A Query on my copy of Septuagenarian Stew (1 Viewer)

I was in LA in 1992 and purchased a copy of Septuagenarian Stew from "Red" in his shop off Hollywood Boulevard, it is signed by Buck and Red signed the poem about himself on the day I bought it and dated it. Its a Black Sparrow hard back and on researching it on this site found he signed 500 first issues in the front and the books were numbered -- how ever the book is signed at the front but there is no number - does this mean it is NOT part of the first 500?? any feed back on this would be appreciated - Cheers
 
Bukowski was known to go into Red's and sign books. that's probably the case with yours.

it's most likely a hardcover trade edition, and not part of the 500.
 
Yeah, what hooch said.

Additionally, if the cloth on the spine is black, it's a trade edition (not part of the numbered editions). If the cloth is blue or red it would one of the numbered editions. But of course in that case it would also be numbered, which yours is not, so you have a signed trade edition. If the title page inside is printed in color it's a first edition.

But if you bought it from Red, whichever printing it is, the signature is authentic.
 
Also, the numbered edition wasn't signed in the front but on the colophon page at the back of the book, which is also where the number would be.
 
All previous comments meeting the specs of your book, yours would be one of 1,000 hardcover trade editions. At this point, the color on the title page is the important remaining item to establish first printing. But those signed at Red's are not nearly that number (at least per book; there may be a few hundred or so [total of all books] that were signed by Buk at Red's but others here might have a better number), and having Red's sig makes it a bit more special - a bit of provenance, as it were.

Some collectors pay a premium for the numbered/called for signed editions, but others prefer the spontaneity of a "gotten" signature; having Red's is nice gravy, or sauce, as you lot call it.
 
cool, yeah Red produced the book from under the counter and marked the page he signed for me with a black sparrow book mark with a poem on it, we had a good old chat and I walked out of there well chuffed -- oh yeah it has a black spine
 
Well gramhoody, I'm no expert but those guys are and all I know from a poem in Dangling in the Tournefortia Bukowski wanted to be called "buke" as in "puke". The poem on page 186 is called Suckerfish as in the guy who called him "buck".
So get on board and refer to him as "buke" or you will be the "puke" and you don't want to be the puke.

Sounds like you have a great item and Septuagenarian Stew is one of my favorites. Enjoy the forum, go introduce your fine self in the New Blood section.
 
you know when I wrote "buck" and realised my faux pas too late I cringed --- no getting away with it from you guys huh -- I thought I may have snuck under the radar there -- my most humbles to all -- by the way the signature is on a coloured page - I'd like to think Red saw a true fan (or ignorant tourist) and had a stash for such 'muppets' the price is still written in pencil on the ifc - he chucked in a copy of "going modern" for me too
 
Red seemed to hate most people, even really great, decent people. There are a few people on this forum that were thrown out of his store for reasons that only Red could have known.
 
I wasn't thrown out myself, but told him to piss off and walked out of his shop -- and I was a paying customer, bought a couple expensive things from him before that episode. He was giving me shit because my kids were with me: two quiet, well-behaved little girls. His problem, not mine. He may have been a swell guy to some but he just seemed like an asshole to me.
 

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