500-600 attend Terrence Cole book sale, raising $19,000 for library renovation

I want to thank everyone who spent time this weekend perusing the thousands of books in my late brother’s collection of history, literature, journalism and impossible-to-classify items.

In the latter category I would include the 1923 “Ventilation Report of the New York State Commission on Ventilation,” an 1893 copy of the “Adequate Atlas of the United States” and the 1881 catalog of “Future Events with Numerous Prophetic Details” by Walter Scott.

Not even Scott could have prophesied that 500-600 people would attend the two-day sale and donate more than $19,000 to the library in Terrence Cole’s memory. The money will go to help with the library renovation project.

About three-quarters of the collection went to new homes in Alaska, for which my family is grateful. We regard this as a way to honor my brother and recognize his love for libraries. He could no more pass up the chance to spend time in the library than he could pass up a chance to eat.

A lot of the ideas and the raw materials of inspiration and imagination that made him who he was was represented in that collection. He would be happy to know that those ingredients have now been dispersed into hundreds of other lives, including those of many friends and former students. He would have appreciated the enthusiasm and excitement in sharing his passion for discovering the past.

Most of the books about Alaska and the Arctic went quickly, while other readers selected from his wide selections about European history, world history, Russian history, government, geography, maps, bicycles, baseball and biographies.

About 30 volunteers helped by setting up, working during the sale and cleaning up afterwards. This would not have been possible without their dedication.

Some of the older rare books that remain have gone to the Literacy Council of Alaska, while others will remain at the Noel Wien Library and become part of the continuing sale that the library foundation has run for years near the checkout desk, featuring books the library is removing from its collection.

While Terrence did not read every book in his collection, he bought all of them for a reason and found something that caught his attention. It might have been the cover, something in the index or a catchy title, such as “How to Lie with Statistics.” The books he used the most had his illegible notes on the inside back and front covers, sticky notes and editorial comments.

I have been living with his thousands of books for a long time, first at his house and more recently in our basement. Still, in the unpacking of the boxes and the opening of each book by potential readers, we came across many interesting discoveries.

For instance, there was the 2004 check for $50 made out to him and never cashed found in a book about the polar regions. And there was a copy of the “Historical Atlas of the North Pacific Ocean” that contained a review he wrote of that very book, beginning with the words, “There must be something wrong with a person who doesn’t like maps.”

Some of the books in Terrence Cole’s collection. (Angie Schmidt photo)

In looking through the religion section, which included many versions of the Bible, a friend found a book that I didn’t know existed. That part of the table was filed with copies of the scriptures, but things are not always as they seem.

This particular book had numerous pages torn out from inside. It was a book he used to illustrate a lesson about freedom of speech and how Thomas Jefferson had created his own version of the Bible by leaving out portions he thought did not belong.

More than a few students were outraged, but the pages he tore out in the front of the class from this book were actually from the volume pasted inside—”Gentlemen in Hades: The Story of a Damned Debutante.”

“I didn’t mean to offend anyone too much, but to help students realize the privilege of living in a free society. We forget that free speech is only free speech when it’s uncomfortable,” he told interviewer Laura Lundell in 2018.

History students, as well as teachers from all levels dropped by, with top honors for long-distance travel going to Ross Coen, a former student of my brother’s who made a one-day trip from Seattle to take part. Coen now teaches history at the University of Washington.

“I'd be happy to fly up from Seattle and see all my old friends,” he told me a few weeks back, “By which I mean books but also people!”