The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.
This Year We're Reading...
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
In The Maltese Falcon, the best known of Hammett's Sam Spade novels, Spade is tough enough to bluff the toughest thugs and hold off the police, risking his reputation when a beautiful woman begs for his help, while knowing that betrayal may deal him a new hand in the next moment.
Spade's partner is murdered on a stakeout; the cops blame him for the killing; a beautiful redhead with a heartbreaking story appears and disappears; grotesque villains demand a payoff he can't provide; and everyone wants a fabulously valuable gold statuette of a falcon, created as tribute for the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. Who has it? And what will it take to get it back? Spade's solution is as complicated as the motives of the seekers assembled in his hotel room, but the truth can be a cold comfort indeed.
This project is supported by the Arts Council in part by contributions from businesses and individuals, and through grants from the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources. The Big Read is also supported by the William C. Powell, M.D., Advised Fund of the Cumberland Community Foundation.
Community partners include
Fayetteville State University
Fayetteville Technical Community College
John L. Throckmorton Library at Fort Bragg
Methodist University
The Museum of the Cape Fear
Pope AFB Library.
Cumberland County Public Library & Information Center
300 Maiden Lane, Fayetteville, NC 28301
(910) 483-7727 ext. 210
This project is supported by the Arts Council in part by contributions from businesses and individuals, and through grants from the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Cultural Resources. The Big Read is also supported by the William C. Powell, M.D., Advised Fund of the Cumberland Community Foundation.
Community partners include
