Another collecting dilemma (2 Viewers)

Cheers guys. Thing is , I've been offered, for the same price, two of Buk's books: Betting on the Muse & you Get so Alone... Both are signed copies & are genuine. Both are reasonably priced, but I can only afford one. Which one should I get? In terms of content, I like both equally - so that's not an issue. Any ideas / suggestions? Which one would you go for? Any reason for your decision?
 
I'd go for You Get So Alone, as the Betting the Muse will be a book with a blank signed page, while the You Get will be a signed colophon with the limitation etc, plus it was out in his life time which adds to it for me anyway.
 
hank solo said:
plus it was out in his life time which adds to it for me anyway.

The signed-while-he-was-alive-book should have more collector appeal in the long run, I would guess. I'd get that one. (Yeah, I should talk...I buy trade paperback 20th printing copies of Buk, but if money was no object, then I'd get that one.)

David
 
I'd vote for YOU GET SO ALONE for the aforementioned reasons, but also becuase it's a much stronger collection. For me, the inserted signed pages have kind of a bogus feeling about them (althought they are a part of my collection.)
 
nymark said:
For me, the inserted signed pages have kind of a bogus feeling about them...
It's interesting that unless you stick it on a table in front of the author, a signed book is rarely a signed book, but rather a signed piece of paper collated into a book.

There are obvious logistical reasons for creating signed editions that way, but it's always struck me as sort of odd. Even when Bukowski went to New Orleans to write poems and sign books, he signed the pages before the books were put together. So there's nothing new there.

But is it really a signed book?

I know it's splitting hairs, and I suppose whether it matters or not depends on your reason for wanting a signed edition.
 
mjp said:
It's interesting that unless you stick it on a table in front of the author, a signed book is rarely a signed book, but rather a signed piece of paper collated into a book.
Didn't Black Sparrow use some of John Fante's canceled checks to put together a "signed" edition? Or am I confused?
 
Black sparrow did use cut autographs for a Gertrude Stein book once. Also, the tipped in manuscripts into some limited editions of Charles Reznikoff.

I'm not sure about Fante. I do know that Joyce has signed som eof the limiteds from after John died...

Bill;
 

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