<p>Dolly Parton, a renowned country music artist, founded the Imagination Library over 30 years ago to promote literacy among young children. The program, which began in 1995 in her home county of Sevier, Tennessee, has expanded internationally, mailing over 3 million books each month to children from birth to age 5.</p>
<p>The initiative provides age-appropriate books at no cost to families, operating through Parton’s Dollywood Foundation in collaboration with local organizations and governments that help fund and manage the program.</p>
<p>Parton started the Imagination Library in honor of her father, Robert Lee Parton, who was unable to read. She noted that his illiteracy affected his life and inspired her commitment to childhood literacy. During a visit to the Library of Congress in 2018, she reflected on her father's struggles with reading, stating, “Daddy thought it was just something he couldn’t learn after he was grown, so he never tried to learn to read and write.”</p>
<p>Initially, the program distributed books only in Sevier County, earning Parton the nickname “the book lady.” By 2003, the program had mailed 1 million books, and it became a statewide initiative in Tennessee the following year. The program expanded to Canada in 2006, the United Kingdom in 2007, Australia in 2013, and Ireland in 2019. By 2024, approximately 1 in 7 U.S. children under age 5 received a book from the Imagination Library each month.</p>
<p>In its growth, the program celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025, surpassing 3 million books distributed monthly, a significant increase from 1 million monthly books less than a decade prior. Since its inception, the Imagination Library has distributed over 300 million books.</p>
<p>The Imagination Library is a key aspect of Parton’s philanthropic efforts, which also include contributions to education, disaster relief, medical research, and children’s hospitals. Parton has expressed that the Imagination Library is one of her proudest achievements, stating in 2022, “This one is so personal to me, I have to say, this means more to me than almost anything in my whole career.”</p>