You have until noon Wednesday (21 Jan 2009) to submit an entry for what is being billed as "the fastest published Presidential book ever."
WEbook, a Web-based community for writers, plans on having the book "Jan. 20, 2009: True Stories, Real People, One Day" available for purchase by Jan. 30.
The book will collect 75 original essays, each no longer than 250 words, about ordinary people's experiences and thoughts about the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.
The finished book will be available online at Amazon.com and WEbook.com. Cost for each paperback copy is $9.99, with proceeds benefiting 826 National, a consortium of seven nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing.
Penguin Publishing has plans for its own instant book – a hardbound edition of Obama's Inaugural address, that is scheduled to become available Feb. 4. Cost will be $12.
In addition to Obama's speech, the book will also include three speeches of Abraham Lincoln – his 1861 and 1865 inaugural speeches and the Gettysburg Address – along with Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1841 essay, "Self-Reliance."
The title of the 2009 Inaugural is "A New Birth of Freedom," a phrase drawn directly from the Gettysburg Address.
The preface to "The Inaugural Address 2009" states: "With Lincoln's wartime address and his first and second inaugural speeches, we reflect on the nation's history and progress from Lincoln's political commitment to equality to Obama's promise of change. Ralph Waldo Emerson's 'Self- Reliance,' a cornerstone of American philosophy, and one of Obama's favorite works, calls for our trust in individual integrity, rather than in materialism and conformity. Together these writings embody the American values and ideals that Barack Obama reminded us on election night we all share, 'self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.'"
