The Friends of the West Tisbury Free Public Library open their 66th annual Book Sale this morning, July 30. It is one of the most anticipated events of the summer, a cherished West Tisbury tradition. Many people plan their vacations to coincide with its opening and duration.
I started thinking about the history of the book sale. I knew a little from my years on the library board, and working on the Book Sale some years ago. I wasn’t sure what was actual fact. It seemed a good idea for this week’s column, and so my research began. The original book sale was indeed Jane Newhall’s idea. It was still at the Grange, a.k.a. the old Ag Hall, in the 1980s when I moved to town. Both of those facts remain.
Lynne Whiting set me on a productive path that led to an online reunion with Francine Woods, Prudy Noon, and Terry Meinelt. All of them generously shared their stories.
The first book sale was held in 1958 on the Grange porch during the Agricultural Fair. Books had been donated to the library by Kenneth Jones when he closed his bookstore in New Rochelle, N.Y. Duplicates of books already in the library’s collection became the inventory for the first sale. Library trustees reportedly thought the idea was “crazy,” but Miss Newhall persevered, and the board was mollified when she announced that the sale had raised $250.
In subsequent years, Terry Meinelt and his sister, Kam, helped lay out the books by categories in bays in the Grange Hall. Terry said, “Jane would price them all by hand in pencil, most for 10 to 25 cents.” Harold Tinker, an English master at Choate School, renowned bibliophile and collector of 19th and 20th century American first editions, and West Tisbury summer resident, was called in to price rare or specialty books. Polly Meinelt and Lillian Magnuson were the cashiers. Terry delightedly mentioned that “they added up sales in their heads (pre-calculators) and made change the old-fashioned way!”
Terry remembered the hall “being filled with books on the day of the sale, with a crowd waiting to come in and make their purchases. As I recall, the hall opened at 1 or 2, and the sale ended at 5. Whatever books didn’t sell, Jane would box up, and move to her barn next to Alley’s store. She would then set up a booth on the front porch of the Grange Hall during the annual Agricultural Fair. I remember helping move boxes from Jane’s barn to the hall and back. She was always so proud of the money that this event raised for the library, and she always wanted to break ‘her record’ for sales with each successive year!”
The book sale moved to the West Tisbury School in 1997, where Sharon Estrella had the gym ready, as Harry Athearn had always prepared the Grange Hall. The Friends purchased long folding tables that were laid from wall to wall, laden with books. Art and Architecture were on the stage, sorted and priced by Ellen Weiss. Betty Haynes took over the cookbook section after she retired from the Post Office. Tom Vogl, Heidi Schultz, Hallie Mentzel, and Roberta Hearn were among the volunteers I remember. Betty Franklin, Lee Revere, and Katherine Long ran the sale, one after the other, before Susan Wasserman took over. Her grandson, Henry Bassett, was a stalwart volunteer, spending his boyhood and teenage summers handling every task requested of him.
In 2012, the year after she died, a number of Miss Newhall’s oil paintings were donated to that year’s sale, the money to be donated to the library. She had been an avid plein air painter with friends Ted Meinelt, Dorothy Wetmore, and Irene Salmon.
During the pandemic year, 2020, the Friends set up bookcarts outside the library to give away hundreds of free books to children and adults. By 2021, the book sale was back at the school.
The school was unavailable to them in 2022, so the Friends held pop-up book sales outside the library every summer Sunday, with weekend sales in November and December. Since then, they have set up a great, white tent in the school parking lot, filled as always with books, puzzles, games, etc. The sale has grown bigger every year.
This year’s sale runs from Thursday, July 30, to Monday, August 3, open from 9 am to 3 pm. Books are as priced the first three days. Sunday sales are half-price. On Monday, everything is free, although donations are appreciated.
Proceeds from the Book Sale supplement the town budget for books and materials, pay for the Summer Reading Program, staff training, museum passes, community programs, planning and construction, and the Halloween hayride. As in Jane Newhall’s day, the Friends take great pleasure in announcing that “this year’s sale beat last year’s record.”
