Shaunna Raycraft knows she made the right decision to buy the literary collection of the late Keith McCoy.
She recalled walking by a burn barrel at McCoy’s home and the charred remains of her favourite book, Black Beauty. It was a first edition copy believed to be worth $9,000.
“That motivated me to save the books, that they were worth saving,” she said.
“I realized what we were doing was worthwhile.”
Raycraft said McCoy’s widow was overwhelmed managing the collection of 350,000 books and magazines, including some that were more than 150 years old.
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The books focus on topics ranging from war, religion and women to school subjects , exercise and sports.
Shaunna and her husband, Orion, bought the entire collection in 2005 for $800.
They bought and moved a 60-year-old four room house to their acreage near Pike Lake in 2006 to house the collection, dubbed the Legacy Library. It took nine months to move the books from McCoy’s house.
“The legacy library, part of it is sort of in honour of Keith McCoy’s lifetime achievement of saving books. It’s something physical for our children to have…. People attribute me for saving the books and I really feel that’s not so much the case. I think Keith was really the book saviour. He collected books for 30 years,” she said.
“Almost every box on the place was carried by my husband, incredibly labour intensive,” she said.
“We were working literally five, six days a week, eight, nine, 10 hour days for nine months, moving books.”
The weight of the books is taking its toll on the house, which sits on blocks. Joists are buckling and crumbling and causing walls to separate.
Raycraft is seeking volunteers to help sort the collection July 15-17 and eventually repair the building.
She hopes to cut the collection to about 30,000.
“We want all our volunteers to be people who love books and who kind of understand what we’re doing,” she said.
“I’m hoping the people we have that weekend are willing to take the donations. I’m willing to just get rid of them.”
For more information, contact Raycraft at 306-975-3929 or shaunnaray@yahoo.ca.
