Bauman, president of Bauman Rare Books, with storefronts in Philadelphia and Manhattan, has been in the business for almost 30 years, but books still hold the power to transport her to a place of sheer bliss. This is what it means to be irretrievably bitten by the rare-book-collecting bug.

Assembling and improving a quality rare book collection is a lifelong pursuit that, if intelligently planned and carefully executed, will typically yield both personal and financial rewards over time. “The rate of appreciation depends on the same factors as in art or antiques or any other collectible,” says Louis Weinstein, cofounder of Heritage Book Shop in West Hollywood, Calif., adding, “If you buy well and work with an expert, annual appreciation could easily be 15 percent to 25 percent.”

Certain broad guidelines can help shape our collection. If we are enamored of a specific author, we can seek his or her published works as well as related material, including biographies. Or we might opt to pick a subject instead, gathering works on a beloved pastime, such as golf, or a chosen profession, such as law or medicine. Francis Wahlgren, head of the books and manuscripts department at Christie’s New York, says that many collectors are choosing to collect “highspots,” or key works that are widely recognized as important and enduring milestones from across the cultural spectrum, from Shakespeare’s folios to Samuel Johnson’s dictionary to Darwin’s Origin of Species to the novels of Swift, Joyce, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Steinbeck and Nabokov.

Classic literature is one of the most solid areas of the market for collectors,” he says. “They may not collect all of Charles Dickens’ books, but possibly one or two that he is known for, such as Oliver Twist or A Christmas Carol.” Wahlgren adds that the books often become part of a larger treasury as passionate collectors add to it book by book.

Still, content is only one rationale upon which to base a rare book collection. Some people select books with beautiful bindings of Moroccan leather decorated with gilded details, while others seek antique books with meticulously hand-colored maps or illustrations, such as those found in Audubon’s famous folios of birds. Still others prefer to amass miniature books, which are never larger than three inches in size.

Respect the Aged
But age matters most to collectors of incunabula, books that were published prior to 1501, a time when the printing press was cutting-edge technology. “Those books are valuable even if they are the most boring texts,” says Weinstein. “Eighty percent of them are about theology. You can buy many for $5,000 to $10,000,” he says, noting that several 15th-century Latin-language Bibles are available within that range, such as the Froben Bible, which was published in Basel, Switzerland, in 1491.

The version of the Bible published by the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Gutenberg, is probably the best-known incunabula. Only 48 copies survive, and most reside in the world’s great libraries. William Caxton was the first printer to publish in English, and his works are just as coveted as Gutenberg’s. A copy of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales published by Caxton set a record six years ago when Christie’s auctioned it in London for $7.5 million.

It is important to point out, however, that incunabula represent a special case. “There’s a misunderstanding that age equals value,” says Wahlgren. “It doesn’t.” The worth of a specific book depends on at least three factors: its rarity, its desirability and its cultural importance—or as Bauman puts it, “whether it had a tremendous impact on the world.” (With rare exceptions, the most desirable version of a book is its first edition, which is a copy that belongs to its initial commercial printing.)

Once a book meets these three criteria, its physical condition comes into play. Ragged, dog-eared copies are obviously worth less than pristine copies of the same tome. Consider, for example, two first edition copies of To Kill a Mockingbird, one in mint condition and the other in scruffier shape. Weinstein estimates that the former could be worth from $20,000 to $25,000 and the latter worth $5,000 to $6,000. Missing dust jackets, that sleeve of paper that covers modern hardcovers, can seriously dent the overall value. “Something can be 100 times more valuable with the dust jacket,” Bauman says.

But when a book is sufficiently rare, desirable and important, condition matters less, and sometimes not at all. Weinstein says that even when rebound, Issac Newton’s Philosophae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, the revolutionary 1687 volume in which Newton states the law of gravity, can command six figures. In its original binding, a copy can fetch $225,000, he notes. While complete volumes of the Gutenberg Bible are nearly impossible to acquire, Weinstein does have individual leaves of the book in stock for $35,000 to $65,000 each. The pages come from a pair of defective copies that were broken up during the 1920s.

Collectors tend to compromise on children’s books as well. The desire for first edition copies of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Green Eggs and Ham and other classics is strong enough to overcome quibbles about condition. “Even a book that lacks a page can be excessively valuable,” says Justin Schiller, founder of a Manhattan rare children’s book business that bears his name. He cites a purchase his firm made at auction a few years ago of the earliest book of Mother Goose rhymes, published in 1744. It was only the second copy known to exist; the other is in the British Library. “This copy lacked a double page of text and illustrations, but we still paid about $75,000 for it, and we had a bid from our client that was upward of $250,000,” he says. “Imagine what it would have been worth had it been complete.”

Bidding for Hogwarts
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series stands as something of an anomaly in the collecting world, since the wild popularity of the Potter novels has driven the price of some earlier books into the stratosphere. The first U.K. edition, which appeared in June 1997 and bore the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, commands five figures, an astonishing sum for a recent work of fiction. The Potter books show the effects of the three criteria in action, particularly rarity. Since Rowling’s novel made its debut in Britain, the Philosopher’s Stone is considered the most valuable of its first editions. Only 500 copies were printed, further boosting its value. The first U.S. edition, published in 1998 as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is also desirable, but not nearly as much so. This first edition numbered 50,000, and copies sell for $3,500 to $5,000.

“I made a mistake on Harry Potter,” says Bauman, who has never seen anything like the frenzy of interest it sparked. “A client asked me to get him a signed first edition of Philosopher’s Stone. The price was $28,000 then, one year after it came out,” she recalls. “I said to him, ‘That’s crazy. I can’t advise you to spend that much on a year-old book.’ But he insisted, and I said OK. Now that book is worth $50,000 to $60,000. He was right. I was wrong.” Whether the book will retain its high value is another question. Bauman believes it will: “If you’re building a children’s library, Harry Potter has to be in it. It is also a very good book.” 

A  December Sotheby’s Potter auction spotlights another feature that increases the value of a book: inscriptions from the author. Weinstein gives the example of John F. Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Profiles in Courage, one of a number of history books authored by someone who later made history. Weinstein estimates that, unsigned, it would sell for $400
to $1,000, and if inscribed to a private individual, it would command $5,500 to $8,500.

If the inscription is personalized, or has historic or literary importance, the copy rises higher still in value. According to Weinstein, a copy of Profiles in Courage that is inscribed to an important historical figure can easily sell for $10,000 to $30,000. An inscription to a private individual that included a sentiment more personal than a simple signature could command a higher price, too. The book that fetched the highest price at a recent Sotheby’s auction of Harry Potter books was a copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that sold for $48,000. Normally, it would not go to auction at all because its first edition press run was too big to make it valuable. However, this one contained a handwritten note from Rowling about the Ron Weasley character. Also, this was the dedication copy—the special copy that Rowling gave to her father, to whom she dedicated Goblet of Fire. (Why he chose to sell the unique gift remains a mystery.)

Perhaps the most extreme example of an author’s power to hike the price with a few marks of the pen occurs with J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. Weinstein says that unsigned first editions sell for $7,500 to $20,000, but copies signed by the notoriously reclusive author can command prices in the $40,000 to $50,000 range. “I’ve only seen three in 40 years,” Weinstein says, cautioning that autographs of living writers almost never add value because “99 percent of all authors can’t wait to sign their books.”  

Resources:
Bauman Rare Books
215.546.6473
www.baumanrarebooks.com

Heritage Book Shop
310.659.3674
www.heritagebookshop.com

Christie’s New York
212.636.2000
www.christies.com

Justin G. Schiller
212.332.7070
www.childlit.com