Christmas shopping in the tri-state area? Check out the estate sale selling 100,000 books.
The late William Roberts was a Pennsylvania lawyer, philanthropist, and self-identified bibliophile. And as The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in his recent obit, when the bookstore near his home closed, a window opened.
Roberts, a devoted reader, bought the store’s entire inventory. And subsequently “hired a carpenter to transform his home library” into Belle’s paradise.
Now through this weekend—especially if you live near Philadelphia—you can purchase a piece of his personal collection of thousands and thousands of books.
I’m talking book estate sale of the century, people. And as the Inquirer noted, titles are going for extremely cheap. $3 for paperbacks, $5 for hardcovers, and $20 for coffee table books.
Word is the trove runs cerebral, if these leaked looks at Virgil are anything to go by. But whether you buy or browse, it isn’t often one gets to peep the Athenaeum of a true renaissance man.
A buzzy recent auction of Roberts titles also included antiquarian gets, like “an atlas of Venice, works on translating Homer, and volumes on lichen, algae, and fungi, among many other topics.”
If you missed a chance to source that rare Spinoza, you’re in luck. The Philadelphia Rare Book Fair is also this weekend, and unfolding just around the corner.
Whatever your literary drothers, pour one out for Mr. Roberts and his epic library this weekend. May we all leave stacks behind.
