Special inscriptions, fake Churchills and $8.3m first editions: Inside the growing passion for rare books

Alex Warren is holding a copy of James Bond novel Thunderball, which comes with a price tag of Dh118,000. This, he says with a laugh, reluctantly counts him out as a possible customer.

But why this price, when a new edition could be bought for, say, Dh44? Because it is signed by author Ian Fleming and, in the world of rare books, that makes all the difference.

“Rare doesn’t necessarily mean old,” explains Warren, founder of Zerzura, the UAE’s first and only dealer in rare books. “People assume that a mid-19th-century set of Shakespeare would be worth a lot, but it’s not because so many were printed. In contrast, the 1997 first edition of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone [only 500 copies, 300 of which went to public libraries] was extremely limited.”

Only 232 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio are known to survive, with one selling for £6.25 million. Photo: Peter Harrington Rare Books

On that note, if you happen to have one of those on your shelf, you could magic up a major payday. Four years ago, when a first edition of the same book sold at auction, the auctioneers enthusiastically described it as “so very near pristine, it’s surreal to hold”. It sold for $471,000.

That was perhaps because condition greatly boosts the value of a rare book. You want as close to original and untouched condition as possible, because even a single missing page is enough to make an otherwise valuable book more or less worthless. And with Harry Potter being a children’s book – sorry, post-teen Potterheads – they tend to get battered.

“Most people find it bonkers that even having a dust jacket or not can make a big difference – after all, it’s just a piece of paper, and one often designed to be thrown away,” says Michael DiRuggiero, founder of New York’s Manhattan Rare Book Company. “A first-edition Great Gatsby is a few thousand dollars without its dust jacket. With its dust jacket, it’s $300,000.”

Collectors say the true value of a book lies not in its price, but in the story it carries. Photo: Peter Harrington Rare Books

But condition is not the only criteria that drives up prices. Anything that adds to the volume’s uniqueness – an inscription of note, for example – does so too. Take, for example, a first-edition copy of Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls. Autographed, it might fetch Dh30,000; inscribed, Dh60,000; inscribed to someone connected to the author, Dh100,000; and inscribed to someone to whom the book is dedicated, Dh1,000,000.

Pom Harrington, owner of London’s rare book dealer Peter Harrington, once sold a copy of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities inscribed by the author to George Eliot, who would become another giant of English literature, for about Dh1.4 million.

“Regardless of to whom the inscription is made, it personalises the book. It means the author has handled it,” Harrington says. “But when you have two names like that involved, it’s fantasy stuff.”

UAE-based Zerzura Rare Books founder Alex Warren says collecting thrives on one thing: the joy of holding history in your hands. Photo: Zerzura Rare Books

But while deep-pocketed bibliophiles might increasingly look on rare books as a burgeoning investment option – easy to store, easy to enjoy and, in shaping culture, arguably more impressive than cars, watches or even contemporary art – it’s not all about big money.

Harrington says that a beautiful, leather-bound 19th-century book of poetry, a first-edition Roald Dahl or a later edition PG Wodehouse, for example, are all buyable for less than Dh500. And this from a man who once had the rare privilege of selling a First Folio – the first collected edition of 36 of Shakespeare’s plays, only 232 copies of which are known to survive, with most of these being with institutions or in museums. It sold to a private collector for £6.25 million ($8.3 million).

A rare book’s dust jacket can make the difference between a few thousand and a few hundred thousand dollars. Photo: Peter Harrington Rare Books

“We always advise people to simply buy what they love and the best copy they can afford,” he says. “That way, as with stocks and shares, there’s a good chance that when it comes to selling the book, someone else will like it too. Most people buy not to sell, of course, but it would be disingenuous not to acknowledge that someone who does spend a lot of money on a book doesn’t also have its investment value in mind.”

Not that a return is guaranteed. Demand for certain books, as is the case for any other cultural artefact, is somewhat a product of the times. Anthony Trollope is considered, by turns, a great novelist of the Victorian era, but was also permanently in Dickens’ shadow.

Other authors, such as Dr Seuss or CS Lewis, for example – have seen their standing blighted, if temporarily, by politically correct concerns. DiRuggiero suggests that you’ll likely need a portfolio of rare books – 50 or more – to come out on top over time.

As with any investment, the price of rare books fluctuates over time. Photo: Peter Harrington Rare Books

“Taste in books can be influenced by all sorts of factors. A TV or movie adaptation can bring a book a new relevance,” he adds. “When the Lord of the Rings movies came out, first-edition Tolkien jumped hugely in value, so if you’re looking to make a return, it can pay to keep an eye on what is happening in culture.”

But if making money on them isn’t easy, why do people buy these dusty old tomes, as we might see them, especially in this increasingly shiny digital age? Warren argues that it’s because books have an appealing, deeply human tangibility – akin to the allure of vinyl albums perhaps, and sometimes carry added historic import too.

“I think it’s precisely because the UAE is such a new country and everything feels so futuristic that it drives a hunger for old things – they command a premium,” he says.

Inscriptions by the author or a previous owner are sought-after in the collector world. Photo: Zerzura Rare Books

Nostalgia is a factor too – with the UAE’s broadly younger audience seeking out rare editions of “subversive” books, such as Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, as well as books that defined their youth, including Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho. Even style can be a factor.

“People think that a certain book just looks good on display at home,” Warren says, “which doesn’t bother me at all.” Add in a growing accessibility – the internet providing all the knowledge a fledging book collector might need, plus access to sales worldwide – and it’s comforting to know that, even as studies suggest that reading for pleasure is in decline, there’s still at least an appreciation for the physical object.

Unfortunately, that too is something the unscrupulous will take advantage of. While a printed book is very hard to fake, a signature is much less so.

As with any industry involving big sums, there are unscrupulous sellers looking to fake author signatures. Photo: Peter Harrington Rare Books

“You need experience or expert advice to tell the difference,” Harrington warns. He has, he says with a laugh, seen too many books signed by Winston Churchill – even for that most enthusiastic signer of books. Harrington explains that Churchill had a consistency of signature over time until he had a stroke in 1953 – “so beware a 1940s signature in a 1950s book”.

But once you have your dream book in your hands, keep it there. If it’s not a First Folio, don’t be precious about it, DiRuggiero advises.

“When we’re trying to make a sale, we want customers to hold these books, because that’s so central to their enjoyment. And you really should enjoy even your rare books,” he says. “Storage is more of a problem – keep them out of strong sunlight and don’t get them wet. But otherwise read your first edition like any other book. And no, you don’t need to wear white gloves while you do so. In fact, don’t – you’re more likely to tear the pages that way.”