Paul Greenwood, facing felony charges for multi-million dollar security fraud, particularly liked to collect rare books. His treasured personal library had been a highlight of a tour of private libraries in North Salem and now is the subject of a list of assets assembled by court appointed officials.

A report on Greenwood’s holdings show he spent thousands of dollars to manage his property, upkeep his horse farm and collect stuffed teddy bears. But he also was a bibliophile.

Greenwood’s assets included  Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” valued at $60,000; “I Quattro Libri dell’ Architettura,” known as the Four Books of Architecture by Andrea Palladio from 1570 and valued at $45,000; and “Opticks” by Isaac Newton valued at $28,000.

The list of rare books showed  Greenwood purchased nearly 30 books from 1998 through 2002. These are listed  assets, according to receiver Robb Evans & Co. that reporter Elizabeth Ganga uncovered in a story on LoHud.com appearing today.

The books were purchased by New York City-based rare book dealers and the receivers’ report listed them, but it is unclear how and when those resources might be sold to raise cash to reimburse investors.

Greenwood and his partner, Stephen Walsh of Sands Point on Long Island, were arrested Feb. 25 on federal charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy. They are free on $7 million bond.

Investors include Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh,  Iowa Public Employees Retirement System, and Sacramento County Employees Retirement System.

It certainly seems that Toni Morrison, Nobel laureate and novelist known for books including  “Jazz” and “Song of Solomon”, is a favorite author in these parts.

Lunch with her was a raffle prize in Mt. Kisco this weekend and now I hear that she will be featured in a literary book talk this Sunday, May 31st in Rockland County.
Sunday Symposia, a community cultural series at the Palisades Free Library, hosts Morrison. She will be interviewed by The New Yorker’s essayist and critic Adam Gopnik.

Her books are well-known and very enjoyable, to be sure. But I can tell you that she is an interesting interview because she is so able to talk about the craft of writing and connect with the audience.

Morrison had a home in Grandview, but in 1993, the same year she received her Nobel Prize in Literature, it burned in a fire taking some of her original manuscripts and memorabilia as well.  Some sites she now lives in New York Cit and a renovated cottage along the Hudson River in Nyack. According to the Toni Morrison Society, she has a busy schedule and is  just coming back from Boston, where she spoke at the 20th annual conference of the American Literature Association.

I am sure she will have lots to say about many topics.

The symposia is from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the IBM Palisades Executive Conference Center, Dolce Hotels & Resorts, 334 Route 9W, Palisades.

Reservations are required. Call 845-359-0136, stop by the library or go to the Web site.
A $10 ($5 for students) suggested donation to benefit the Palisades Free Library will be collected at the door.

Hush, hush,  I think I hear some stories almost beginning.

A two-day festival of back-to-back storytelling events at many Mt. Kisco locations begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday. These are presented by Sunflower Story Arts, a group based in Mahopac, that boasts that this is a first annual.

To fundraise, the group is selling auction items. Top on the list in my mind is lunch with famed author Toni Morrison. Now, where would the best place be to take Morrison for lunch locally I wonder?

On the festival’s slate is storytelling of The Frog Prince, stories in song, Italian folktales and stories of hope and inspiration, according to Sunflower’s lengthy schedule. Also, there will be workshop to engage story lovers to share and create their own tales.

The storytellers are professional dramatic readers whose voices and interpretations have been featured on recordings and heard on radio and theatrical stages.

Ticket prices range from a family package to $20 or $10 for adults and $5 for children and seniors.

“Our vision for the festival is to present the finest professionals in the whole range of story arts, as well as bring together people of all ages and backgrounds to explore these wonderful traditions,” reads a statement on Sunflower’s home page.

Sunflower Story Arts Festival, co-directed by Alyssa Reit and Johanna Maria Rose, is a project of Singing Harp, a non-profit story theatre company that is 10 years old.

The project was made possible in part by the Arts Alive program of the Westchester Arts Council, with funding from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, the Friends of the Mount Kisco Library, and thanks to The Field , a not-for-profit, tax-exempt, 501© (3) organization serving the New York community.

Some might say that walking and reading is a tricky bit of multi-tasking.

But not for town of New Castle and the Chappaqua Library, which are working together to meld the two in an active program to entice young readers.

StoryWalk, ™ which began in Vermont, combines this popular children’s story with a popular walking route. It can be done anytime since book pages are scattered about downtown Chappaqua.

Through June 26, pages from “Corduroy,” will be posted  along The Story Walk™Â  route, which starts at  the Chappaqua Library and heads north on  Greeley Ave. through the business district and returning south on Greeley Ave. to Town Hall.  Merchants in downtown Chappaqua have volunteered to supply space in their
windows for this activity.

On Saturday, June 6 the cozy Teddy Bear from the “Corduroy” (Penguin Books) will come to life at the Chappaqua Library from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. At 10 a.m. there will be a film about the book. After meeting Corduroy, everyone can read the book by following the Storywalk into downtown Chappaqua.
My favorite Freeman book  is “A Pocket for Corduroy” where he has a mis-matched fabric square on his overalls just to put things and to make sure stuff doesn’t get lost.  My two sons loved this story and clearly appreciated the clever concept of a pocket. I recall having to sew some patch pockets on their jeans.  Freeman’s stories are sweet books and I’m glad they are still popular.

Go to the Town Web site,/www.mynewcastle.org/  for information on the walk and the exact route.

Any walkers, please share photos and comments about Corduroy….

The annual Desmond-Fish Associates Award Dinner always highlights an interesting writer and this year is no different.

Restaurateur and food writer Alice Waters — think Chez Panisse and eight cookbooks  — is the featured speaker at this year’s 15th annual  June 7 gala.

I bet this food lover, described as a “food activist”,  will have lots to say about Hudson Valley food sources and the value of cooking with local products. In 1996, she marked Chez Panisse’s silver year by establishing a foundation to fund cultural and educational programs that demonstrate “the transformative power of growing, cooking, and sharing food,” she writes on her Web site.

She was pleased as punch that the Obama’s have a garden, so who knows what she will share in Garrison.

The Associates Dinner costs $500  and includes cocktails, conversation and dinner at nearby Monteverde at Oldstone Manor restaurant. This event is the largest fund-raiser for the Desmond-Fish Library.

(Photo of Alice Waters from her Web site.)

Just received this e-mail from the LIU graduate campus here in Sparkill. Thought it might generate some interest.

Orangeburg, — A Books for Children drive organized by students at the Rockland Graduate Campus of Long Island University has bolstered the library at an elementary school in the Nyack school district.

More than 300 books were donated to the Valley Cottage Elementary School in Valley Cottage. Organizers were pleasantly surprised by the number of books that were donated.

“We originally planned to start small this year and make plans for a larger drive next year.  But the program just took off and we ended up exceeding all our expectations,” said Professor Roy Elberfeld, who helped organize the book drive.

Book collection bins were placed in the lobby on the Rockland Graduate Campus on Route 340 in Orangeburg in March and April. A display fashioned after Rodin’s sculpture “The Thinker,” with an owl perched on his shoulder, encouraged passers-by to “Think about donating two or three books to the wise old owl.”

Campus administrators plan to expand the drive with more collection boxes next year.

The Warner Library, the public library of Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown communities, is hosting a Meet the Writers event this Saturday.

It starts at a 11 a.m. and runs through till 4:30 p.m. with authors and illustrators including Waithira Mbuthia, Anik McGrory, Lloyd Moss & Eric Velasquez begin the event. TImes of events: Children’s 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; teen 1 to 3 p.m.; and adult 12:15 to 3 p.m.

Also on hand:

•Teen authors Staton Rabin and Jason Eaton, and National Book Award winner Judy Blundell.

•Local poets Barbara Fischer, Meredith Trede and Jo Ann Clark— known as the Hunter Avenue poets

•Fiction and non-fiction authors Neil Rechtman, Douglas Rushkoff and Carol de Giere

In a tent area these authors will be featured:

•Nick Bruel, “Bad Kitty Gets A Bath ( awarded a 2009 Gryphon Honor for transitional reading by The Center for Children’s Books at the University of Illinois).

•Susan Breen, “The Fiction Class” (2008, Plume/Penguin).

•Jane & Walt Daniels, “Walkable Westchester.”

•Lynn Beiderman , co-author of “Unraveling”  (2008, Random House).

•Linda Griffin “My Child Won’t Listen … and Other Early Childhood Problems.”

The library is at 121 North Broadway, Tarrytown. Check out the Web site for complete details.

Here is a quick calendar note — just as baseball season gets underway.

Sports writer and Rockland resident Howard Megdal will be at the JCC in Rockland Monday at 7 p.m. It’s at 450 West Nyack Road, West Nyack. He will be talking about his new book,  “The Baseball Talmud” (HarperCollins, 2009).

I featured  the book and an interview with Megdal in an earlier blog,, but in short is a position-by-position ranking of baseball’s Jewish players.

The American Booksellers Association has designated today as special day to recognize independent bookstores.

I think every day is a good day to remember a local book retailer, but I am all for special book buying days that might spur people on. And don’t forget that Mother’s Day is approaching. It is also a sad day in bookselling locally.  Chappaqua’s Second Story Book Shop closed yesterday after 37 years so though it is still on the list, it is a shell of a bookstore today. I wrote about this last month.

Here, is the announcement from the Tarrytown-based booksellers trade group — and happy bookshopping:

“A viral movement is spreading the good word: Buy Indie on May 1! The idea: buy one book—paperback, hardcover, audiobook, whatever you want!—at an independent bookstore near you.

“Its roots trace back to author Joe Finder, but now Twitter users are driving the movement.

“You can RSVP, invite friends, and discuss on Buy Indie Day’s Facebook page and share comments on IndieBound.org.

“Don’t forget to remind everyone that they can find an indie bookstore on IndieBound.org’s Indie Store Finder map!”

There are a handful of independent stores in our communities and the Store Finder is very helpful.

I would like to add, though,  that last night I stopped off at Borders Books in Mt. Kisco and had a wonderful time picking out some books.  I had an absolutely fabulous book chat with a knowledgeable, friendly and helpful staffer. I bought two T.C. Boyle books.

Let’s hear what books you found in the stacks…