Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Villa Montalvo book fair will feature rare editions

By Tim Persyn

The Villa Montalvo Book Fair, scheduled for March 24, will feature rare books and specialist book dealers.

For sale at the fair will be first editions of Mother Goose Prose, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, and of Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain; a souvenir pamphlet of the first Ferris wheel from the Colombian Exposition in 1893; and a two-volume National Socialist German Worker's Party presentation copy of Mein Kampf.

"The Mein Kampf is incredible because it is Hitler's copy taken from his [Munich] office," said Susan Klein, a San Jose book dealer and chairwoman of the event. The claim that it is Hitler's copy can be documented, she said.

Also available at the fair will be an 1873 two-volume folio edition of the Dore Bible in gilt-decorated dark-blue morocco leather with 450 engravings. Klein said the Bible is in very good shape.

"It's rare to see a book this size and age in this condition," she added.

A Tennessee Williams tome will also be displayed at the fair--not one of the playwright's scripts, but a copy of Elegies From the Castle of Duino that he once owned. Rainer Maria Rilke's book was translated from the German and printed in 1931 by the Cranach Press on handmade Maillol-Kessler paper for the Hogarth Press in London. The decorations are by Eric Gill.

Williams' ownership signature and the address of his residence in Rome are on the front endpaper. "This is an incredibly rare book," Klein said.

The fair will feature dealers who are members of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, the only organization of antiquarian booksellers in the country that is recognized internationally. These dealers include Klein, Argus Books & Graphics from Sacramento and Tavistock Books from Alameda.

Klein specializes in 20th-century literature, Tavistock in Charles Dickens and Argus in Americana.

Those who own books they believe to be rare or valuable can have the works appraised at the fair.

The book fair is set for 10 a.m.-5 p.m. at Villa Montalvo, 14500 Montalvo Road, Saratoga. Admission is $4, or $3 for students and seniors. Proceeds benefit Montalvo's Phelan Library. For more information, call 741-3421.