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October 18, 2019
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 | U.S. Takes Possession of Alaska On October 18, 1867, the U.S. formally takes possession of Alaska after purchasing the territory from Russia for $7.2 million, or less than two cents an acre. The Alaska purchase was championed by William Henry Seward, the enthusiastically expansionist secretary of state under President Andrew Johnson. Russia wanted to sell its Alaska territory, which was remote, sparsely populated and difficult to defend, to the U.S. rather than risk losing it in battle with a rival such as Great Britain. The American public believed the land to be barren and worthless and dubbed the purchase "Seward's Folly" and "Andrew Johnson's Polar Bear Garden." Public opinion of the purchase turned more favorable when gold was discovered in a tributary of Alaska's Klondike River in 1896, sparking a gold rush. Alaska became the 49th state on January 3, 1959, and is now recognized for its vast natural resources. Today, 25 percent of America's oil and over 50 percent of its seafood come from Alaska. It is also the largest state in area, about one-fifth the size of the lower 48 states combined, though it remains sparsely populated. The name Alaska is derived from the Aleut word alyeska, which means "great land." Learn more and check out these titles |
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 | Books on the Air An overview of talked-about books and authors. This weekly update, published every Friday, provides descriptions of recent TV and radio appearances by authors and their recently released books. See the hot titles from the media this week. |
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 | Ben Lerner Benjamin S. Lerner is an American poet, novelist, essayist, and critic. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a finalist for the National Book Award, a Howard Foundation Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow, and he is currently a MacArthur Fellow. Lerner teaches at Brooklyn College, where he was named a Distinguished Professor of English in 2016. Lerner was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, which figures in each of his books of poetry. He is a graduate of Topeka High School, where he participated in debate and forensics, winning the 1997 National Forensic League National Tournament in International Extemporaneous Speaking. At Brown University he studied with poet C. D. Wright and earned a B.A. in political theory and an MFA in poetry. Lerner was awarded the Hayden Carruth prize for his cycle of 52 sonnets, The Lichtenberg Figures. In 2004 Library Journal named it one of the year's 12 best books of poetry. Check out his titles here. |
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 | New Titles Out Next Week Selected new titles appearing next Tuesday, October 22. Check them out here. |
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| The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.-Kurt Vonnegut in A Man Without A Country
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