2009 Library Laureates Dinner-Celebrating the Theory of Evolution

On Friday April 17, 2009, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library hosted their annual literary gala—the 2009 Library Laureates Dinner: Celebrating the Theory of Evolution. 

The 13th annual Laureates toasted some of the most spectacular of our species, as forty Bay Area writers celebrated the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.  

The gala transformed the Main Library’s beautiful affinity centers into intimate, conversational salons where authors and guests mixed and mingle, exploring their dangerous ideas followed by dinner and presentations from this year’s Laureates.

The dinner raised over $150,000 for the San Francisco Public Library and goes to fund children's education programs such as Summer Reading and SAT Preparation Workshops and art exhibitions.

Friends of the San Francisco Public Library would like to extend special thanks to our sponsors-Thank you for helping make our premier fundraising event possible!

2009 Library Laureates


Photos by Ralph Granich

2009 LAUREATE HONOREES Robert Alter Robert Mailer Anderson Tamim Ansary Stephen J. Cannell Firoozeh Dumas David Ewing Duncan Paul Ekman Rodes Fishburne Pauline Frommer Ruth Gendler Melanie Gideon Alison Gopnik Susan Griffin Andrew Gross David Harris Ed Humes Abigail Johnston Antonia Juhasz Dean Karnazes Jonathon Keats Bridget Kinsella Peter Linenthal Beth Lisick Lisa Lutz Jerry Mander Gwen Mazer Toni Mirosevich Fae Myenne Ng Peter Orner Dean Ornish Raj Patel Elizabeth Partridge Joe Quirk Cheeni Rao Randy Shaw K.M. Soehnlein Frank Sulloway Ellen Sussman Roberto Vargas Brenda Webster