By Bruce McKinney

There's Books in Them There Hills

On Saturday May 15th the Gold Rush Book Fair will reprise its long history of successful events with its annual day-long show at the Nevada County Fairgrounds in Grass Valley, California. The fair has been a rite of spring for many years and reason for serious book buyers and neophytes to make a day of it in the northern California countryside. Forty-something participating dealers are offering antiquarian and rare books, first editions, prints, photographs and ephemera. The hours are from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.

This year the event is organized by The Friends of the Libraries at Nevada County, a charitable non-profit organization that provides financial support to libraries and encourages literacy. John and Susan Hardy of Hardy Books organized the event for most of the past decade and for the past several years John and The Friends of the Library have worked together. This year, for the first time, The Friends are managing it on their own.

As an added incentive to attend Pacific Book Auctions, of San Francisco, will be appraising material in exchange for a small donation to the Friends of the Library.

For exhibitors, as is this book fair's tradition, there is a banquet on Friday night at the Masonic Hall. This year's honored bookseller and keynote speaker is William Maxwell of Maxwell's Bookmark of Stockton, California.

A few booths are still available. Tom Gordon is handling this year's arrangements and can be reached by phone at [530] 478-9441 and by email at grbf@saber.net. Carol Herschleb is managing the catering.

Attached (click this link) is a printable coupon for free admission. [print out page]

The official online site: www.goldrushbookfair.com