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Imagination Library Tops 300 Million Free Books Worldwide

8/26/2026

49 4 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

Dolly Parton died at age 80, leaving a global literacy legacy.
She founded the Imagination Library in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, honoring her father.
By 2026 the program had gifted over 300 million free books across five countries.
It delivers one free, age-appropriate book each month to children from birth to age five.
In the U.S., about one in six children under five are enrolled, receiving three million books monthly.

History

Historical Context

Reading Is Fundamental, founded in 1966 by Margaret McNamara with Ford Foundation seed money, grew into a national nonprofit that had distributed 37 million books by 1980. Congressional support in the 1990s expanded its reach to millions of low-income children, a model later echoed by Dolly Parton’s 1995 Imagination Library, which began delivering free books to infants and now operates in multiple countries.

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Story summary

Dolly Parton died at age 80, leaving a global literacy legacy.
She founded the Imagination Library in 1995 in Sevier County, Tennessee, honoring her father.
By 2026 the program had gifted over 300 million free books across five countries.
It delivers one free, age-appropriate book each month to children from birth to age five.
In the U.S., about one in six children under five are enrolled, receiving three million books monthly.

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