Another Man’s Treasure

By Nancy K. Crevier

Since 1976 John Renjilian has volunteered his 40-plus years of expertise in the area of rare and collectible books to the Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale and this year is no different. Mr Renjilian has spent hours each week since last September sorting through the books donated to the library for the sale, seeking the unusual volumes that will make it into the collectibles section of the sale.

What makes a book rare, says Mr Renjilian, is based on quantity. How many books were originally printed and how many remain in circulation can affect the value of a book. “It is really a function of supply and demand,” he explains, as he points out some of this year’s better donations.

The Real Picadero is a collection of 18th Century Spanish reproduction woodcuts published in Barcelona. “It is a limited edition and while the cover is a little beat up, the inside is in beautiful condition,” he says.

Another book that has caught the book expert’s eye this year is a privately published Civil War narrative by Colonel Le Grand B. Cannon.

“It was originally published privately just for his family and friends in 1895, but it is not really the content of the book that makes it valuable,” Mr Renjilian says. “I found a personal letter at the back of the book from Colonel Cannon, and that is what increases the value of this book.”

A signed copy of William Burroughs’s White Subway will fetch a pretty penny for the book sale, he predicts, as will other books that came from the estate of local inventor Robert E. Fulton, Jr.

“We had a couple of hundred books donated from the estate,” he says. “Some are really good. A lot have to do with art, but what is going to make the Fulton books collectible to someone is more that it is a book from a local, famous character. It would be interesting to own something [Robert Fulton] held and read.”

A 19-volume set from 1824 of the works of Jonathan Swift shows off the marbled page edges and inside covers that were popular at that time. The set has seen better days, but even so, book collectors in the know will recognize the set as a bargain at $500. “Rebound, it would be in the four figures,” guesses Mr Renjilian.

Other books that may be of interest to book collectors at this year’s sale are Life, Letters and Journals by Louisa May Alcott, priced at an affordable $25 and a good, rebinding copy of Samuel L. Clemens’s Pudd’nhead Wilson for just $50. A bit pricier at $75 is a limited private edition of Santo Tomas Internment Camp by Frederick Stevens. True chess fans will not mind shelling out $350 for a signed copy of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess and book connoisseurs will gladly pay $400, Mr Renjilian hopes, for a first edition of If Morning Ever Comes by Anne Tyler.

Collectors of children’s books ranging from $10 to $25 will find many that are appealing. A first printing of The Black Stallion and Satan by Walter Farley has been donated, as has Marguerite Henry’s Justin Morgan Had A Horse. The Island of Skog by former Newtown resident Steven Kellogg is in this year’s collection, inscribed with an original sketch by the author/illustrator. The Tall Book of Mother Goose by Feodor Rojankovsky is yet another example of the fine books collectors will come across at the book sale next month.

 Collectible books are a little more difficult to define. What appeals to buyers one year, may not the next, says Mr Renjilian.

“Buyers are looking for nice-looking covers or it might be the subject or books signed by the author.” Signed copies end up in the collectibles section every year at the Friends’ sale and this year Mr Renjilian has come across autographs from Caroline Kennedy, Pete Rose, and Alan Sheppard, to name just a few.

Some sets are collectible for their value as decoration. “The Harvard Classics, for example, is a set of 51 books that were very popular at the time they were published in the early 1900s. Its premise was that it was the entire college curriculum, but more than likely, 75 percent of those books were never read.” He expects the red leather-bound collection to go to “the decorator set,” where they will beautify someone’s red-themed decorating scheme.

His personal favorite this year is The Code of Agriculture, not for its contents but for the bookplate in the front cover. “It has a wonderful, wonderful woodcut bookplate,” he claims.

Some collectors look for certain series or a particular author or illustrator. Other collectors want only children’s books. Magazines and old newspapers are of interest to a few collectors, says Mr Renjilian, and the book sale will have a small selection of those from which to choose.

Normally, more than half of the approximately 600 books in the rare and collectible section sell by the end of the first day of the sale, says Mr Renjilian. The two to four boxes of books left over following half-price day end up at book fairs, where he sells them for the library. Anything that remains after that goes back into the general collection for the following year’s Friends of the Library Book Sale.

“We have a good selection,” he says and he looks forward to a big crowd at the new venue.

This year’s Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Annual Book Sale will be held Saturday, July 1, through Wednesday, July 5, at Reed Intermediate School, on Trades Lane, daily from 9 am to 5 pm. There is an admission fee during the early hours of the first day of the sale only. For details go to www.biblio.org/CHBooth and select Book Sale.