Have you ever dreamed of talking to your favorite author? Learning what inspires Gregory Maguire, John Grogan or Amor Towles, what David Gergen has seen of power in the White House, or how Jill Lepore views this year through the lens of history? What about owning a piece of literary art, like an original drawing by The New Yorker’s Roz Chast, or having your portrait drawn by author Nicholson Baker. You could even have your name in Joseph Finder’s next thriller!

Last year the pandemic forced the cancellation of our most significant fundraiser—Literary Lights.  In response, we reached out to many of the remarkable authors and artists we have honored as Literary Lights over the past three decades and asked them to participate in our new Bid it! Book it! online auction. They responded very generously and as a result, our auction catalog was packed with one-of-a-kind literary items! To peruse the remarkable auction items please see the online catalog.

We held the inaugural Bid it! Book it! auction from October 16-25, 2020. Thanks to the generosity of the auction donors and bidders, this event raised vital funds to support the preservation of the rare and remarkable items in the BPL’s Special Collections, ensuring that they will be publicly available for generations to come. THANK YOU!