Literacy Partners celebrated its 25th anniversary with the star-studded Evening of Readings Gala at Lincoln Center. Headliners from the worlds of fashion, design, and media joined forces along with chairs Liz Smith, and Arnold Scaasi and Parker Ladd to raise a whopping $1.2 mil to help fight adult illiteracy.

Nina and Mitchell Davidson and author Barbara Goldsmith were the night’s honorees, and Director Steven Daldry picked up the Face of Literacy award on behalf of himself and Kate Winslet for bringing attention to the issue in The Reader. Joining in the merriment were Barbara Walters, Marie Brenner, David Wroblewski, and Christopher Buckley, who read from their most recent works, as well as illustrious bookworms Martha Stewart, Leslie Stahl, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Mary Higgins Clark, David and Julia Koch, Jane Friedman, Susan Magrino, Ira and Ingeborg Rennert, Rory Tahari, Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss, Cornelia Guest, Mica Ertegun, and Tommy Tune— all supporting the goal to wipe out illiteracy!