The New York Times building
Spring cleaning came early for Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.
The New York Times publisher donated volumes of books from the Sulzberger family collection to an employee book sale that raises money for paper's Neediest Case Fund.
"Arthur was happy to donate the books given that all proceeds are going to The Times's Neediest Cases Fund, a cause he is very close to," a spokesperson for the Times confirmed.
The annual sale is the newspaper's version of a beauty sale at a fashion magazine: Instead of make-up and hair products, staffers can buy books and small promotional items sent to Times employees over the year and donated by staffers with a notably strict set of ethical guidelines.
But this year, a Times source was surprised to find that many of the books at the sale bore Sulzberger family bookplates and personal inscriptions to Mr. Sulzberger's father and grandfather, both former publishers of the Times .
Mr. Sulzberger donated a sizable number of books to the sale--our source told us that the books from the Sulzberger collection take up four bookshelves worth of space (so however much that adds up to). The books, selling for anywhere from a few dollars to at least $700, have been snatched up by Times employees.
Apparently, there are plenty of staffers eager to add a small piece of institutional memory to their own book shelves.