John O'Hara Collection: For Sale, or For Donation?

'Everything Must Go!'

That is the Question
See real-time updates, as amendments warrant, at www.JohnOHaraCollecton.yolasite.com.

@philabooks|booksellers, an on-line Philadelphia bookshop that's unique in featuring titles by and about the author John O'Hara, has merged its extensive catalog with an exclusive, privately-owned O'Hara collection to create a now one-of-a-kind compilation of the legendary New Yorker writer's works.

The new catalog, consolidated as the Carreño-Checket Collection, is named for Richard Carreño, the managing partner of @philabooks, and the late James Checket of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a private collector and a member of the John O'Hara Society. Carreño is a founding member of the Society.

@philabooks entered into the merger agreement with James Checket's estate, administered by his widow, Sally Miller.

The newly assembled collection includes more than one hundred titles, with firsts of virtually all of O'Hara's English-language and foreign language editions. The collection, when fully fleshed out, will also include photographs, magazines, and related ephemera. As such, it will be among the most comprehensive non-institutional O'Hara collections anywhere.

Carreño said he and Miller want to maintain the collection as a unit. Their aim, he said, is to sell or donate the collection to a private or public institution that can safeguard it as well give the public access to it.

 Interested parties can contact Carreño via philabooks@yahoo.com. A regularly updated catalog is also available via www.philabooks.webs.com. Updates will also be posted to the John O'Hara Society blog via www.OHaraSociety.blogspot.com.

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