Rare volumes outperform gold, diamonds and stocks

The rare-book dealer and his customer have long been favorite subjects of painters. Musty, refined, the dilettantes gaze out from the works of artists from Daumier to Norman Rockwell, echoes of a time when collectors were more interested in pages than profits. The echoes are growing fainter by the week. Today, Ye Olde Booke Shoppe is likely to be mistaken for Ye Stocke Exchange. Dusty volumes have become hot commodities. New York City Dealer Raymond Wapner finds the upswing encouraging: "It's about time we came to terms with the economic reality of the times. In upward movement and general stability, rare books perform better than the Dow Jones index." Indeed, in two decades rare books have appreciated about 30 times, on the average, outperforming gold, diamonds and Oriental rugs. 

Where the smart money flows, celebrities are sure to follow. Among well-known bibliophiles, Carter Burden Jr., New York political hopeful and socialite, is reportedly amassing what experts believe will be the definitive collection of contemporary American first editions. Author Ray Bradbury favors such English novelists as Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh, and Bestseller Irving Wallace collects rarer chart toppers like a signed edition of The Thin Man, for which he paid $ 1,500 last year. 

Their acquisitions in turn have stimulated new interest, in every sense of the word. A first edition of D.H. Lawrence's 1915 The Rainbow bought in 1960 for $25 sold 17 years later for $200. Raymond Chandler's classic whodunit The Big Sleep now brings $2,500, up 150% in five years, and John Irving's early novel Setting Free the Bears, bought twelve years ago for $5.95, is worth $200. 

Dealers have responded to such appreciation with come-ons as enticing as those of any money fund. John Jenkins lures the blue-chip set to his $20 million inventory in Austin with tax tips: a collection of rare books that cost $50,000 to build, he points out, can be donated to a library and deducted from taxes at the current value. So the collecting is free, and the gift may be named for the donor: immortality at discount prices. Concludes Jenkins: "All an investor needs is patience, a good adviser and a collection worth more than the sum of its parts." Two sample collections suggested by Jenkins: a complete library of imprints by Iowa publishers and all of Charles Schulz's Snoopy publications.
Says British Bookman Sir William Rees-Mogg, a former London Times editor: "Rare books make rich men wise and wise men rich." So rich that the venerable London firm of Francis Edwards now advocates a kind of leather-bound mutual fund. For a minimum of $1,000—plus a 2% storage commission—Edwards assembles a "portfolio" of rare books, often unseen by the investor, to be sold later for profit. A typical $10,000 Edwards holding might include such items as The Journals of Captain Cook ($200), Kipling's Kim ($80) and Thomas Chippendale's The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director ($2,500). Clive Farahar, one of Edwards' aggressive associate directors, encourages investors to leave their books at the shop, where other buyers may offer higher prices for them. Still, he says, "many will want to peruse their books before a fire, wearing bedroom slippers and sipping a glass of whisky."