Nancy Pearl (born January 12, 1945) is an American librarian, best-selling author,
literary critic
Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...
and the former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at
Seattle Public Library.
[Rebekah Denn]
Nancy Pearl trading the quiet confines of the library for a life of leisure
''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', August 2, 2004. Her prolific reading and her knowledge of books and literature first made her locally famous in
Seattle, Washington, where she regularly appears on
public radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
recommending books. She achieved broader fame with ''
Book Lust
''Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason'' was written by Nancy Pearl, former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book and inspiration for the Librarian action figure.
It was published in 2003 by Sasquatc ...
,'' her 2003 guide to good reading. Pearl was named 2011
Librarian of the Year by ''
Library Journal''. She is also the author of a novel and a memoir.
Life
Nancy Pearl was raised in
Detroit, Michigan and, by her own account, spent much time of her childhood at the public library. Her decision to become a librarian started at the age of 10 with the inspiration of the children's librarian at her local public library. She credits books and librarians with helping her through a difficult childhood: "It's not too much of an exaggeration—if it's one at all—to say that reading saved my life." She earned her
master's in
library science at the
University of Michigan[Librarian Action Figure]
page from Archie McPhee (1967) and became a children's librarian in her hometown library system before moving on to other libraries. As a hobby, Pearl wrote poetry as a young woman and in 1980 published a story in ''
Redbook'' magazine called "The Ride to School."
Pearl moved with her husband, professor Joe Pearl, from Detroit to
Oklahoma, where she raised two daughters (Eily Raman and Katie) while earning another master's degree, this one in history. She worked in an
independent bookstore, Yorktown Alley as well as the
Tulsa City-County Library The Tulsa City-County Library (TCCL) is the major public library system in Tulsa County, Oklahoma.
Overview
The library system serves those who live, work, go to school in, own land in, or pay property taxes on land in Tulsa County. There are 24 b ...
System. Craig Buthod, who worked with Pearl in Tulsa before he became the deputy director of the
Seattle Public Library, recruited her to come to Seattle in 1993. She originally traveled to Seattle without her husband for four years, until he reached retirement age and joined her. Pearl said the decision to join the library was one of the few times in her life when she instinctively knew she was doing the right thing.
[
In Seattle, she became something of a local celebrity, founding the pioneering and much-imitated "If All Seattle Read The Same Book" project, encouraging every adult and every adolescent in the city to read the same book at the same time. The project, initially funded by a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, was subsequently adopted by a number of cities, including Chicago, Buffalo and Rochester.][Broom, Jack]
Toymaker finds librarian who's a real doll
''Seattle Times'', July 10, 2003. Pearl appeared regularly on KUOW public radio
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
to review and recommend books. While there she first came up with her "Rule of 50" to read a book's first 50 pages before deciding if you were interested enough to finish it or uninterested enough to quit. She later became the executive director of the library system's Washington Center for the Book. She has also taught a readers' advisory course at the University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle ...
Information School called "Book Lust 101."
Writing career
Pearl achieved broader fame with '' Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason'' (2003), her readers' advisory guide to good reading. ''More Book Lust'' (2005), with the same subtitle, received much acclaim ("a sprightly follow-up") and was chosen by the ''Today Show
''Today'' (also called ''The Today Show'' or informally, ''NBC News Today'') is an American news and talk morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It w ...
'' as one of its book-club selections. In March 2007, Pearl released a book of recommendations for children and teens titled ''Book Crush.''
Pearl is also the author of the novel ''George & Lizzie'' and ''The Writer's Library,'' co-written with Jeff Schwager, which contains interviews with 23 American authors, including Pulitzer Prize-winners Michael Chabon, Jennifer Egan, Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich ( ; born Karen Louise Erdrich, June 7, 1954) is an American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indian ...
, Richard Ford, Andrew Sean Greer, Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lang ...
, and Donna Tartt
Donna Louise Tartt (born December 23, 1963) is an American novelist and essayist.
Early life
Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta, the elder of two daughters. She was raised in the nearby town of Grenada. Her fa ...
.
Editing career
In January 2012, Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational technology company focusing on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economi ...
announced that it would publish a number of out-of-print titles recommended by Pearl, in a venture called Book Lust Rediscoveries. Approximately six novels, originally published between 1960 and 2000, will be published each year in various print and electronic formats. For each title, Pearl will provide an introduction, book discussion points and suggestions for further reading.
"Amazon just blew me, my agent – both of us – away with their enthusiasm for doing something so wonderful as resurrecting books that never should have gone out of print in the first place," Pearl said on National Public Radio's ''Morning Edition
''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 A ...
''. Although 20 traditional publishers had turned down Pearl's proposal for the rediscoveries, Amazon's agreement to re-issue the titles set off an intense negative response.
"I knew the minute I signed the contract that there would be people who would not be happy, but the vehemence surprised me," Pearl told '' The New York Times'' in February 2012. "I understand and sympathize with the concerns about Amazon's role in the world of books. If I had to do this deal all over again ... well, it's a hard question. But I would still want these books back in print."
Others applauded Pearl for rescuing beloved, out of print books, including two by American novelist and short-story writer Elizabeth Savage who'd once written "It is very dangerous to get caught without something to read"—a favorite line of Pearl's. Savage's novels, ''The Last Night at the Ritz'' and ''The Girls from the Five Great Valleys'', now appear under the Book Lust label.
Recognition and awards
Pearl has had her face on an American Library Association
The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...
poster and has received numerous awards
An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration.
An awar ...
. Her book reviews appear in '' The Seattle Times'', ''Booklist
''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...
'', '' Library Journal'', and on the radio on KUOW-FM
KUOW-FM (94.9 MHz) is a National Public Radio member station in Seattle, Washington. It is the largest of the three full-fledged NPR member stations in the Seattle and Tacoma media market, with two Tacoma-based stations, KNKX and KVTI being th ...
Seattle, and KWGS
KWGS 89.5 FM is the flagship National Public Radio station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The station was Oklahoma's first FM radio station and is one of two stations operated by the University of Tulsa. The station was established in 1947 through the init ...
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
In 2003 she received an unusual honor when the Seattle-based company Accoutrements created a librarian action figure
An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are usually marketed ...
in her likeness to be sold in their Seattle store, Archie McPhee. Featuring Pearl with a stack of books and a finger to her lips, the doll's "push to shush" action was popular with some librarians and dismaying to others who felt that the doll reinforced librarian stereotypes. Pearl herself said that the shushing aspect of the action figure would determine "which librarians have a sense of humor."[
A tribute band called 'The Nancy Pearls' gave their debut bluegrass performance on the Mitchell Library rooftop ( Sydney, Australia) on December 17, 2004.
]
Awards
* 1997 Open Book Award from the Pacific Northwest Writers Conference
* 1998 Totem Business and Professional Women's "Woman of Achievement Award"
* '' Library Journal'''s Fiction Reviewer of the Year (1998)
* Allie Beth Martin Award from the Public Library Association (2001)
* Washington (State) Humanities Award (2003)
* 2004 Brava Award from Women's University Club in Seattle, recognizing "women of exceptional ability in the greater Seattle area";
* Louis Shores—Greenwood Publishing Group Award, 2004 for excellence in book reviewing
* Annual award from the Women's National Book Association (2004–2005)
* Ontario Library Association Media and Communications Award (2004)
* 2011 '' Library Journal'' Librarian of the Year
*2021 National Book Award Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community (lifetime)
Bibliography
* ''Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction 1978–1998'', Libraries Unlimited, 1999,
* ''Now Read This II: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1990–2001'', Libraries Unlimited, 2002,
* ''Book Lust
''Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason'' was written by Nancy Pearl, former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book and inspiration for the Librarian action figure.
It was published in 2003 by Sasquatc ...
: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason'', Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2003,
* ''More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason'', Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2005,
* ''Book Crush: For Kids and Teens : Recommended Reading For Every Mood, Moment, and Interest'', Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2007,
* ''Book Lust To Go, Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers'', Sasquatch Books, Seattle, 2010,
References
External links
Nancy Pearl's website
Archived fro
the original
on February 3, 2022. Retrieved on October 10, 2022.
Nancy Pearl's Book Lust Community
LISNews Interview With Librarian Nancy Pearl
Interview on the site of Western Washington University
* on the site of the University of Michigan School of Information
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearl, Nancy
1945 births
Living people
American librarians
American literary critics
Women literary critics
Writers from Detroit
University of Michigan School of Information alumni
Writers from Seattle
21st-century American women writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
University of Washington faculty
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American women writers
American women non-fiction writers
American women librarians
American women academics
American women critics