Rare and Unusual Discoveries at the Victoria College Book Sale

^{Nancy Ruhnke and Dr. Robert C. Brandeis examine recent donations to the Victoria College Book Sale. (Photos by Will Dang)}

By Joe Howell

Deep in the basement of the E.J. Pratt Library, Nancy Ruhnke 7T3 and Dr. Robert C. Brandeis help sort the hundreds of boxes of books, records and artifacts donated to the Victoria College Book Sale every year. It takes months for their team of volunteers to get everything ready for the five-day event, which sees thousands of book lovers descend on Vic’s beautiful campus. 
 
“Thanks to the dedicated efforts of countless volunteers and staff, the sale has generated millions of dollars for the library and student scholarships and bursaries since its inception in 1992,” says Ruhnke, the manager of the sale. She recalls being asked in 1992 whether she could spare an afternoon to volunteer—and 32 years later, her afternoons are still “booked” for it. 
 
Brandeis was the chief librarian at Victoria University during that inaugural book sale, and has worked as a volunteer since retiring in 2013. He runs the sale’s “specials room,” where the rarest finds are displayed, and is responsible for pricing the treasures sold there. When we visited the basement, Brandeis was busy examining two stacks of paperbacks: rare copies of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and first editions of books by Leonard Cohen. 
 
“The book sale generally has between 40,000 and 50,000 books,” says Brandeis. “People come to it for all sorts of reasons. Some of it is the thrill of the chase and then the capture at the end.” 

^{Book sale volunteers pose for a photo in a donation sorting room.}

Here are some of the rarest and most unusual finds discovered by the book sale’s volunteers: 

• “A couple of years ago there was a paperback book that was about to be recycled,” says Brandeis. “I looked at it, and it turned out to be a proof copy of Cormac McCarthy’s first novel, The Orchard Keeper. That sold for over $2,000.”
  
  
• “A number of years ago we found a Canadian edition of Agatha Christie’s first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles,” says Brandeis, who notes that collectors focusing on individual authors may seek editions from other countries or in other languages. “This one had a dust wrapper, which from a book roughly 100 years old is very unusual—people tend to take them off. Even though the dust wrapper was torn and missing some pieces, it still realized quite a significant amount for the book sale.”

• Volunteers for the annual Vic Book Sale were sorting and pricing books when they discovered a little art book on Salvador Dali ... signed by Dali himself! But why would the artist sign a book he didn’t write? “Dali was quite the self-promoter,” says Brandeis. “It’s not unusual that he would have had books about himself for sale at an exhibition of his work, or an exhibition attendee may have brought it for him to sign.”
  
  
• Volunteers also find all manner of things tucked away inside books, like love notes and pressed flowers. “The thing we like to find is cash, of course,” says Brandeis with a laugh. “Sometimes we find old Canadian $1 bills used as bookmarks,” adds Ruhnke. “And we did find 250 bucks once!”
  
  
• The coolest thing of all they found stashed in a book? “Two years ago, there was an American history book, and in it was a letter from Senator John F. Kennedy signed in 1960,” says Brandeis.
  
  
• There are sometimes other “cultural artifacts” for sale in the specials room, says Brandeis. “A few years ago, we had a whistle from the First World War. People would blow the whistle when they would go over the trenches. That was a hot item.”

• “This year we have wax seals from letters during the 18th or 19th century with their own crest,” says Brandeis. “Someone would seal the envelope with a blob of hot wax, and then push their signet ring into it to seal the letter.” What will he do with these odd items? “I’ll do a bit more research on them and then put them up for sale in the specials room,” he says.

The 2024 Victoria College Book Sale opens on Thursday, Sept. 19, and runs until Monday, Sept. 23. The Friends of Victoria University Book Shop, found in the front room of the E.J. Pratt Library, is open from noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays. Visit the Victoria College Book Sale webpage to learn more.