Date: Fri 06-Aug-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: JAN

Quick Words:

Booth-Library-book-sale

Full Text:

GENNEWS / LIBRARY

Labor Day weekend book sale features 100,000 books

The Booth Library Book Sale, one of New England's largest book sales, will

offer over 100,000 books and recordings during the 1999 Labor Day weekend. Now

in its 24th year, this annual fund-raiser just keeps growing.

Hardcover and paperback books will be offered in more than 70 categories,

including nonfiction (war and military, gardening, cooking, art, biographies,

crafts, Christmas, chess, history, flower arranging, and much more) and

fiction (novels, mysteries, science fiction, occult, short stories, and more).

Thousands of books for children will be available, along with computer

software, LP records, tapes and CDs, games, and puzzles.

Books about the Vietnam War are becoming highly collectible. This sale

includes many written about that war from the 1960s to the 1990s. They are

part of a reference collection on military subjects that covers the Civil War

through modern times, donated from a private library.

This sale also offers an unusually large selection of art books and books

about music, even musical scores; plus many collectible cookbooks, some signed

by notable chefs.

The rare book room is a perennial highlight. Among the choice collectibles

offered is Far Away and Long Ago by the turn-of-the-century naturalist author,

William Henry Hudson. This is a 1943 Limited Editions Club edition; only 1500

copies were made. It is signed by both the illustrator and the designer and

its remarkable binding is half tanned cowhide and half hair covered. Two first

editions featured are Harrison Fisher's American Beauties (1909) and Our

National Parks (1901) by John Muir in its original dust jacket. A number of

books from the 1800s include R. Chambers Book of Days (two-book set, 1879) and

Montesquieu's The Spirit of Laws (two-book set, first American printing,

1802). Children's authors are prominent this year, as well: L. Frank Baum

(1917 The Lost Princess of Oz ) and P.L. Travers, who wrote Mary Poppins ( Ah

Wong , signed and numbered 66 of 500 privately printed).

The Booth Library Book Sale will be held inside Bridgeport Hall, Fairfield

Hills, on Saturday, September 4, 10 am to 5 pm; Sunday, September 5, 10 am to

5 pm; Monday, September 6, 9 am to 4:30 pm; Tuesday, September 7, 2 to 6 pm;

Wednesday, September 8, 10 am to 4 pm.

Admission of $5 is charged on Saturday only ($3 for members of Newtown's

Friends of the Library); tickets go on sale at 7 am. On Saturday and Sunday,

books will be sold at the marked price. On Monday, books will be sold at half

the marked price from 9 am to 2 pm. From 2:30 to 4:30 pm on Monday and again

on Tuesday from 2 to 6 pm, books will be $5 per bag. Leftover books will be

free on Wednesday from 10 am to 4 pm, with donations accepted.

Refreshments will be available Saturday through Monday. All proceeds from the

Book Sale benefit the Booth Library in Newtown. The location is easy to reach:

Take I-84 in Connecticut to Exit 11, turn left at the bottom of the ramp onto

Mile Hill Road, and follow the signs about one mile to reach Fairfield Hills.

There is plenty of free parking.

For more information, call the Cyrenius H. Booth Library at 203/426-4533.