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Style Magazine
A PASSION FOR WORDS
At Bauman Rare Books, Collectors Can Hold History in Their Hands
by Chris Caswell Photographs by Thomas Muscionico
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I'm a bibliomaniac," David Bauman says, with a wry smile but not the faintest hint of remorse. The words are spoken as he stands in his newly opened Bauman Rare Books store in The Palazzo Las Vegas, surrounded by thousands of books worth literally millions of dollars.
Bauman, with his wife Natalie, founded Bauman Rare Books more than 30 years ago in Philadelphia and, with a staff of more than 40 researchers and another store on New York's Madison Avenue, is arguably the leading rare-book dealer in the world.
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Imagine owning a book that changed the course of history, launched a revolution, documented an epic journey or brought joy to millions. You could possess Thomas Paine's 48-page manifesto Common Sense, which incited the Founding Fathers to declare independence on July 4th, 1776. Or you might want to acquire the oldest published copy of the United States Constitution ever found; hold a first edition of The Old Man and the Sea that Ernest Hemingway signed for a friend; admire George Gershwin's original score to Porgy and Bess, complete with his notations about changes he was making before it reached the stage; or visit an old acquaintance from childhood, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, signed by Dr. Seuss.
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"Books speak to the heart and the mind," says Bauman. "They resonate inside you, in the remembrance of a book that changed your world or that you read as a child.
The Baumans are a perfect example of how people come to book collecting. "First, we were readers. Then we discovered that we could actually own books from the 18th century, that we could hold history in our hands, and the fever struck. We're as excited by books today as we were three decades ago."
What has made Bauman Rare Books rise as the creme de la creme of rare-book sellers is the detailed documentation they provide with each book. The Bauman team painstakingly researches each book: its rarity, its condition and its provenance (the history of that particular volume). A researcher may discover that, because of a single misprint deep inside the book, it is one of only a few copies printed before the error was corrected, making it extremely rare.
The team, which includes a lawyer, a minister and several Ph.D.s, is expert on eclectic subjects, from American history to photography, children's books to poetry, science to literature. Their documentation is also a reassurance to buyers that each book is truly rare, and Bauman offers an uncond itional guarantee of authenticity (which has never been used in 30 years).
Book collecting at this level is neither inexpensive nor for the faint-at-heart: That undiscovered Constitution can be yours for $335,000, making Paine's Common Sense a steal at just $62,000. But there are many books to savor at lesser prices.
You can relive your joy of The Grinch for $15,000 or delight in a four-volume set of Winnie the Pooh for $28,000. And if you find James Joyce's Ulysses to be heavy going, art lovers will treasure a first edition illustrated by Henri Matisse ($9,000). For mystery lovers, there's a first-edition set of Sherlock Holmes' Memoirs and Adventures for $5,600, or they might prefer a signed copy of JFK's Profiles in Courage ($ 11 ,000). Pilots will be fascinated by a first edition of Amelia Earhart's The Fun of It, signed just five years before she disappeared ($4,200).
But Bauman Rare Books is not just about selling a single volume. They help book lovers create collections. "For the cost of a painting, you can own a library," says Bauman. "We build relationships with our customers and give them a road map of the collecting possibilities open to them. Our average collector builds a library over a period of years."
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| How does one start a collection? Bauman's response, which he expanded into a published volume called Rare Finds: A Guide to Book Collecting (Bauman Rare Books, 2007), is simple: "Collect what you love. Whatever the interest, literary classics, accounts of exploration, beloved children's books or exquisite bindings, there's much to offer. We've helped form every type of collection imaginable, from works banned and censored through the centuries to books that inspired classic films.
"Many collectors don't collect around a specific focus," he says. "Some search for books they've loved throughout their lives, those that taught, inspired and moved them. What other group of objects can better reflect one's passions? Many of our clients have collected in other areas - paintings, furniture, Oriental rugs - but books really aren't decorative in the same sense. Books are about how it feels to hold an early edition and touch pages that were once turned by readers who trave led by horse and carriage, who wrote with quills or danced the Charleston in speakeasies."
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As a collector himself, Bauman has a fascination with Americana. "Common Sense literally started who we are," he points out. "In fact, Thomas Paine is on my own want list. I'd like to find a set of his The Crisis, an extremely rare set of essays with the famous line, 'These are the times that try men's souls.' The essays were so moving that George Washington read one to his men at Valley Forge."
Who, of all the authors through history, would David Bauman most like to have dinner with? Without a pause, he responds, "William Shakespeare. He is the English language."
It is, of course, the perfect answer for a bibliomaniac.
Bauman Rare Books; The Shoppes at The Palazzo, 702-948-1617. |
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