BOOK APPRAISALS
By Tom McGee
Cowan Center for the Arts Training Center Community Room
Sunday, June 26th at 2:00PM – 3:45PM
For a $2.00 donation per book, benefiting the Cowan Center for the Arts, Tom will appraise your book. Bring your old loved books to find out if you have a rare one that may be the find of the century. Or Not! Anyway this will be a good time to come and have Tom give you all the information about your well loved books.
Tom’s lecture will follow at 4:00PM in the Arts (Theater) building.
Famous American Book Collectors
Speaker: Tom McGee
Cowan Center for the Arts
Sunday, June 26th, at 4:00 PM
This lecture will focus on interesting and amusing anecdotes about American
book collectors from Thomas Jefferson to Stephen Blumberg.
President Jefferson was perhaps the most famous and avid book collector in America during the early years of our republic. The British burned the original collection of 3,000 books at the Library of Congress during the War of 1812, and Jefferson offered his personal library to start a new one. After much debate and opposition from Federalists, Congress agreed to purchase Jefferson’s library. Much of the debate was centered on the possibility that Jefferson’s books would disseminate his “infidel philosophy”. His library of 6,707 books was purchased for $23,950.
Mr. Blumberg is the most famous book thief in American history. Over two decades in the late 20th century he stole 23,600 books from 268 libraries in 45 states. Mr. Blumberg, who never stole the books for money, believed he was rescuing the books. He considered the collection he assembled to be similar to an interlibrary loan, and he stated that it was never his intent to keep the books. His collection had an estimated worth of over $5,000,000.
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