Princeton Public Library Book Sale Starts Friday
The 2013 Friends of the Princeton Public Library Book Sale will take place Friday through Sunday in the library community room and in a tent on Hinds Plaza.
One of the top used book sales in the region, the event features nearly 10,000 books for all ages on a wide variety of topics. Most books are priced between $1 and $3, with art books and special selections priced higher. This year’s sale includes a large number of children’s books, history books and art books, as well as books on cooking and gardening and a good selection of fiction, poetry and classics.
Buyers will also find many old and unusual books, books in a variety of foreign languages for both adults and children, CDs, DVDs (including many popular series), and audiobooks. Also on sale are modern first editions, a number of works by classic authors in fine bindings and sheet music. Of particular interest are:
– a signed copy of Seamus Heaney’s “Crediting Poetry, The Nobel Lecture”
– a 1906 edition of Grover Cleveland’s “Fishing and Shooting Sketches”
– first editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “All the Sad Young Men” and “Afternoon of an Author”
– first edition of Thomas Wolfe’s “Of Time and the River” that was dedicated to and signed by the iconic publisher Maxwell E. Perkins
– “Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of John,” printed in 1733, by Sir Isaac Newton. This book was in the Earl Harcourt’s collection. It also has a note inside signed by Winston S. Churchill (probably a facsimile signature)
– Raymond Cogniat’s “Decors de Theatre” inscribed by renowned scenic designer Donald Oenslager to Isaac Benesch (another set designer)
– books signed or inscribed by many well-known authors including Bill Clinton, William Saroyan, and Thornton Wilder
Collections include those of:
– Stanley Katz, featuring a fine selection of scholarly books on constitutional and international law
– Historians David Cannadine and Theodore Draper
– Composer Claudio Spies, including many music books
– Nathaniel Burt, author and son of authors Maxwell Struthers Burt and Katherine Newlin Burt, with a variety of books on Philadelphia and the West. Both father and son are Princeton University graduates.
The event opens with a preview sale Friday, Sept. 27, from 10 a.m. to noon. A ticket for the preview sale is $10, but admission is free for Friends of the Library. Numbered tickets will be available at the door starting at 8 a.m. Customers enter the sale in numerical order.
Starting at noon, admission to the book sale is free for the remainder of the sale. Hours are noon-8:30 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.Saturday, and 1-5:30 p.m. Sunday.
On Sunday, books will be sold at half price in the community room and in the tent on Hinds Plaza. From 3-5:30 p.m. on Sunday, a bag sale will be held in the tent where a standard grocery bag can be filled with books for $5. Bags will be supplied at the sale.