The 70th anniversary of the annual Case Western Reserve University Book Sale will feature display tables filled with more than 70,000 items—books, prints, maps and atlases, sheet music, CDs, DVDs, records, play scripts and memorabilia.
The sale, a fundraiser for Case Western Reserve’s Association for Continuing Education, is May 21-24 at Adelbert Gymnasium.
Coordinated by a dedicated group of year-round volunteers, the sale is free and open to the public, except for a pre-sale preview for $20, from 10 a.m. to noon, on May 21, which allows shoppers to scour the collection before doors officially open to the public.
Regular sale hours are noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (May 21-23), and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 24, which is $5 “box day” (in which shoppers can bring and fill any size box for that amount).
Highlights of this year’s sale include:
- An extensive rock ‘n’ roll collection (books, CDs, memorabilia), including a 17-box collection of items donated anonymously;
- An unusually large collection of books on the entertainment industry;
- 18th– and 19th-century first editions;
- A 1973 first edition of Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize-winning Sula;
- A Leo Leonni folio published by Verve magazine;
- And an extensive collection of science-fiction magazines from the 1940s and ’50s.
Something for everyone
In addition, the sale will feature a four-volume set of The Life of Jesus Christ, illustrated by James Tissot; a deep collection of plays, playbills and theater-related books and texts; collections of Zane Grey and Hardy Boys books; a wide selection of gun, knife and survivalist’s books; and one of the biggest Game of Go collections ever donated to the sale.
Those who love fine books—to read and/or collect—will find much to pique their interest, including many first editions and a rare two-volume set of Moby Dick at the Lit tables. Meanwhile, those who love fiction will find plenty of bargains at the Fiction and Foreign Language tables.
Those who love non-fiction will find unique and well-priced items—biographies, military and Civil War histories, adventure travel guides, atlases and maps, Cleveland and regional history (including local school yearbooks)—in the History aisles. Of special note are a signed copy of Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World and Reay Tannahill’s Food in History.
Meanwhile, those who are looking for sports-related and “how-to” books—on everything from cooking to woodworking to restoring a classic car—will probably find what they need in the Home, Sports and Leisure aisles. Among the selections: David Borsvold’s Cleveland Indians: The Cleveland Press Years, Bob Feller’s Now Pitching and Tiger McKee’s classic, The Book of Two Guns.
STEM buffs will find extensive collections of metallurgy, graduate-level math and natural and science books, as well as business, technology, law and medicine books, in the Science, Business and Technology aisles.
A summer’s worth of reading, games and puzzles can be found in the Children’s and Home, Sports and Leisure sections.
The Association for Continuing Education (ACE) is a volunteer non-profit organization dedicated to providing stimulating, non-credit continuing education programs. ACE is affiliated with the Laura and Alvin Siegal Lifelong Learning Program at Case Western Reserve.
For more information visit acesite.org/book-sale.