Baby Boomers Collect Books They Loved As Kids

TAMPA - Baby boomers, as a whole, have been fighting aging since they started turning the dreaded 30. Now, they're returning to their childhoods in droves by buying the books they loved when they were young.

Old children's books are very collectible now, says Mike Slicker, owner of Lighthouse Books in St. Petersburg and an organizer of the 27th annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair, which runs from Friday to March 16 at The Coliseum in St. Petersburg.

"We are visually oriented, having grown up with TV. Illustrated books have an appeal to us," he says.

Those original, old childhood favorites can come at a steep price: First editions of the Hardy Boys series can run $300 to $1,000, although newer copies sell for as little as $3 or $4 used, Slicker says.

Some of the original Little Golden Books, which came with dust jackets, can sell for $175 if in pristine shape. They were originally 25 cents.

This year, more vendors than usual plan to sell collectible children's books at the antiquarian fair. Slicker will take along both pricey and inexpensive editions.

Some boomers buy them not as collectibles, per se, but to read to their grandchildren, he says. They loved them as kids and want the younger generation to love them as well.

Steve Bolter, a book dealer who transplanted Sleuth Books from Tampa to Palm Coast, agrees there has been a boom in old children's books, especially the juvenile series featuring the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and other favorites.

Nostalgic baby boomers also gobble up Dr. Seuss books and even the Little Golden Books. Bolter has some himself, including his childhood favorite, "The Pokey Little Puppy."

Bolter, a baby boomer who just turned 60, has a personal collection of 1,500 children's books and an inventory of 7,000 others for sale. Among his favorites: the Rick Brant boys series from the 1940s, set in exotic locales and written by John Blaine (real name Hal Goodwin), and the Chip Hilton series about baseball, football and basketball, written by Clair Bee in the 1940s and '50s.

Both series have been republished in more recent years.

Bolter keeps his private collection in a library in his home and once a week sits down to read one of the books he devoured as a child.

"I can read one of the juvenile series in an hour," he says. "They're just about 200 pages, so it's pretty easy reading."

Bolter will take children's books and other types to sell at the St. Petersburg book fair. His children's works include those by English book illustrator Arthur Rackham and others in the Lonely Doll series, written and photographed by Dare Wright.

He sells most of his books on AbeBooks.com and at three to four book fairs a year. At the fairs, he likes to give pop-up books to children too young to be interested in shopping.

"It occupies them," he says. "It's a goodwill gesture. And maybe I'll develop a collector out of it."

Bolter has noticed that even Generation Xers are buying old children's books, not so much to read but because they know their value. They especially collect first editions and mysteries.

But it's the baby boomers who covet them most, says Bolter, who understands their appeal.

"As we get older, we think more and more about our childhoods," he says.

BOOK FAIR

WHAT: 27th annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair

WHEN: 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 16; free book appraisals from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: The Coliseum, 535 Fourth Ave. N., St. Petersburg

ADMISSION: $10 on Friday (good for three days); $6 on Saturday and March 16; ticket sales benefit the St. Petersburg Public Library.

INFORMATION: (727) 822-3278, e-mail floridabook fair@verison.net; to see vendors, floridabooksellers.com/ bookfair.html

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: University of Florida Special Collections Department will showcase children's books as well as books and other materials by Florida writers Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings and John D. MacDonald. One of the department's experts will discuss the preservation of the special collection and tell fairgoers how to preserve their own books.

SPONSORS: Florida Antiquarian Booksellers Association, Bright House Networks