She says the fire reminded her of the proverb that when a person dies, it's as if a library has burned to the ground. Orlean uses the loss and lore of that fire to tell the living, everyday story of a great civic institution that is becoming, in a digital age, perhaps even more vital. A lot of firefighters who I interviewed said it was by far the most challenging, frightening fire that they've ever confronted in their careers." "It reached temperatures of 2,500 degrees. "The fire burned for seven hours," Orlean says. The Library Book tells the story of the 1986 fire that damaged or destroyed more than one million books in Los Angeles' Central Library. Susan Orlean's new book is like exploring the stacks of a library, where something unexpected and interesting can be discovered on every page. Susan Orlean tells the story of the fire in The Library Book.īen Martin/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images Smoke engulfs the Los Angeles Public Library on April 29, 1986.
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