Culture
Between the pages, an unusual find emerges for library book sale
A letter signed by Archer Huntington in 1948 is one of the silent auction items available at this year’s Friends of the Waccamaw Library summer book sale.
“Archer was writing to the sister of one of the stone sculptors,” said Bea Mantoni, the Friends board member who is overseeing the event.
The letter, which was found in a book donated to the Friends, has been authenticated by Brookgreen Gardens staff, Mantoni added.
Huntington and his wife, the sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, founded Brookgreen Gardens in 1932 after buying four former rice plantations.
“He has a very distinctive signature,” said Robin Salmon, vice president of art and historical collections at Brookgreen.
Brookgreen has Huntington’s correspondence about the gardens in its archives.
“It was quite a long time ago when they reached out about it,” she said. “It’s just a regular letter.”
The Friends recently asked her for a valuation. She wasn’t able to provide one.
“If it had been a handwritten manuscript for a poem,” it might have some value, Salmon said.
But she thinks it will still generate interest for the Friends.
“There are a lot of people around here whoul would be happy to have anything of Archer Huntington’s,” Salmon said.
For the silent auction, the Huntington letter will be part of a package that also includes books about Brookgreen and two admission tickets.
Other silent auction items include a collection of books written in Gullah, including a New Testament and “Porgy and Bess.”
“We thought it would be nice that the silent auction has a local flavor to it,” Mantoni said.
This year’s prices are $2.50 for hardcovers, $2 for large paperbacks and 50 cents or four for $1 for small paperbacks.
Coffee table books, DVDs, CDs and jigsaw puzzles will be priced as marked.
There will also be a large selection of children’s books for sale in one of the library’s small meeting rooms.
“It will be jam packed again this year with books and cool collections and stuff,” Mantoni said.
The sale is BYOB (bring your own bag or box).
Proceeds go to support programs at the library.
People who want to join the Friends can sign up in advance at the library or online at thefowl.org or at the book sale. Memberships start at $25 per person.
If you go
What: Friends of the Waccamaw Library summer book sale.
When: June 27 (Friends night), 5 to 7:30 p.m.; June 28, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; June 29 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Where: Waccamaw Library.
