One for the Books

Sarah Michelle Gellar is one. So is Whoopi Goldberg. Johnny Depp was one long before anyone had heard of him. Ditto Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz.

They’re all rare-book collectors, and you just might spot one or more of them this weekend at the 33rd California International Antiquarian Book Fair. More than 180 of the world’s leading rare-book dealers are gathering Friday through Sunday at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel.

According to David Brass, vice chairman of the Southern California chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Assn. of America, the California show (which alternates each year between Los Angeles and San Francisco) is the nation’s best-attended, attracting 7,000 to 10,000 visitors.

“It attracts a very broad spectrum of collectors, as well as librarians and other dealers from all over the world,” he says. Some 60% of the sellers will be from the U.S., another 20% from Britain, with others from France, Germany, the Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Australia, Spain and Sweden.

An estimated $20 million worth of rare books will be on display (and for sale), including one of the world’s rarest religious manuscripts: A Wycliffite Bible, an early 15th century English translation of the New Testament that is valued at $1.5 million.

First editions from Jane Austen to Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway to Dr. Seuss are also expected to be available for those collectors of means.

“You can get a flavor for what book collecting is about,” Brass says. “It’s a great entry-level thing, even if one doesn’t want to spend a lot of money.”

Hollywood Classics to Be Displayed

An added enticement for the general public is an exhibit called “Hollywood by the Book,” drawn from the Archives of the Performing Arts and the Warner Bros. Archives at USC’s Cinema-Television Library. Scripts, posters, production photos, lobby cards and other material from 18 movies based on literary classics will be on display.

Among the movies featured, reports library director Steve Hanson, will be “The Adventures of Robin Hood,” “Ben-Hur,” “The Grapes of Wrath,” “Jane Eyre,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “Mutiny on the Bounty,” “The Ten Commandments” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” Also slated: a series of fine-handwriting demonstrations by members of the Society of Calligraphy.

Attracting the Likes of Show-Biz Types

There are about 50 rare-book dealers in Southern California, Brass says. Collectors themselves number “in the thousands,” he estimates. Brass, who is vice president of the Heritage Book Shop on Melrose Avenue, says book collecting is on the rise, in part because of the investment value of old books.

“If one buys the right material, one could be looking for an average of 15% per annum increase,” Brass notes. “These are pretty sophisticated people.”

Heritage manager Lee Biondi adds that Los Angeles writers--especially detective-fiction authors like Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain--are “very big, very collectible and very hard to get.” An original copy of Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” (with dust jacket intact, a big factor in price) might fetch $15,000.

The price tags on these tomes are one reason why it’s an increasingly popular pastime of people with disposable income, including show-biz types. “A very high percentage of our business is entertainment-industry related, whether it be the stars, or the accountants to the stars, or the directors or producers or writers,” Brass says.

In addition to books, the fair is expected to feature other rare material, including letters, maps and musical manuscripts. Mark Hime of Biblioctopus in Century City, for example, will offer Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics for the old Beatles tune “Lovely Rita,” valued at $125,000; and fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien’s own set of page proofs for the classic trilogy “The Lord of the Rings,” with his final handwritten corrections, at $175,000.

West L.A. bookseller Eric Chaim Kline has a 1931 collection of unpublished material from German director Leni Riefenstahl valued at $15,000, and a portfolio of signed prints from photographer Larry Clark’s 1969 drug-culture book “Tulsa,” valued at $26,500.

One reason the Antiquarian Book Fair has been so successful, says Biondi, is that contrary to popular myth, Los Angeles is a city filled with people who value the printed word. “L.A.,” he says, “has been a good book town for a long time.”

BE THERE

California International Antiquarian Book Fair, Friday, 2-9 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Los Angeles Airport Marriott Hotel, 5855 W. Century Blvd., Los Angeles. Admission is $10 on Friday for a three-day ticket or $5 on Saturday or Sunday, (213) 891-3800 or https://www.abaa.org/bookfairs/losangeles.