By James V. Horrigan
Staff Writer
The baby is scheduled to arrive ahead of schedule.
“Scarborough at 350: Linking the past to the present,” the colorful coffee table book that is the centerpiece of the town’s 350th anniversary observances, wasn’t due in area stores until Nov. 9.
“They came two weeks earlier than expected; we’re putting them in stores beginning tomorrow,” committee chairman Annalee Rosenblatt said last week.
The official book launch will take place from 5 to 8 p.m., Nov. 16, at Scarborough Downs.
The party, which is free of charge, will have a cash bar, light hors doeuvres and music by Coos Canyon, a local cover band whose repertoire spans from the Sixties to the Nineties.
Many of the dozens of contributors to the 400-page book will be on hand, as well as local author and Scarborough native Susan Dudley Gold, who edited the book.
For the past few months readers have been able to pre-order “Scarborough at 350” from the celebration’s five chief sponsors, which include Len Libby Candies, Shirley’s Hallmark store, the Nestling Duck and Golden Pheasant restaurants and The Breakers Inn.
Those ordering in advance were given the option of picking it up in person or having it mailed to their home.
“I’m delighted to be a part of this effort,” said Maureen Hemond, whose family has owned Len Libby Candies, the town’s third-oldest business, since 1949. “It really makes us feel like a part of the community.” Hemond said that she will announce the book’s early arrival with a message on the “reader board” in front of her store.
Hemond isn’t sure how many pre-orders have been put in at Len Libby Candies, but says  that interest, which had been fairly steady, is increasing. “With Christmas coming people realize what a great gift this book would make,” she said.
The book costs $40. Also available for $100 is a special, limited edition, which includes a numbered, lithographed bookplate with author signatures.
So far, Rosenblatt said, 132 of 350 available copies have been ordered. She was unable to say how many copies of the standard edition have been ordered in advance.
“Scarborough at 350” is the brainchild of Town Council member Sylvia Most, who is also on the anniversary planning committee.
Although she thinks readers will be impressed by the array of color photographs in the center of the book, Most believes the biggest surprise will be “the sheer number of contributors and the number of points of view it contains. It’s not just history,” she pointed out. “There are stories and anecdotes, as well as maps and timelines. There’s something for everyone.”