[applause] his raining and i thought booklovers are going to want to stay in the henry. But, here you are. Thank you, and good morning welcome to the 2017 National Book festival. I am carla and i am honored to sam the 14th librarian of congress. As you can see, pretty excited to open this event. Our 17th consecutive celebration of books and reading. It is wonderful to see a full house in our largest presentation space. Not only will we have a full house at the convention center, but we also have millions of people joining us live on facebook. So thank you wherever you are for joining us. [applause] we have a fantastic linus of mainstage authors this year. What better way to kick off the festival than with one of our nations most beloved historians, mr. David mccullough. [applause] mr. Mccullers here for his sixth National Book festival appearance and we hope youll continue to make this a habit. He will be followed by diana. [applause] she is the author of the wildly successful outlande