the coffers of publishing”.
Written by author Barry Lyga, the letter titled “no book deals for traitors”, has been signed by bestselling writers including Celeste Ng, Holly Black and Star Wars author Chuck Wendig. It opens by stating that the US “is where it is in part because publishing has chased the money and notoriety of some pretty sketchy people, and has granted those same people both the imprimatur of respectability and a lot of money through sweetheart book deals”.
Lyga said, “Traditionally, members of an outgoing administration can – and do – rely on the cushion of a fat book contract with a healthy advance. In the case of the Trump administration and its history of outrages, lies, and incitement to insurrection, we cannot allow this to stand. No one should be enriched for their contribution to evil.”
In November, the New York Post claimed that Trump was “being bombarded with book and TV deals that could be worth a staggering $100m”.
But America’s National Coalition Against Censorship hold another view. They spoke out recently against the cancellation of a book deal for Josh Hawley, a right-wing Missouri senator. Hawley’s book The Tyranny of Big Tech was dropped by publishers Simon & Schuster over his backing of baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The free speech organisation said it was deeply concerned about the decision, stating: “cancelling the book weakens free expression … It is crucial that publishers stand by their decision to publish, even when they strongly disagree with something the author has said… The best defence for democracy is a strong commitment to free expression.”
Lyga approached the issue of censorship on Twitter, saying; “To those who believe this is censorship, I can say only this. If the first amendment guarantees book deals, then there are some publishers who turned down books of mine in the past who now owe me money.”
Amanda Gorman becomes youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration
The incoming Biden administration has chosen Amanda Gorman to read one of her poems at the presidential inauguration. She’s the youngest poet ever selected and has been commended as an inspired choice for a nation desperate for hope and new energy. In 2017, as a sophomore at Harvard, she was appointed the first National Youth Poet Laureate and invited to read from her work at the Library of Congress. She’ll publish a children’s book called “Change Sings” in September 2021, illustrated by Loren Long.
Gorman has suffered from speech impediment since childhood but refuses to view it as a weakness.
“I don’t look at my disability as a weakness,” said Gorman. “It’s made me the performer that I am and the storyteller that I strive to be. When you have to teach yourself how to say sounds, when you have to be highly concerned about pronunciation, it gives you a certain awareness of sonics, of the auditory experience,” she was quoted as saying at Los Angeles Times.
Gorman will be the sixth poet ever to perform at a modern-day presidential inauguration, a list that includes Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Miller Williams, Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco.
Of Biden and Kamala Harris, Gorman said she believes they will “spearhead a new chapter in America, which we so desperately need — one of dignity, and integrity, and hope and unity, because there’s a lot that needs to get done and a lot that needs to be fixed. And I think that they’re the people to do it.”
Biden is said to be a poetry fan, in particularly the work of Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney whom Biden has quoted on numerous occasions.
Jonathan Jones explored Biden’s love of Heaney’s work in this article back in November 2020. View Article >
And now to watch the event itself...