30th Ottawa Antiquarian Book Fair
24th October, Saturday 10:30am – 5:30pm
Tudor Hall – Conference Centre
3750 North Bowesville Road, Ottawa (near Riverside & Uplands)
For more information, please call or e-mail 613- 232-7495; benbooks@cyberus.ca

Thursday June 10, 3PM to 8PM
Friday June 11, 3PM to 8PM
Saturday June 12, 9AM to 3PM
Sunday June 13, 10AM to 3PM

310 Elgin Street, Ottawa, (Elgin at Gilmour)

Hard and soft cover books, children’s books, non-fiction, and more.  All proceeds go to arts and recreation programs for Elgin students.

Information: contactelgincouncil@googlegroups.com

June 4-5, Devonshire will be holding its 24th annual book sale.  Thousands of gently used books will be on offer; well organized and at bargain prices. The doors open on Friday at 3:30, and along with the books, there will be a silent auction, bake sale table and BBQ.  Saturday morning, from 9am to 12pm, will be the book sale only.  Devonshire Public School is  located at 100 Breezehill Ave. N. (between Somerset and Gladstone, just west of Preston) in Hintonburg.

Hundreds of gently used books, CDs and DVDs will be for sale at the One Boy One Van Foundation’s annual fundraiser. Event proceeds will benefit special needs children in the Eastern Ontario region. 

More info: www.oneboyonevan.ca

However I’d have to say that my best find while out hunting so far this year was surprisingly not a book.  While poking around for books at a local rummage sale downtown, I came across this intriguing sculpture.

It caught my fancy at once, and though I did walk away from it momentarily chiding myself for straying from my bookhunt, I quickly went back and made the purchase.  For only $10, I couldn’t pass up this little flowing brass figure.   When I got it home, I noticed a small stamp inside, “Fantoni Firenze, Italy”.  After a little research, it turns out this fine little piece was crafted in the Brutalist style by renown Italian ceramic and sculpture artist Marcello Fantoni.  Fantoni, who is still active despite pushing 100, was very influential in the 50’s and 60’s and still finds his work in major auction houses from time to time. 

I must say that I am quit pleased to be fortunate enough to chance upon such an excellent find outside of my specialty and am now deeply enjoying querying guests on their opinion of my fine Fantoni piece while using the snootiest art connosseur like voice I can muster

Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Sale 
April 17 – 10am-5pm April 18 – 10am-3pm
Nepean Sportsplex, 1701 Woodroffe Avenue, Hall F
Phone: 613-580-2424 x.41060

Happy Hunting!

The Ottawa Public Library Signets Vanier Bookmarks will hold a book sale on Saturday, April 17 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and on Sunday, April 18 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm at the Vanier Branch, Ottawa Public Library, 310 Pères Blancs Avenue. Proceeds will support the Vanier Branch, Ottawa Public Library. Signets Vanier Bookmarks is part of the Friends of the Ottawa Public Library and is dedicated to supporting the collections and services of the Vanier Branch.

Hawthorne United Church Book Bonanza
Saturday April 10th, 9am-2pm
2244 Russell Rd (between Walkley and St. Laurent)

Rockcliffe Annual Public Library Book Sale
380 Springfield Road, Ottawa
Saturday April 10th,  10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sunday April 11th, 12:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Bayview Public School Garage and Book Sale
Bayview School, 185 Owl Drive, South Ottawa
Saturday April 17, 9 am-12 pm

Deep River Public Library Book Sale
55 Ridge Road, Deep River, ON
Friday April 23, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday April 24, 10:00 a.m. to noon

First Avenue School 27th Annual Book Sale
73 First Ave, Ottawa (@ O’Connor)
April 22-25th:
4:00 PM – 9:00 PM Thursday
10:00 AM – 9:00 PM Friday
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM Saturday
10:00 AM – 3:00 PM Sunday

Another great resource to find what Ottawa Valley book sales may be on the horizon is the Biblio-Events page of the Ottawa Book Collectors website.  Also, if you know of an upcoming book sale in the area be sure to send us an e-mail so we can highlight in on our site.

The first was a very early Harlequin title (#192), Swamp Willow, by Edwina Elroy.  A very scarce title (only one rough looking copy Harlequin available online for $400 and an ex-library hard cover first for $900) of the fictitious “story of Holly Tanner and the five men who influenced her.”  Flush with detailed accounts of waterfront life on the New Jersey coast in Tannertown (including sailor brawls and rum-running), this is one of the only novels to use the “shabby” Jersey coast as it’s setting.  Managed to dig up the 1947 review from the NJ Red Bank Register (middle column, pg. 3) in which the locals seemed to find the book rather ”entertaining and enjoyable”.  The copy we have is in very good shape with only a bit of rubbing at the edges, so it will be interesting to see what we can get for it. 

The second fun find, while not nearly as pricey, is an early Arkham Sampler magazine from 1949 in fine shape.  The Arkham Sampler was a quarterly fantasy and horror fiction magazine first published in Winter 1948.  Edited by August Derleth and published by Arkham House, each issue had a print run of only 1,200 copies.  This issue is especially great (at least to me) as it has a wonderful short story by Clark Ashton Smith entitled The Root of Ampoi.

Finally, while not part of the above mentioned collection recently acquired, we did pick up a great piece of early science fiction by Otto Willi Gail called By Rocket to the Moon from 1931.  It’s one of the earliest science fiction tales of travel to the moon that was well researched and seemed plausible.  As Bleiler put it in his book Science-Fiction: The Early Years, “… fairly realistic in its description of the first flight into space. Despite Atlantis and life on the moon, the author has very carefully used the best scientific and technological data of his day, and much of what he says seems very modern.” 

The copy we picked up is even an advance reading copy no less, with a little tip in slip of paper from the publishing kindly asking that no reviews be published until the book is released April 25th, 1931. 

Now back to more packing as our move looms ever closer…