A note received from our long-time friend Patrick Farenga this morning:

On behalf of Holt Associates I recently completed the donation of John Holt’s papers and recordings to the Boston Public Library, where they will cataloged by the special collection department and then open to the public. However, the BPL was not interested in Holt’s book collection. I have spent several months giving some books away to friends and I have donated many boxes of books to charity. I went through the remaining boxes and pulled out books, and a few personal possessions, that are either hard to find or were annotated, marked or signed by John Holt. There are also several books signed by their authors to John Holt, often first editions.

Of special interest to friends and scholars of Holt, there are some instances where books contain pieces of paper or bent corners that John used to mark passages and they have remained in place since his death. Some books contain Holt’s notes and comments on the text, as well. All these books provide provocative clues into the mind of one of the most original educators of the twentieth century. As homeschooling continues to grow, interest in Holt has too. John Holt’s interests and reading cover the gamut from alternative energy to child care; politics to poetry; cartoons to organic farming. Own a piece of educational and cultural history from the previous century as well as get a physical connection to John Holt.

Click on this link: “Items for Sale by plf139″ to visit eBay and see the first batch of items I’ve posted.

I’ll be posting new items as I can until everything is gone. Also note that I’m offering thematic groupings of books for sale too, usually office copies of texts we sold in our mail order catalog, John Holt’s Book and Music Store.

Please tell your friends and email groups who may be interested in owning books from John Holt’s personal library about this unique opportunity.

Best wishes,
Pat Farenga

This entry was posted on September 24, 2006 at 3:48 pm and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.