BENNINGTON — The great Roman statesman and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero once nicely summed up his view of the spiritual: “A room without books,” Cicero mused, “is like a body without a soul.” Regional bibliophiles of all stripes will have an opportunity to channel Cicero on Sunday in Bennington, at the 2024 Vermont Summer Books and Ephemera Fair. The fair, which is sponsored by the Vermont Antiquarian Bookseller’s Association (VABA), will be held from 10 a.
m. to 4 p.m.
at Grace Christian School on Kocher Drive. Bennington has hosted the affair since 2016. Typically, the VABA holds two book fairs a year: one in the north and the other in the southern part of the state.
VABA president Karen Austin, of Austin Antiquarian Books in Wilmington, said book fairs are fun to go to because “you will always find dealers who share your interests and can suggest to you items that might fall within your area of interest.” Additionally, Austin continued, they can direct attendees to others who might help build their collection. “Antiquarian booksellers love books and paper, and all the lovely printed materials of the past,” Austin said.
“They can educate you about illustrated books and prints made by processes we consider to be fine art in this century. They can explain what a first edition means, and how to identify them, why it is or is not important, and why some command high prices. They are always willing to share their knowledge and explain why an item is importan.