Rare And Collectible Books—

More Literary Treasures Emerge For This Year’s C.H. Booth Library Book Sale

By Jan Howard

The collectible room, a longtime attraction of the C.H. Booth Library’s Labor Day Book Sale, is the destination of choice for dealers and bibliophiles who choose from the hundreds of excellent rare and collectible books and other items offered for sale.

Determining what makes a book rare or collectible is the responsibility of John Renjilian, a rare and collectible books dealer, who has volunteered his time for 28 of the sale’s 29 years, sorting through the many books that are donated to the library each year for those that would fall into those categories.

More than 160,000 donated books in 76 categories and records will be for sale during the library’s annual sale September 4 through September 8 from 9 to 5 pm at Bridgeport Hall on the Fairfield Hills campus.

Books are considered rare if more people want them than are available, Mr Renjilian explained.

“It goes by the numbers,” he said, noting the longer it takes to find a book adds to its rare definition. “For a truly rare book you have to wait until someone cleans out an attic somewhere. It is also a rare book if it is signed.”

There are a number of ways to place a value on a book, Mr Renjilian noted, such as through the Internet.

Placing books in the collectible room, “In practical terms, is more of a protective thing,” Mr Renjilian said. He said if they were out on the floor they would be more subject to damage, which would lessen their value.

Collectible books are those that are desirable for qualities other than just content, such as age and condition, pictures and illustrations, limited printing, or an especially good dust jacket.

“My goal is to sell my stuff at 60 percent of retail,” he said. Most of the books would remain available through the half price sale, he said. In the case of some rare or collectible books, however, if they don’t sell in the two full price days, they are often removed before the half price sale and saved for the next year’s sale.

Mr Renjilian said he often takes the leftovers to shows, where he will try to sell them on behalf of the library.

Despite all the checking Mr Renjilian does, sometimes a rare or collectible book slips through and becomes part of a larger fiction and nonfiction collections available to buyers. This does not upset him, he said, noting that some book dealers often look through the larger collections before they check out the collectible room. “If you can’t find sleepers at a library sale, why go?” he added.

Mr Renjilian said the collectible room contains more literature this year than in previous years.

Among items included in the collectible room this year is a scrapbook from 1898 to 1904 that contains American and European theater, music, and art exhibit playbills and programs as well as a program of the 1903 Army-Navy game with a roster of players. The scrapbook contains an original Houdini playbill as well as information about lectures by E. Burton Holmes. The scrapbook has been priced at $350.

It is not known who kept the scrapbook. “Whoever it was went to a lot of things,” Mr Renjilian said, noting the scrapbook provided a look at six years of someone’s life.

He said a dealer or a magic collector, because of the Houdini playbill, could purchase the scrapbook.

Also among the treasures in the collectible room is a grammar and dictionary of the Otchipwe language, priced at $800 for the pair. The books were for the use of missionaries and other persons living among the Indians. Both volumes carry the penciled name D.H. Merritt 1887 on the inside front cover and other information.

Native American books are very popular because the supply is limited, Mr Renjilian said.

Other books include a signed book by Ezra Pound. Another by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and the Damned, is in very good condition but no jacket and is priced at $300.

Also included in the collection is The Cunning Little Vixen by Ruolf Tesnohlodek, a first edition, with illustrations by Maurice Sendak, with a preliminary sketch of the vixen, signed by Sendak, dated December 1980. The sketch is on card stock, folded, and used as a Christmas greeting by Greta and Malcolm Graff.

The book sale features hardcover and paperback fiction, all alphabetized and organized into sub-categories including classics, mysteries, science fiction, and romance; nonfiction, including biographies, art, architecture, math, engineering, computers, history, cooking, gardening, home improvement, travel, and others. The sale also features children’s books and games, and many records, tapes, and CDs.

Friends of the C.H. Booth Library numbered admission tickets for Saturday, September 4, will be on sale Friday, September 3, from noon to 9 pm, and Saturday, September 4, at 8 am at Bridgeport Hall.

Adult admission is charged Saturday only, $10 from 9 am to noon and $5 from noon to 5 pm. Only Booth Library numbers will be honored.

Books will be sold at half price on Monday, September 6, and for $5 a bag on Tuesday. On Wednesday, September 8, the final day, books will be free.

Refreshments are available.

All proceeds benefit the library. For more information, call the Booth Library at 426-4533 or visit the website at www.biblio.org/chbooth/booksale.htm.