When is an author’s reception more like a family reunion? When it honors Alice Starr’s husband.
The man who signed more than 200 books at a large home on a snowy McLean cul de sac Sunday may have a public image as a stuffy Republican who relentlessly pursued Bill Clinton for political reasons.
But the Kenneth Starr who held forth for three hours on Sunday is viewed by his friends as a clowning-around younger brother: earnest, funny, and 100 percent loyal to his best friend. Her name is Alice.
Though the course of Starr’s legal career took a circuitous loop though history as America’s best-known special prosecutor, his friends consider him someone who deeply reveres America’s system of justice. That bent was reflected Sunday both by the guest list, which included not only a Supreme Court Justice and numerous technology luminaries, and by the length of the line of people waiting for his to autograph in his latest book: “First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life.”
Borders sold more than 200 copies of Starr’s book during a reception at the McLean home of Bobbie Kilberg, president of the Northern Virginia Technology Council.
Her son, Jonathan, had rented a snow plow and cleared away the lingering snowbanks that narrowed their street.
As daylight faded into evening, the power went out, the lights flickered and died, and conversation in the suddenly stopped.
Darkness and silence overtook a room that had been buzzing with excited and cheerful banter.
A few seconds passed before Starr’s melodious voice boomed out: “Ladies and gentlemen, do not panic. There are more books,” he said.
“And don’t worry. The ice will not melt.”
Later in the week, Starr was scheduled to initiate a series of speakers for the Fairfax County Public Library Foundation, which his wife, Alice, has served as chairman. Starr was to speak about the Supreme Court at the Alden Theater in McLean on Tuesday, Feb. 25.
Other speakers scheduled in the series are Eleanor Clift, a panelist on “The McLaughlin Group” and author of “Madam President: Women Blazing the Leadership Trail,” on March 18; Democratic political leader James Carville, author of “Suck Up, Buck Up ... and Come Back When You Foul Up,” on April 15; and Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, author of “Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest,” on May 6.
In each of the lectures in the Perspectives series, the authors will sell and sign their books after they speak.
All the events will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the Alden Theater, 1234 Ingleside Dr., in McLean. Free tickets are distributed at the door, two per person.
Call (703) 790-0123 for more information.