In the auction catalogue, Sorenson lists the value of the two books together at $3,000 to $4,000, but he says, "I wouldn't be a bit surprised if [that lot] went for $10,000 or more."
Other signed books by presidents Truman, Johnson, Nixon and Carter also promise big bidding, as well as five Churchill-signed books -- including the volume Churchill mistakenly inscribed to "Harold Smith."
At Quinn's, Dale Sorenson, left, and Andrew McLean marvel at Howard K. Smith's vast collection; top right, LBJ's "To Heal and to Build"; and the Kennedy and Nixon books.
(Photos Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
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Smith not only valued his books, he was possessive about them. Inside every one is his "chop mark" -- a pale-red stamp of his initials stylized in a Japanese block insignia, topped with his handwritten initials.
But Sorenson complains that American culture today tends to undervalue books, even rare ones like these. "Generally speaking, we don't value books in the same way that we might value a big-screen television set," he says. "Somebody will go out and spend $1,000 on that. They won't spend $25 on a book."
Still, he thinks somebody -- a smart collector -- is likely to spend $1,000 on the large, 555-page folio of "The History of the World in Five Bookes by Sir Walter Ralegh, Knight." Published in 1617, it's an impressive, polished, calfskin-bound book whose gilt-dense spine is a bit dry, spotted and darkened with age. And, during some century since, one of its pages was decorated with a childish brown-ink sketch of a girl in a dress who appears to have sideburns or a beard.
But every collection, no matter how astute the collector, has something offbeat, right?
Sorenson thinks carefully. "Well, he had three books on Denmark . . . and they're odd," he says.
No Hunter S. Thompson, no UFO books, no tantric? "He did not get wild and crazy," says Sorenson.
There is a mystery he can't explain, however. "Atypical of what his library is, we have these . . . ," Sorenson says, both amused and dismayed as he walks over to a shelf of 35 titles -- Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Buck and so on. Their brightly colored bindings give off a rainbow effect. They look like a Disney replication.
"You know these Franklin Mint books?" he asks.
Maybe a friend gave them to him. Or maybe he ordered them, then decided not to order more. "We think it's reprocessed shoe leather but we don't know," Sorenson jokes about the binding, though he thinks they'll sell for $80 to $120 per lot of five. "They're not that bad, but if you had a choice between these and the real thing, well . . . ."
What's perplexing about the Franklin Mint books, he says, is that Smith's collection is the real thing -- as was Smith. "He was a man of culture," says Sorenson, now appraising the collector based on the collection. "He had eclectic tastes."
