A family Bible worth $350,000. A first-edition classic found at a flea market. A 500-year-old German book of woodprints stored under a bed for 40 years. Mark Twain’s personal book collection, many with penciled comments, questions and witticisms, stashed in barrels in a California garage.
These and other remarkable biblio-tales will be the featured program at the Historical Society of the Town of Middletown’s Annual Meeting and Luncheon Saturday, Oct. 22.
Rebecca Rego Barry author of “Rare Books Uncovered: True Stories of Fantastic Finds in Unlikely Places” will speak at the Margaretville Fire Hall on Church Street in the village. The meeting begins with lunch at Noon, catered by Mary’s Cookin’ Again, followed by a business meeting and Rebecca’s presentation.
Reservations ($20) are required by October 15 and can be made by calling 845-586-3630.
Rebecca Rego Barry is the editor of Fine Books & Collections, a quarterly magazine for booklovers. Her writing on books, history, and culture has appeared in Smithsonian, Financial Times, Literary Hub, CrimeReads, Atlas Obscura, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Guardian, Slate, Art & Object and other publications.
Her chapter on the literary Warner Sisters appeared in From Page to Place: American Literary Tourism and the Afterlives of American Authors (University of Massachusetts Press, 2017).
Rebecca graduated from Syracuse University with a dual bachelor’s degree in English and magazine journalism. She earned a master’s degree in book history from Drew University where she then served as the preservation and archives associate in charge of the university archives. She also took additional courses at the American Antiquarian Society and at the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School.
Rebecca lives in Chichester where she and husband Brett Barry run the audio production company “Silver Hollow Audio.”