His latest venture is buy the book

Almost any newspaper article about Jim Bildner has to remind the reader of the 51-year-old businessman's meteoric rise and fall as the founder of the '80s-era yupscale grocery chain J. Bildner & Sons. Consider yourself reminded. Bildner has long since moved on to other things.

After a decade running a medium-sized technology consulting company, Bildner is devoting himself almost exclusively to philanthropy. One of his more interesting and innovative projects, the Literary Ventures Fund, will crank into gear next month.

Here's the idea. Bildner wants to apply venture capital rules to book publishing. LVF will make small investments, and thus own portions of, promising novels, nonfiction works, and even book series. It's the spread-your-bets-and-hope-for-a-hit VC model. If one out of 10 investments pays off big, you get rich. In this case, the LVF gets rich, as any gains will be plowed back into the nonprofit for reinvestment in future projects.

Here's an example of how a little money might help a fledgling book project: The modern book editor doesn't edit. He or she acquires a manuscript, cheerleads the author, and holds the writer's hand when, 49 times out of 50, the much-enthused-over project slides quietly down the drain.

Well-heeled writers often hire their own editors to juice up their manuscripts. That's a luxury few can afford. So LVF might pay for an editor, or a marketing consultant, in return for a piece of the action. ''I believe it's harder for beginning writers to get the career support they need than it has been in the past," says Bildner. ''It's just harder to get an audience."

Bildner is doing more than just flapping his jaws. He is pursuing a master of fine arts degree in Lesley University's nonfiction writing program, and he serves on the board of Minnesota-based nonprofit Graywolf Press. He's started to assemble a team of collaborators with serious publishing cred: former Random House editor in chief Jonathan Karp, now at Warner Books; Jim Miller, editor of the well-regarded (but little read) intellectual review Daedalus; publishing veteran Constance Sayre of Market Partners International; and my former colleague Ande Zellman, past editor of the Globe's Sunday magazine.

In addition to financing a certain amount of overhead for the LVF, Bildner is committing $250,000 of his own money for direct investment in literary projects, meaning new manuscripts, new poetry series, whatever.

Yes, I have doubts aplenty. On the one hand, I accept that there is some genuine pollution overhanging the literary landscape. (And why hasn't my agent gotten back to me on my proposal for ''Oprah's Da Vinci Code Diet"??) But I am more hardhearted than Bildner when it comes to the virtues of ''new voices," overlooked mid-list writers, and small presses. One of the worst books I've read this year -- ''Out of My Head," by Didier Van Cauwelaert -- came off a small press. And so did one of the best: ''Adios Hemingway," by Leonardo Padura Fuentes. So go figure.

But if young Mr. Bildner -- he was born the day after I was -- wants to invest in literature, who's to object? Three years from now, he'll either look very smart or a little naive. But he will have made a lot of writers happy.

The G-men play rough There is some pretty tough justice buried in last week's settlement between the Department of Justice and Harvard economics professor Andrei Shleifer, who was accused of defrauding the US government while working as an adviser in Russia. For one thing, Shleifer can't work for or accept money from any arm of the US government for two years. Also, he can't declare bankruptcy to get out from under the $2 million (plus about $100,000 in interest) that he owes the feds.

Lastly, he had to sign his $1.4 million Newton home over to the Department of Justice. The Feds now hold the mortgage on the house, but they will take it only if Shleifer stiffs them on the fines. That's unlikely, as he states in the settlement that he will remain solvent, despite shelling out the two large over three years.

Asked whether Shleifer remains a professor in good standing at Harvard, Faculty of Arts and Sciences spokesman Robert Mitchell said it was university policy not to comment on internal personnel matters.

Alex Beam is a Globe columnist. His e-dress is beam@globe.com.