The Charlotte Observer reports
It was a typical Friday for Bob Gilson: elbow-deep in donation boxes for the Virginia Beach Public Library, hands coated in a layer of dust from some of the older giveaways. On one particular Friday, though, a certain book caught his eye.
“The cover was tired and dusty,” Gilson, a board member for the Friends of Virginia Beach Public Library nonprofit, said in a July 18 news release. “But I had a feeling it was special.” It was one of 82 estimated copies of Thomas Jefferson’s book “Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia from 1730 to 1740 and from 1769 to 1772,” the release said. It was published by Jefferson’s grandson in 1829. Gilson told The Virginian-Pilot the book was worth about $9,800.
“We’ve had some other valuable books come in over the years, but $9,800 is a gem,” Gilson told The Virginian-Pilot. Instead of selling the rare book in the library bookstore, the nonprofit chose to donate it to the Jefferson Library at Monticello in Charlottesville.
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