Legendary Book Sale comes to a close, after biggest year yet

Five-year-old Emma Russell shows her pile of books to her mother, Eliza Russell, of Martinsburg, at the Legendary Book Sale on Friday. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — The Legendary Book Sale closed on Sunday afternoon, after a week-and-a-half-long residency in the War Memorial Building.

According to organizer Daniel Sweeney, this year’s sale may have been the largest in its history.

“We had about 20,000 books available from the start, which is much more than previous years,” Sweeney said. “Donations from the community have been huge this year — we had over 10,000 donated just in the last four months.”

Sweeney noted that hundreds of book lovers came to the sale “from all over the east coast.” They purchased nearly a third of the sale’s inventory, according to his estimation. The sale proceeds will be used, over the next year, to maintain the Shepherdstown Community Club’s two properties: Morgan’s Grove Park and the War Memorial Building.

The Legendary Book Sale, though originally a weekend-long sale, has greatly benefited from its change in length in 2022, according to Sweeney.

Book lovers browse the shelves of the Legendary Book Sale on Friday. Tabitha Johnston

“Having the sale over 11 days is better when we have so much stock, a great group of dedicated volunteers and the War Memorial Building available to us,” Sweeney said. “We are able to dedicate that space to the sale for the entire time. Which is great, because we have just so many books!”

On Friday, book lovers of all ages could be found browsing the shelves in the sale, including five-year-old Emma Russell. As she balanced a pile of books in her arms, her mother, Eliza Russell, of Martinsburg, said that coming to the Legendary Book Sale has become a tradition that the two of them enjoy doing together.

“She’s a voracious reader. It comes to her organically, as both of us love to read,” Eliza said. “We come to this pretty much every year. She can take as many as she can carry, which ranges anywhere from five to 15 books. Last time, she got a book from the 1970s on saltwater aquarium tanks and it was a very thick book — she only got a few other books, that time, because she couldn’t carry much more!”

For Eliza, the Legendary Book Sale is an invaluable benefit to the local community, due to the cost-effective, educational opportunities it provides.

“Education should be as cheap as possible. And this is her educating herself,” Eliza said, mentioning she was also planning on picking up some treasures for herself at the sale. “Parenting is expensive. Parenting is hard. This is easy and it’s cheap. You don’t get many life hacks as a parent, but one is, if your kid really loves books, you can come some place like this and then not even have to worry about how much money you’ll end up spending here.”

Shoppers leave and enter the Legendary Book Sale on Friday. Tabitha Johnston

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