FARMINGTON — The Franklin Memorial Hospital Auxiliary’s annual book sale, Books Are Fun, did well Monday, according to organizer Shannon Smith.

Business was steady all morning, she said.

The sale continues from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, she said.

“It’s a different show,” she said of the materials for Tuesday, including books, toys, music and Christmas gifts for all ages supplied by Mike and Carolyn Tuttle of Lewiston, who had a line of customers at noontime.

The Auxiliary sponsors the sale to help purchase special items not on the budget for the hospital, she said.

Two televisions for the wound clinic will be there by Christmas, Smith said. Some patients remain in the clinic for three to four hours while receiving antibiotics. That’s a long time to sit with little to do, she said.

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Smith and Auxiliary member Jean Rand manned a table asking each shopper how many items they purchased. For each item, the women put a free ticket into a drawing for a large basket filled with breakfast items supplied by the Auxiliary.

Local author Dick Matthews of Phillips signed copies of his book, “Notes from an Innkeeper’s Journal,” and copies of “Hell Is So Green,” written by World War II veteran Lt. William Diebold, with a foreword by Matthews.

Matthews and his wife ran a bed and breakfast in Virginia before selling it and moving to Maine in 2008 to be near family. The book reflects what they expected and what they found as innkeepers, he said. It tells about the people who stayed and the adventures the couple experienced.

Once in Phillips, Matthews was approached by Diebold’s daughter, who asked him to read her father’s manuscript.

During the war, Diebold jumped out of airplanes to rescue downed fliers in the jungle, he said. He wrote the book after the war, but the manuscript stayed in storage for about 50 years.

After reading it, Matthews helped find a publisher, did some research to add to the book and wrote the foreword, he said.

Matthews said Monday that he was busier signing books at the sale than at some bookstore signings.

Local authors Karen Calloway and Nancy Prince will be at the sale Tuesday, Smith said. Calloway’s picture book, “After the Rain,” and Prince’s picture book, “Libby’s Loons,” will be available.

abryant@sunjournal.com