The CWRU Book Sale is entering the final phase of consolidation and packing of more than 50,000 books for the 2003 sale May 31 June 3 in CWRU's Adelbert Gym.

May 1 is the last day donations will be accepted.

The sale hours will be 10 a.m. to noon May 31 (presale with $20 admission fee); noon to 6 p.m. May 31, June 1 and June 2; and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 3 (box sale with $5 fee for each box). Free parking is available at the CWRU Art Studio parking lot (the old Greenhouse Restaurant) May 31 and June 1 for book sale customers.

New to this year's book sale:

• Special sorting has allowed for the creation of a first edition section and an area dedicated to signed editions.
• The arts department has a substantial donation of books on needle and fiber crafts, many books on sailing and an unusually large number of published photography collections.
• The religion and philosophy department offers a larger than usual selection of books on Christian education and a number of works concerning the Episcopal Church.
• The history and political science department has a wide collection of books on Native Americans and a very extensive number of works on Russian history.
• The travel holdings are particularly robust, and the fiction section contains a large collection of mysteries.

The sale also has received donations of rare and unusual offerings, including a Welsh Bible brought to the United States in 1830 and with a recorded family genealogy for seven generations.

The most technically challenging donation is Nathaniel Ward's The Simple Cobler of Aggavvam in America... (1647). This historically important Puritan religious tract, in mint condition, was exquisitely bound in leather by the highly esteemed London firm of Riviere and Son. Only three or four copies of this version of the rare first edition of The Simple Cobler are known to exist. It is believed to be an early example of literary piracy.

Of the few "pirated" copies extant the one in Yale's Beineke Library of Rare Books lacks two of the pamphlet's 47 pages with a third page mutilated. The British Library and the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, Rhode Island, also own copies.

In addition, the host of a prominent Cleveland radio show has contributed a very extensive collection of books signed by personalities interviewed "on air," and they are included in the offerings of several departments.

In houses across Cleveland, spring cleaning has finally started in earnest. There will be more and more "finds" in the final weeks.

To donate or for information, call 216-368-2090.