LAVERNGE, TN- Lightning Source Inc.., a leading on-demand printer, and Ingram Book Group Inc., a leading wholesaler of trade books and related products, today announced that they are sending a special gift to leaders in the book industry.

National Book Award Classics contains twelve essays by Neil Baldwin as well as a comprehensive listing of all National Book Award-winning titles since 1950. With reflections on the work of Flannery O'Connor, William Carlos Williams, and Ralph Ellison, among others, the 122-page volume examines important titles that have helped shape American literature since World War II.

"As I consider these twelve brief essays," Neil Baldwin writes in his introduction, "I realize how they serve as a way into American writing-not the only way, of course, but one possible way." Baldwin, who late last year left the post he held at the Foundation since its founding in 1989, is an acclaimed author and biographer. His new book, The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country, is forthcoming from St. Martin's Press.

National Book Award Classics is being produced in limited quantities and is not available for sale. The essays found in the book were originally composed by Baldwin as editorial for Ingram Book Group's publication, Adv@nce e.letter, a regular electronic communication to its customer base. Though the book is primarily intended as a token of gratitude to leading book-industry practitioners, it also is meant to inspire leaders of the book business to preserve and promote these classics. National Book Award Classics demonstrates the role on-demand printing now plays in preserving important works of literature.

"Lightning Source currently prints eight National Book Award-winning titles, so we are pleased to offer this volume as a gift to others serving as stewards of our literary heritage," says J. Kirby Best, CEO of Lightning Source Inc. "National Book Award Classics not only promotes great American works and supports the National Book Foundation, but also demonstrates how Lightning Source's fast economical, printing services enable publishers to maintain a robust and diverse backlist."

ABOUT LIGHTNING SOURCE
Lightning Source is the industry's leading provider of combined book manufacturing and distribution services. Powered by the world's leading digital book library, Lightning Source stores books electronically and delivers them "on demand" in either traditional printed format or as e-Books in response to orders from publishers, booksellers, and librarians. The company is revolutionizing the options available to the publishing industry in the storage, management and distribution of digital content. Lightning Source has printed more than 12,000,000 "on-demand" books for more than 2,100 publishers around the world. Lightning Source UK Ltd. is a subsidiary of Lightning Source Inc., a division of Ingram Industries Inc. For more information, visit our website at www.lightningsource.com.

ABOUT INGRAM BOOK
Ingram Book Group is a leading wholesaler of trade books, spoken audio, and magazines. Through its OneSource partnerships, Ingram also distributes music, DVD, video, Spanish language, and medical reference titles, and used and out-of-print books. Ingram and its partners provide immediate delivery of over 1 million titles. Ingram's operating units include Ingram Book Company, Ingram Periodicals Inc., Ingram International Inc., Ingram Library Services Inc., Spring Arbor Distributors Inc., Tennessee Book Company, Ingram Fulfillment Services Inc. and Ingram Customers Systems Inc. For more information, visit www.ingrambook.com.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL BOOK FOUNDATION
The mission of the National Book Foundation is to promote the reading and appreciation of great American literature among audiences across the country. Through educational outreach programs featuring National Book Award authors, the Foundation promotes both the enduring tradition of National Book Award texts, and "literate literacy": reading, writing, and an understanding of "the writing life" for audiences not ordinarily sought out or supported by the literary establishment. For more information, visit www.nationalbook.org.