At Home With Laura

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Her love of books and schools and libraries is real. So it was natural as first lady in Texas for her to spend most of her energy on endeavors concerning education, childhood development and reading. This is the one area of policy where she has her own voice. In 1998 she actively influenced legislation reforming early education. She held a conference and made alliances with important legislators (especially Democrats), which resulted in an infusion of $215 million into new programs with titles like "Ready to Read" and "Take Time for Kids." "We simply knew it was Laura Bush's bill," says Texas Representative Paul Sadler, a Democrat who chairs the House education committee. "She was very much at the forefront, and knew the subject very well."

But her enduring legacy will be the Texas Book Festival each November, which celebrates books, writing and reading and has raised almost $1 million for Texas libraries. There are readings and seminars in the state capitol, receptions in the Governor's mansion, a black-tie dinner. Laura is not just a figurehead but involved in every aspect of producing the festival. She knows which authors to invite and is familiar with their work. She selects and organizes the staff of professionals and volunteers. More than that, she has founded and maintained the festival without letting it become political in any way. Stephen Harrigan, author of the recent best seller The Gates of the Alamo, who has worked on the festival, says that in working with her "you never felt she was doing it for any reason but to raise the money for libraries and to raise awareness of books and reading."

In the White House, her views on controversial issues such as abortion or the death penalty will remain private. "If I differed with my husband," she once told reporters, "I'm not going to tell you." Instead her public interests will remain education, childhood development and literacy. Exactly what forms those interests will take she doesn't know yet. The idea for the Texas Book Festival was suggested to her, and then she made it happen. Now I suspect something similar is in store. She will listen until she hears the right idea and then move decisively. "You know," she told me, "if you look back, you see that the First Ladies tended to focus on just a few issues. Lady Bird Johnson with wildflowers and highway beautification. What a lasting impact that has had on the country. And the First Ladies were generally more successful than their husbands. Their husbands had to deal with every issue, and so their legacy is more mixed. I have a forum. I won't have it always. The time is now."

Gregory Curtis, longtime editor of Texas Monthly, is now a Time Inc. editor at large