Scrapbook covers 50 years of library’s book fair

Written by Julia Hurwitz
Wednesday, 18 August 2010 23:00

This year the library is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its annual book fair, and in honor of this momentous occasion, I was asked to put together a scrapbook of these 50 years of book fairs. I was presented with an enormous box overflowing with bits and pieces of history. The scrapbook is full to bursting, with an abridged version of more than half a century’s worth of material.

When the Berkshire Special pulled into the station in June 1908, a certain Samuel Langhorne Clemens stepped off the train and into the little Connecticut town that was to be his home until his death. Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, thought Redding was nearly perfect. Only one thing was lacking: There was no town library. Twain decided that simply wouldn’t do. Thus, the project began; an effort to raise sufficient funds to build a library in concert with the entire community. Of course, Twain could have simply given the money to found a library, but he wanted to go one better, to start something that would be built up and maintained by the people it was meant to serve.

A temporary library was opened in October 1908, and the library was moved to its permanent home on Feb. 18, 1911, when the dedication and formal opening of the Mark Twain Library and Jean Clemens Memorial Building took place. As the years went by, many dances, silver teas, and lawn parties were held to raise money for the library. Then, one day just about 50 years ago, a table appeared in the library, piled high with a variety of books for sale. The Mark Twain Library Association’s Annual Book Fair fund-raiser had begun!

Small book sales had been held over the intervening years since the library’s founding, of course, but this first unofficial book fair, consisting of a library table strewn with rare and autographed books, would grow into an annual tradition, as well as one of the most successful and enduring book fair fund-raisers in New England.

In 1961, the event, now officially the first annual book fair, was moved from inside the library to a trailer outside the building. There 1,500 books were sold, raising $500, a substantial sum at the time.

The book fair moved again in 1965, to the Country Emporium, a building situated behind the station platform where Twain had disembarked in 1908.

In 1973, the book fair had outgrown the Country Emporium, and was moved to John Read Middle School. By 1974, the Berkshire Special had been long gone, but a new train was pulling up to that same platform. The Penn Central Book Fair Train provided transport for New York and Connecticut bibliophiles direct to the West Redding train station. There were more than 25,000 books offered for sale at the fair, raising close to $20,000.

What was once a little book sale used to raise some extra money for the library quickly became an enormous four-day event, which, by the 1980s, was providing almost one-third of the library’s income.

When the fair had again grown to the point where a new location would be necessary, it was moved to the Redding Elementary School, where the Big Gym and the Little Gym were both packed with books, as was the cafeteria, and the large tent pitched on the front lawn. Finally, in 2003, the fair was moved once again, to the Redding Community Center, where it has remained these past seven years in a state of air-conditioned delight.

In sorting through dozens of folders and binders stuffed with newspaper clippings, sketches, invitations, letters, and what may only be referred to as pre-book fair battle plans, it was made clear just how much goes into every aspect of running this fair. A tremendous effort is made by a dedicated and valiant group of volunteers whose reward for the months of labor — the sorting, the boxing, the pricing, and, come Labor Day weekend, the unpacking and selling — is the knowledge that all their hard work will benefit the library. Theirs is a Herculean task, but the back room volunteers are a cheery lot, and I heartily admire them.

My own task, putting the contents of that book fair box into some facsimile of order and then winnowing out a comparatively few representative articles to put in my scrapbook, seemed equally enormous. But I found quite a few intriguing items:

One piece that I was determined to include, despite the fact that it is three pages long, is a delightful account titled “Confessions of A Book Fair Cashier, or “Beware A Woman with A Texas Accent!” detailing the perils of answering one’s phone in late July or August — it might be Lynell Pinion, the “doyenne of volunteers for the Mark Twain Library’s Book Fair” whose task it was to ensure that there would be plenty of cashiers to staff the fair on Labor Day weekend.

There were several newspaper clippings dated 1975 that included an unusual photograph; not the typical image of tables full of books while avid readers hunt through the hundreds of volumes for sale. Instead, we see a pleasant, smiling woman dressed in a plaid skirt and holding an accordion. This, it seems, is Margaret Leslie, “Scottish folk singer and accordion player” who was one of the musicians who played during the fair to amuse people while they browsed.

Another amusing tidbit was the heading of a “Book Fair Update,” the minutes of a meeting from October 1988, following up that year’s fair. It reads, in emphatic capitals: “STORAGE! STORAGE! STORAGE! STORAGE! STORAGE! DO WE HAVE STORAGE??”

On the back of what seems to be the rough draft of an article written about the book fair for this same newspaper 24 years ago, a handwritten addendum reads: “The Only Sane Way to Buy Books!”

There are copies of letters sent to New York Magazine, Connecticut Magazine, and Yankee Magazine, book fair advertisements from The New York Times, and even a postcard from Willard Scott of the Today Show expressing regrets at having been unable to attend.

In 1993, Garrison Keillor was named honorary chairman of the book fair, and local authors Jane and Michael Stern did their bit and wrote a fantastic review of the book fair fare, describing this as “the second-best eatery in Redding.”

There is even a copy of a check for $750 sent to the library from the Pequot Library, warning it not to accept any check from the signer, a book dealer. The dealer’s check had bounced, and no trace of the man could be found!

Interested yet? The scrapbook will be on display at the library for anyone who wishes to flip through the pages.

Julia Hurwitz is a senior at Drew University, double majoring in English and French.

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