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A paradise of pages

More than 115 vendors will have stacks of books, maps, autographs and other paper collectibles at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair in St. Petersburg.

ST. PETERSBURG - When the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair opens its doors at the Coliseum on Friday night, bibliophiles will be there in droves: scholars, investors, hobbyists and maybe a truck driver who reads classical works in ancient Greek.

The fair is the largest and oldest of its kind in the Southeast and one of the largest in the nation, says Mike Slicker.

Slicker has owned Lighthouse Books, at 1735 First Ave. N in St. Petersburg, since 1977. The shop, a vintage bungalow stacked to the rafters with about 30,000 books, specializes in books about Florida and the Caribbean, Southern literature, children's books, maps, prints and Americana.

Lighthouse will be one of more than 115 vendors at the book fair. Many are from Florida, including about a dozen from the Tampa Bay area, but others will come from as far away as New Hampshire and California. They specialize in just about anything between covers.

Not every book at the fair will be old, Slicker says. In practice, antiquarian "kind of means collectible." And books won't be the only things available. The fair's vendors also offer maps, prints, documents, autographs and other paper collectibles. Prices range from $1 postcards to books worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Many of the books and other objects are quite old: illuminated manuscripts from as far back as the 12th century, for example.

Others, though, date back only decades or years. No one would think of the megabestselling books by John Grisham as rarities; there are enough copies of them out there to build a small city.

But Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, was originally published by Wynnewood Press in a small run of only a few thousand. When his second book, The Firm, became a phenomenon, A Time to Kill was reprinted. Copies from that first printing can fetch as much as $2,000, Slicker says.

Signatures can make a book more valuable. At Lighthouse Books, a first edition of The Yearling signed by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings has a price tag of $2,500.

Another book in Slicker's inventory is priced at $7,500. You might never have heard of Baseball: An Informal History by Douglass Wallop. But this copy bears almost 70 signatures from baseball's pantheon: Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio, Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Ted Williams and more.

Such unique items are one thing that draws people to the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, now in its 23rd year. Last year, about 2,000 people attended.

"I think this area is more culturally inclined than some other cities," Slicker says. "And, of course, it is Florida in the wintertime. People fly in from all over the country."

The folks who troll through the stacks, he says, are "all kinds of people, from all walks of life."

Book collectors have many motivations. Some are hobbyists or people who simply have a passion about something. "It may be railroads or cooking or paper dolls," he says.

Last year, he appraised a book collection that was part of the estate of a local man who was fascinated by the 1950s. He had collected 12,000 books on subjects such as the Korean War, Marilyn Monroe, Ayn Rand and the Beat writers.

Some, like that truck driver, collect for educational purposes. Slicker says the man sought out books from a series called Loeb Classics, works of ancient Greek literature with the Greek version on one page and an English translation on the facing page.

"He taught himself to read Greek that way, and now he reads them at the truck stops."

Other collectors are scholars or lovers of literature who value a book for its ideas. "Books are thought artifacts," Slicker says. "Part of the mystique of collecting literature is having the genesis of an idea or style in your hands."

On the other hand, he says, for some people books are nothing more than decorating accents. He says, "Some people say, "Do you have three feet of green leather?' "

The growth of big chain bookstores has drastically reduced the number of independent booksellers, but, Slicker says, its effect on antiquarian bookstores hasn't been as great. "We offer different things."

What has had an effect is the Internet. Outlets such as eBay have put many antiquarian stores out of business, although others have adapted and do much of their selling online.

Now, a rare book that a collector might have spent months or years hunting for can be found with a few minutes of searching online.

But, Slicker says, "It's not as romantic. It's not as much fun" as browsing through thousands of volumes at, say, the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

"One of the great pleasures is finding those things we don't know about."

-- Colette Bancroft can be reached at 727 893-8435 or bancroft@sptimes.com

Do you have a treasure?

Wondering whether Grandpa's book about tying flies or Aunt Susie's collection of Nancy Drews is worth anything? The members of the Florida Bibliophile Society will offer free appraisals from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Florida Antiquarian Book Fair.

The appraisers will be librarians and book collectors, not dealers, says Mike Slicker of Lighthouse Books in St. Petersburg.

Attendees can't take their books onto the vendor floor, but they may check them in at the lobby and ask appraisers to inspect them there.

Almost any type of book could turn out to be valuable, Slicker says. Rare books, first editions and very old books are possible candidates, as are those signed by the author.

Condition is very important. "Don't ever throw away the dust jacket," he says. "For some books, the dust jacket is 90 percent of the value."

Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission Friday is $7, good for all three days; admission Saturday and Sunday is $5. The Coliseum, 535 Fourth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. 727 822-3278, www.floridabooksellers.com/bookfair.html