A wake for The Washington Post’s books section

Hundreds gathered on Saturday evening in Washington, D.C., to mourn Book World, The Washington Post’s books section, which was shuttered this month amid widespread layoffs at the organization.

Journalists, policy wonks, speechwriters and erstwhile political aides packed the main branch of Politics and Prose, the storied bookstore, to hear former staff members and others commemorate what Marie Arana, a longtime editor of the section, called “a vanished gem.” She spoke alongside such former marquee critics and writers as Ron Charles, Michael Dirda and Carlos Lozada (now a New York Times Opinion columnist) — a “formidable cavalcade of smarts,” as she put it.

“We find ourselves battling book bans, the trivialization of truth, the bashing of serious journalism,” Arana said. “And now The Washington Post, once one of the most respected journalistic institutions in America, is enduring a mass demolition like no other.”

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