Used Book Sale This Weekend

Communities are defined by events in public spaces

The Co-op Used Book Sale. 1991--still have Parklane Hosiery, the Co op, and Woolworth's. I have to confess that hosiery wasn't my thing but I sure miss the other two. (Maroon, Photographer Adam Lisberg, University of Chicago Special Collections)

Since 1955, Hyde Park has had a used book sale in October. It defines the rhythm of the year, welcoming back students. It started small as a project of the Hyde Park Cooperative Society as part of a larger fundraiser to help the South Korea village of Tap Shim Ni, a refugee camp with 400 men, women, and children living in huts of caves as a result of the Korean War. In a neighborhood of readers, it survived urban renewal and moved with the Co-op into the Hyde Park Shopping Center when it was gleaming white concrete, mid-century Modern, and a different configuration.

The proceeds went to support cooperative agricultural societies around the world. Money went to fruit farmers in the Philippines, fishermen in Sri Lanka, and textbooks for Haiti and Vietnam. But I think the biggest charity it created was bringing the many separate Venn diagrams of Hyde Park together.

When the Co-op was going under and suddenly dropped the project, the Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference, another relic of Urban Renewal, leapt into the breech. Not only is the book sale a fundraiser, but more importantly, it’s a place where literally thousands of people gather, meet each other, and share a love of reading.

I found the book sale by accident one fall in the 1970s when I was a graduate student. There it was, suddenly, in all its glory, a sea of books beneath the golden leaves in the shopping center courtyard.

illustration of the Used Book Sale from the Herald in 1976, about the time I stumbled into it. I think I looked a bit grubbier though.

This year, the book sale needed to find a new public space for the community to gather. Kimbark Plaza welcomed the sale and the community. The plaza was created as a cooperative by 55th Street community businesses trying to stay afloat during urban renewal.

Department of Urban Renewal photo. Kimbark Plaza 1963

So please come by 53rd Street and Kimbark Avenue this weekend and keep our community rituals alive. It’s more than a sale. It’s one of the things that keeps Hyde Park from becoming just a bunch of buildings and expensive restaurants. Check out the books, get lunch at Cedars or from the Hyde Park Produce Store, and enjoy some great October weather.

Besides, you know you want more books!