The Boston Globe has officially dubbed the annual Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Book Sale the “largest and most well-run” book sale in the country last year. Drawing crowds from northern Maine shores all the way down the coast, not only is the sale returning, it is celebrating its 50th birthday.

Shoppers should know the sale officially opens on Friday, July 10, 1 pm at Reed Intermediate School, 3 Trades Lane. Admission is $20, half the price of years prior to celebrate the 50 year anniversary, and ticket sales begin at noon. Attendance is capped at 250 and the sale ends at 5 pm. The sale continues Saturday, July 11, 10 am-5 pm. Admission is $5 for those 18 and up and ticket sales start at 9 am. A coupon is available on the website, boothbooksale.org, for $3 off purchase. Sunday, July 12 begins the markdown sale at 25% off all regular items and runs from 10 am-5 pm. Monday, July 13, the sales continue at 50% off from 10 am-7 pm. Tuesday, July 14 is the beloved “free” day, where all remaining items are free to take (minus some items in the Specials Room), and runs from 10 am-1 pm.

The Newtown Bee stopped in at the historic library at 25 Main Street and checked in with current book sale chair Denise Kaiser, current president Nancy Dvorin, long-time specials section coordinator John Renjilian, and the woman who started it all with a cart of books on the library lawn during the 1975 Labor Day Parade — Joanne Zang.

A Table Of Books

Back in 1975, 51 years ago, Zang saw a pile of library discards and decided that the library could make some money selling them. The books were 25 cents apiece, and grossed a whole $35.

Zang admitted that she “knew nothing about books.”

Renjilian came along that year, too, introduced himself to Zang, and said, “If you ever want to really make this into a book sale, let me know and I’ll help out.”

“And he did,” Zang said. The two have been working together ever since.

While the sale started with one table, Zang said the next year there were more tables out on the lawn. Renjilian admitted that the Friends “piggybacked” off of the Mark Twain sale, which still takes place over Labor Day Weekend.

“They opened in the morning, we opened at 1 o’clock, and drew all the people up,” Renjilian said. While he did not remember how much they made, he was sure they had done “pretty well.”

The sale grew from there: selling books on the lawn to expanding down into the boardroom and then soliciting donations. Zang and Renjilian said that the books just kept coming.

Dvorin said one number the Friends does have now is that volunteers process about 1,000 items a day. Not a week, in one day about 1,000 books, puzzles, CDs, DVDs, vinyls, and more are processed and packed. Kaiser said the amount of donations that are accepted now cannot be quantified by quintupling the donations received for the 1976 book sale, it is “exponentially” larger.

While the Friends has said that there have been 120,000 items for sale in past years, this year is a bit smaller due to the construction at the library.

Temporary Relocation, Working In The Elements

For about nine months, the Friends had to relocate its operations to its off-site building at 23 Old Farm Road. The library was receiving important upgrades to its HVAC system, but the construction put a temporary halt in the Friends’ sorting room.

The Friends was occupying the original boardroom, but the construction has transformed that space into an official meeting room for boards and commissions to use. Now, Friends has resumed operations in its sorting room, immediately outside the boardroom.

“It was a difficult gestation,” Kaiser said with a laugh.

Dvorin added, “Just as everyone who works in the library was displaced during that period, we were displaced. We were fortunate, in a way, that the town has granted us use of the blue building on Old Farm Road.” Dvorin pointed to the Friends of Southbury’s library as an example of a group that did not have a place to go following the flood of August 18, 2024.

While the group did not consider itself “lucky” at the time of the construction, in hindsight, having First Selectman Bruce Walczak renew the space for the Friends was a stroke of good luck.

The Friends had four days’ notice to move operations. Dvorin gave Kaiser credit for coming up with a plan to have everything moved in time.

Kaiser said, “You can make any plan you like. You could be a general in your little tin hat. If people aren’t there to produce, and people aren’t there to do it, it’s purposeless … Everybody! The volunteers came through to make it possible for us to put in effect any kind of plan.”

The blue building offered the Friends a place to work and sort through books, but it is rather rugged compared to the library. There is no heat and no running water — in other words, no bathrooms. Kaiser certainly had a very dedicated group of volunteers, but she explained that she told people to stay home when it was a mere 17 degrees Fahrenheit out.

Kaiser said she gave hand warmers and space heaters to her “skeleton crew” of volunteers as a few of them were not able to work in the harsh cold that was this past winter.

“It is the people that make the organization. It’s the people who volunteer. It’s the people who donate. It’s the people who come to our book sale … We’re people people,” Kaiser said.

Renjilian agreed, saying, “We always have been,” and that it is a “distinguishing factor” for this book sale.

Dvorin said that the amount of donations did not compare to previous years. “We were gratified that so many people did find the blue building and trek out to donate, but it doesn’t compare. I mean, we probably received more books in the last month than we did in two months at the blue building. It’s just so convenient for people to bring them to the library.”

Readers are reminded that the Friends is also in its yearly donations collection pause. The pause is in effect from June 22-July 19, and Friends volunteers will once again welcome donations on July 20.

Call For Fresh Faces

Kaiser and Dvorin made a point to thank their volunteers for their hard work during the sale, but also all of the dedication that goes into packing and stacking boxes, sorting donations, and alphabetizing each item.

The Friends is looking for more volunteers now. Dvorin said, “A thread that’s run through this conversation so far is that people who have something to contribute just will come in and do it like Julie Starkweather just came in and alphabetized the books.”

Dvorin and Kaiser agreed that “no one is going to say no.”

“That’s just the nature of this group — that people are welcome to try,” Dvorin said.

Kaiser built on that: “There’s a lot of talent in town that’s just waiting to be tapped.” Those who are interested in volunteering with the Friends are invited to stop in and visit the first floor of the library or go to boothbooksale.org for more information and to fill out a contact form.

This Year’s Goods

Now, if someone asked any volunteer right now how they are feeling about the sale, the answer might be more lackluster than expected. The volunteers have been working tirelessly to sort donations by genre and then alphabetize them, something a lot of other book sales do not do. Through the sorting, however, the Friends has found some pretty amazing items for sale.

Renjilian has once again curated a stacked list of items collectors will love. The full list of highlights can be found at boothbooksale.org.

One of the more remarkable items for sale is an almost 500-year-old book printed in Tuscan — not Italian. The book is Di Dione Historico Greco delle Guerre Romane, or Twenty-two Books of the History of the Roman Wars by Dione. Originally written in Greek, it was translated into Tuscan by Mister Nicolo Lenoiceno. The book was published in Venice in 1542. The cover is made of vellum, or goat skin, and is still in very fair condition. It is listed for $100.

Top of the list is a signed book by P.T. Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs: Or, Forty Years’ Recollections of P.T. Barnum. While the book itself is not in the best shape — shoppers can see the recycled material used for the binding when it was published in 1882 — the signature on the inside is worth a glance and the $400 price tag.

“It was inscribed to Barnum’s partner,” Renjilian said. “They were not great friends to say the least … the story is kind of interesting. The book itself?” He shrugged his shoulders. “But this page is the worth of the book.”

Kaiser read off the writing: “‘JJ Nathans, My old partner, With compliments, P.T. Barnum’ ... Well that started me looking … He was the partner, he put on the shows. And Barnum tried to cheat him, tried not to pay him. He didn’t mention him in his autobiography.”

One item that is yet to be priced is a collection of 1.26-ounce silver medallions engraved with the work of Michelangelo. It includes engravings of frescos from the Sistine Chapel, The Last Judgement, and others. The entire collection is 75.60 ounces of sterling silver.

A children’s book dated sometime around 1784 will also be available in the Specials Room. The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse, volume two, by Dorothy Kilner is listed at $500. Illustrations are also included in the book, and the Friends suspects they were done by John Bewick.

A privately printed collection of queer poetry is also up for grabs at the 50th Booth Book Sale. This secretive anthology, Men and Boys. An Anthology, is suspected to have been compiled by Mark Anthony Slocum in 1924. The Friends noted that as of 1970, there are only seven copies still known to be extant, and one of them will be for sale at Reed Intermediate School. The listed price is $600.

This is just a small sample of the thousands of items for sale this year. Inquiring minds will have to stop by on July 10 to see and read more of what Friends of the C.H. Booth Library has to offer.

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Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.