Princeton Public Library Book Sale Starts Friday

sale. (Planet file photo)

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.