By Paul Heyde
Which came first? The Akron Antiquarian Book Fair or the Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society? In retrospect, disentangling the origins of the two northeast Ohio institutions may not entirely be the point, as they both really germinated out of the same seed of thought. What started out as “a twinkle in Frank Klein’s eye”, (Duke, p. 15) has over forty-three years and, come April 2026, forty Akron book fairs, blossomed into a thriving group of bibliophiles and an anticipated annual event for booklovers.
Frank Klein was a well-established bookseller in Akron, Ohio, by 1982 when he conceived an idea to establish an organization to promote interest in antiquarian books and support their enthusiasts. At the same time, he was keen on establishing an annual book fair in northeast Ohio. Accordingly, he rounded up several local booksellers to share his thoughts, and together they informally established the “Northern Ohio Bookman’s Association” to hold “Akron’s First Old and Rare Book Fair”, co-sponsored by the Summit County Historical Society. It was held in April 1983 at Schoolhouse Antiques on West Exchange Street in Akron with sixteen dealers, and the attendance and sales were good enough to give the group hopes of making it an annual affair.
The modest success of the first fair also gave Klein and his fellow book dealers Jim Best and Paul Duke the encouragement they needed to make “NOBA” official to ensure the continuity of future fairs. But first, they had to decide what the purpose of the group would be and whom it would serve. Rather than solely being an organization for dealers to hold an annual event, they decided to launch the group for both booksellers and book enthusiasts alike, thus fulfilling Klein’s original vision. Two levels of membership were established, professional for dealers and associate for all other bibliophiles. The name also had to be updated to reflect the broader mission, and thus the Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society was born.
The first NOBS meeting was held September 18, 1983, with twelve attendees (Ron Antonucci, Jim Best, Lynda Best, Albert Cohen, Paul Duke, Stephanie Duke, Michael Faklis, Pat Fickes, Charles Fischer, Gordon Huber, Frank Klein, and Terry Sanford) and the board held their first official meeting a few weeks later on October 7. With Duke as president, Best as vice-president, Klein as secretary, Antonucci as treasurer, and Susan Heller and David McClintock as board members-a-large, the group established four areas of operations: dealer directories, newsletters, programs, and the Akron Fair. Dues were also set at a mere $35 for dealers and $15 for associates—not terribly far off the 2026 rates: $50 for dealers and $30 for associates—demonstrating the Society’s desire for a broad membership. “NOBS is for all book lovers,” fourth NOBS President Roy K. Preece, Jr. declared in the Spring 1991 NOBS Newsletter. “We don’t want NOBS to become a society of snobs.” (Duke, p. 21)
The next order of business was planning the second edition of the Akron Fair. Co-sponsored once more by the Summit County Historical Society, “Akron Book Fair Vol. 2” was held this time within the maze of the former Quaker Oats factory silos at the Quaker Square Hilton from April 6-7, 1984, and admission was set at $1. With steadily increasing numbers of dealers each year, the fairs continued to draw crowds to different iterations of exhibition spaces at the Quaker Square Hilton in downtown Akron, giving rise to dreams of regional expansion. NOBS held two book fairs in Canton in the mid-1980s that weren’t as well attended before establishing the Cleveland Antiquarian Book Fair in 1987, which enjoyed greater sustained success. Fairs continued to be held in various venues in Cleveland through the 2010s, but it struggled to find a steady home in recent years and has yet to be revived since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aside from holding fairs, of course, NOBS was busy promoting bibliophilic endeavors in many other ways. A quarterly newsletter was published from winter 1984 through summer 2016 before yielding eventually to a monthly email newsletter. NOBS also sponsored a number of monograph publications over the years celebrating the lives and careers of book dealers like Frank Klein, the interests and exploits of collectors, reprints of historically significant publications, and other topics of bibliographic interest, typically published as annual keepsakes for members. The Society also began printing a directory of member-dealers annually as a benefit of membership and for promoting regional booksellers. Additionally, NOBS began holding regular programs to fulfill its goal of providing an outlet for education and socialization for booklovers, an effort that has thrived up to the present day with regular member field trips, annual meetings, and monthly NOBS Forums.
As for the annual Akron Fair, it has continued to be held with only a few interruptions, shuffling between several locations around Akron before settling on its current home, downtown Akron’s John S. Knight Center. In anticipation of the 40th Akron Antiquarian Book and Paper Show to be held April 3 & 4, 2026, some of the people who have been around to witness most if not all of the fairs gathered over Zoom for the February 2026 NOBS Forum to reminisce and swap memories of Frank Klein, NOBS, and the fairs over the years. Andrea Klein, Frank’s daughter and successor in the bookselling business, recalled her father’s drive to expand the book shop he inherited from his father into rare and antiquarian books as well as his passion for spreading the appreciation of the book:
“He loved researching books, rare books, anything, you know, he could find something really unusual. He really loved it. And he just wanted everyone to enjoy it as much as he did. And that’s kind of what led to his enthusiasm with people getting together to form NOBS.”
The legacy of that enthusiasm endures in his daughter’s devoted service on the NOBS Board as Secretary and can be seen on all the happy faces surrounded by books on the floor of the ballroom of the Knight Center every spring at the Akron Fair.
Sources:
Duke, Paul M. NOBS: The First Ten Years. Akron, Ohio: The Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society, 1994.
Northern Ohio Bibliophilic Society (NOBS) records. Kent State University Archives. [https://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/northern-ohio-bibliophilic-society-records]
Paul Heyde is FABS Secretary and a member of the NOBS Board of Trustees.
