brandeis book sale (near chicago)

It's final chapter for Brandeis Book Sale

February 23, 2006

BY MARK J. KONKOL Staff Reporter

Every summer at the Brandeis Book Sale, a few special finds make collectors drool -- mixed in, of course, with about 400,000 other bound bargains hawked for a few bucks each under a giant tent in Skokie.

It's so popular that sale regulars start marking places in line with folding chairs -- like so many snow-shoveled parking spaces in Chicago neighborhoods -- days before tables are piled high with books.

At the moment the event begins, more than a thousand people are usually standing in line.

On June 10, they'll pitch their last tent in the Old Orchard Shopping Center parking lot behind Bloomingdale's for a final fund-raiser for the sale's namesake charity, Brandeis University -- a prestigious Jewish-sponsored institution near Boston.

"The decision was made that this would be the last one," said Nancy Levi, chairman of the sale put on by the North Shore Chapter of the Brandeis University National Women's Committee.

"Volunteers are becoming scarcer than hen's teeth. And they're getting older, no longer able to pick up cartons of books and pack them. And there are not a lot of young people to replace them."

The Brandeis Book Sale debuted in 1958, put on by a group of local women trying to raise money for the university library and "keep the Brandeis name alive in the Midwest," Levi said.

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They sold about 1,000 books at an empty storefront in Winnetka on their first try. And every year since, the group has collected books for the charity sale.

"We never know what will come in. People clear out their shelves, or their aunt dies and has no children, and they pack up the books and we pick 'em up," Levi said.

About eight years ago, the group made about $1,500 in a silent auction for a book written and signed by Albert Einstein.

Beyond the books, Levi says there's interesting stuff tucked inside the pages -- cash, bonds, bar mitzvah certificates and even a photo of a man standing arm-and-arm with late Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Volunteers sort the books, box them and stack about 4,000 cartons in "mountains" at a Glenview warehouse.

"It's a lot of work, 11 months for a (nine-day) sale," Levi said.

But those sale days sure are grand.

"It's a zoo, and it's fun and it's exciting. People who came as children are now bringing their children," Levi said.

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With the book sale end so near, organizers admit they're having a terrible time letting go.

"There's been a lot of crying," chapter president Carol Colby said.

"A lot of us have spent a great deal of time among the books in the warehouse. It's like [the sale] has a life of its own. . . . But life does change. A lot of us. . . . are too old to do the kind of work that needs to be done."

Putting together the book sale is a costly endeavor that has continually cut into profits. In recent years, the sale has made $100,000 to $300,000 for the university.

But not quite ready to give up, Colby says there's the slightest sliver of hope of saving the sale.

"Well, maybe if an angel came along. It's possible," she said.

"But we're of the feeling that we'll go out with a bang, have a real humdinger for a last one.

"We're not going out like a wimp. We want to make a big splash."

One last time.