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Black Sparrow typesetter selling her collection (1 Viewer)

O.k. heres the story, my neighbor, her name is Sasha Newborn, was the typesetter for Black Sparrow Press from sometime in the early eighties until they closed about five years ago. As the typesetter she received a typesetters copy of each book she worked on. Since she set the entire books typeface she had already effectively "read" each book more than once before it was printed so she took these special edition books and stored them in her home without reading them. Many of these books are signed, some have original drawings doodled on the signature page, they are all first editions and one of them, "Love is a Dog from Hell" even has a small original oil painting signed by Bukowski bound in before the title page. Sasha retired when John Martin himself retired and closed down Black Sparrow a few years ago. She has kept these books untouched the entire time . She doesn't have much money. Recently she suffered an accident and although it's nothing life threatening she is in considerable discomfort and needs money for medical treatment so she is trying to sell her small collection of special edition Bukowski books . I offered to try to find people who would be interested in buying any of them. If you are interested let me know and I will send you pictures and descriptions of the titles she is selling, if you aren't maybe you know somebody else who would want to have a look. Thanks- [email protected]
 
You might have better luck and interest if you could post a list of what's in the collection. I'm sure you'll get responses to this post, but a list would increase the number of responses (and save you answering the same questions more than once).
 
That occurred to me shortly after I posted the message and I've been busy compiling a list this evening. I'm just about finished with it but am having trouble deciding how much to ask for them. Any ideas where to find that kind of info? Thanks for the heads up
 
Abe's prices are occasionally reasonable, but also occasionally above current market value. Ebay is typically lower than market value... There are plenty of people here who have more knowledge about values of books than I do, though.

Incidentally, if there is any John Fante in there, I'd be excited to hear about it... Shame about your friend, hopefully she has a speedy recovery.
 
Thank you, and actually there are a few I'll try to get you a list tomorrow- maybe you could email me and then i'll have your email address to send you list of her John Fante stuff.
 
List of typesetters books

These are the hardback books she is selling. They are all pretty much like brand new . I am having a sort of hard time pricing them , but I have a pretty good general idea of what they are worth so why don't you see if there is anything you like and if so make an offer. I have pictures of the books, signatures, doodles, etc. I can send if you would like me to.

1.Love Is a Dog from Hell: First edition First Printing W/Original oil signed by author on first page , also signed on the colophon page, with a cartoon of a man and a dog. The oil is an abstract painting in black, yellow, and green signed BUK with tissue and plastic protectors preceding title page (painting is thick enough to indent the front endsheet). Hardcover with mylar jacket Handbound in boards by Earle Gray. Black Sparrow Press, 1977

2. The Last Night of the Earth. First edition First Printing Signed and numbered.
Number 19 of edition of 750 signed copies Black Sparrow Press 1992.

3. Pulp - First Edition First Printing Signed by author
Bukowski's venture into writing detective crime fiction.
No. 555 of a signed edition of 750 Black Sparrow Press 1994.

4. Septuagenarian Stew. Stories and Poems. On reaching seventy- First Edition, First Printing
. Marked "Presentation Copy" and signed on the colophon page Black Sparrow Press, 1990

5. The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps - First edition First Printing with a serigraph of a drawing by Bukowski bound in after the title page ("Where's the men's room?" in color). Black Sparrow Press, 2001. No. 429 of an edition of 526.

6. Open All Night New Poems- First edition First Printing Serigraph of abstract drawing, pen and crayon, signed and dated 5-25-65. Deluxe edition no. 347 of 426 printed Black Sparrow Press, 2000

7.Hollywood- First edition First Printing Black Sparrow Press 1989

8. The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship- Illustrated by Robert Crumb
First Edition First Printing Black Sparrow Press 1998

9.Bone Palace Ballet. New Poems
Black Sparrow Press, 1997. One of 750

10. The Roominghouse Madrigals. Early Selected Poems 1946-1966.
Black Sparrow Press, 1988 edition of 500.

11.Reach for the Sun. Selected Letters 1978-1994. Volume 3. Edited by Seamus Cooney.
Black Sparrow Press, 1999. First Edition, First Printing.


Paperbacks

1.Dangling in the Tournefortia- First edition First printing printers copy with note to printer on back cover
and some printers ink on the front cover .

2.Factotum- 3 copies: One of them is the "work copy" and has some pencilling and a little bit of spilled ink,
other two are like brand new

3.Hot Water Music- First edition First printing

4. Last Night of the Earth- First edition First printing. Has a couple of stains on the front cover otherwise perfect

5. Living on Luck- 2 copies: First Edition First Printing one of them is the printers copy so there
are a couple of pencilled notes on it

6. Love is a Dog from Hell- 3 copies: One First Edition First Printing copy, editors copy with a few punctuation corrections in red pencil, the other two are later printings in good condition

7. Mockingbird Wish me Luck- Printers copy

8. Open all Night- First Edition First Printing other than a couple of stains on cover in very good shape

9. Pulp- First Edition First Printing

10. Rooming House Madrigals- First edition First Printing

11. South of no North-

12. The Day it Snowed in L.A.- 2 copies in good condition

13. They Played the Piano Drunk like a Percussion Instrument until the Finger began to Bleed- Two copies: one First edition First Printing printers copy, one fourth printing like new

14. War all the Time- First edition First Printing

15. Women- two copies: one "work copy" well worn, one copy like new


Other Stuff

1. Three by Bukowski- 2 copies paper bound very good

2. Bring me your Love-

3. Theres no Business -

4. Special Limited Edition Book of Photographs- companion book to Michael Montforts German exhibit of his Bukowski Photos

5. New Years Greetings from Black Sparrow- numerous- paperbound : '85, '88, '91, '92, '93,'95,'97, '99
Handbound with boards numbered and signed : '84, '89, '90, '92, '94, '95, '96, '98, '99, '00, '01

unfortunately many of these are to some degree water damaged if you are interested in any of these let
me know the year and i'll send you a picture- obviously the paper ones will go real cheap-but they're
neat little books
 
I'm sorry to hear about your friend too.
I'd say in general, if you can find a similar edition on ABE, knock 20 % off the asking price, and that's the books' value.
Huge generalization, but when ever I buy books via ABE, that's the discount I ask and get.
I've e-mailed you mz monzter
 
1.Love Is a Dog from Hell: First edition First Printing W/Original oil signed by author on first page , also signed on the colophon page, with a cartoon of a man and a dog.
That is going to be the most valuable book.

15. Women- two copies: one "work copy" well worn
Probably well worn because she had to do it twice. ;) It would be great to hear the story of Women from the typesetter's perspective, since there were many changes made between the first and second printings. Ask her about that.

unfortunately many of these are to some degree water damaged
That is going to affect the price dramatically. "ABE average - 20%" would be high for a damaged book. Many collectors will not pay anything for a damaged book.
 
The extent of the water damage is important. Water damage could be anything from a very mild, almost invisible damp stain, to being moldy, warped, smelly, pages stuck together, pages torn and peeled from having been pulled apart when stuck together. If it's mild, you might get half of the price of a nice copy. If it's badly damaged, you'd be lucky to get 10%. You may need to post photos to sell these, given the water damage.
 
Just the new years greetings- sorry that was confusing

All of the BOOKS are in very good shape, the hard back books are essentially brand new never having been read and stored right after printing -the new years greetings are the only things that that are water damaged
 
too much celebrating the new year and these got drinks spilled on the books year after year!

Say that Bukowski spilled beer on them and put them on ebay....


Bill
 
In all fairness, it wasn't my idea. There have been a few people on ebay that have tried it. Some books has water damage, have been market as stained by Bukowski's beer or wine...

Bill
 
Best wishes to your neighbor. Unfortunately, the only book there I'm in the market for is Love is a Dog From Hell, and I can't afford that one. Best of luck with the sales.

And I too would be very interested in hearing a bit from her about printing the two versions of Women.
 
Maybe it's just me and not true for others, but if I were buying any of these, I'd want her to sign the book "Sasha Newborn, typesetter for Black Sparrow Press, 198_ to 198_" Knowing it was a copy given to her would add to its appeal. And although it's not a valuable edition, the one book I would want the most would be the paperback "work copy" of Women, with her inscription saying that's what it is. That's a piece of history.
 
I'm not saying I want to buy any of the books. Sorry if that was not clear. My budget is very tight lately. I just meant that I think her signature and an inscription would add value to the books. Others may prefer the books not be signed by her.
 
Prices for Black Sparrow Collection

Here, at last, are the prices for Sashas (she was the typesetter for Black Sparrow Press) books. I priced these mostly by looking online and comparing prices from various sites-I generally priced them at slightly less than what I found them selling for. I think the prices are fair-I couldn't find comparisons for all of them and sometimes I had to guess so please feel free to make a reasonable offer on any of these because we need to sell them. Anyway have a look and let me know if you want a picture or have any questions- and, of course if you want to buy a book. This is my email address if you want to email me about something: [email protected]
Thanks

1.Love Is a Dog from Hell: First edition First Printing W/Original oil signed by author on first page , also signed on the colophon page, with a cartoon of a man and a dog. The oil is an abstract painting in black, yellow, and green signed BUK with tissue and plastic protectors preceding title page (painting is thick enough to indent the front endsheet). Hardcover with mylar jacket Handbound in boards by Earle Gray. Black Sparrow Press, 1977 $2800.00

2. The Last Night of the Earth. First edition First Printing Signed and numbered.
Number 19 of edition of 750 signed copies Black Sparrow Press 1992. $395.00

3. Pulp - First Edition First Printing Signed by author
Bukowski's venture into writing detective crime fiction.
No. 555 of a signed edition of 750 Black Sparrow Press 1994. $ 295.00

4. Shakespeare never did this First Edition first printing- $90.00

5. The Night Torn Mad with Footsteps - First edition First Printing with a serigraph of a drawing by Bukowski bound in after the title page ("Where's the men's room?" in color). Black Sparrow Press, 2001. No. 429 of an edition of 526. $195.00

6. Open All Night New Poems- First edition First Printing Serigraph of abstract drawing, pen and crayon, signed and dated 5-25-65. Deluxe edition no. 347 of 426 printed Black Sparrow Press, 2000 $110.00

7.Hollywood- First edition First Printing Black Sparrow Press 1989 $125.00

8. The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship- Illustrated by Robert Crumb
First Edition First Printing Black Sparrow Press 1998 125.00

9.Bone Palace Ballet. New Poems
Black Sparrow Press, 1997. One of 750 $75.00

10. The Roominghouse Madrigals. Early Selected Poems 1946-1966.
Black Sparrow Press, 1988 edition of 500. $125.00

11.Reach for the Sun. Selected Letters 1978-1994. Volume 3. Edited by Seamus Cooney.
Black Sparrow Press, 1999. First Edition, First Printing. $75.00

12. A Descriptive Bibliography of the Primary Publications of Charles Bukowski by Aaron Krumhansl
1) # 254 of 376 deluxe copies with broadside poem by Charles Bukowski $100.00
2) First Editon $ 70.00


Paperbacks

2.Factotum- 3 copies: One of them is the "work copy" and has some pencilling and a little bit of spilled ink,
other two are like brand new- 7.00

3.Hot Water Music- First edition First printing- 11.00

4. Last Night of the Earth- First edition First printing. Has a couple of stains on the front cover otherwise perfect $20.00

5. Living on Luck- 2 copies: First Edition First Printing one of them is the printers copy so there are a couple of pencilled notes on it- 11.00

6. Love is a Dog from Hell- 2 copies: One First Edition First Printing copy, editors copy with a few punctuation corrections in red pencil, the other later printing is in good condition- 11.00

8. Open all Night- First Edition First Printing other than a couple of stains on cover in very good shape- 8.00

9. Pulp- First Edition First Printing $15.00

10. Rooming House Madrigals- First edition First Printing - 13.00

11. South of no North-

12. The Day it Snowed in L.A.- 2 copies in good condition $40.00

13. They Played the Piano Drunk like a Percussion Instrument until the Finger began to Bleed- Two copies: one First edition First Printing printers copy, 15.00
one fourth printing like new-12.00

14. War all the Time- First edition First Printing - 12.00

15. Women- like new - $10.00


Other Stuff

1. Three by Bukowski- 2 copies paper bound very good $18.00

2. Bring me your Love- paperback good condition- 13.00

3. Theres no Business - working copy ( some pencilled notes on cover)- 10.00

4. Special Limited Edition Book of Photographs of Bukowski taken by michael Montfort- make an offer

4. New Years Greetings from Black Sparrow- some of these are water damaged- numerous- paperbound : '85, '88, '91, '92, '93,'95,'97, '99
Handbound with boards numbered and signed : '84, '89, '90, '92, '94, '95, '96, '98, '99, '00, '01- let me know if you're interested in any particular year and I'll send you a picture of it
 
#1 is a fair price, but most of the other Hardback 1st are priced out of what the market will bear. #5 is available on abe for $100. Even Gregor, who always prices his stuff WAY, WAY too high is asking $125. You are asking $195. Given that most booksellers will give a 20% discount just for the asking, you may want to cut your price in half. I'm not saying this to be difficult, but at that price, you will not sell it. If you list it on ebay, expect to get less than $75 for it, if it sells.

#3 is available on abe for $262.50 (probably less if you ask nicely), but routinely sells on ebay for the $150 - $175 price range.

The biggest problem is that using abe to value these in this economy is really tough. Books that would go for $400 a couple years ago are not usually bringing in $250 now. it is not Buk, it is that there are a lot of people without money to buy books. I have all but stopped buying and have been selling... Three years ago, I was an active bidder on ebay for these books and was often outbid and just could not afford to chase the books....

best,
Bill
 
well, thats why I said make an offer- I don't really have any experience pricing books and just tried to figure it out as best I could, but really any reasonable offer......

the cheapest " night torn mad with footsteps" numbered edition with the seriagraph that I can find on Abes is 225.00

signed first edition of pulp starts at 300.00 on abes- seriously am I not seeing all of their listings? Because I thought I was- but like I said I'm inexperienced.
 
The pricing on the paper backs is fair - e-mail sent on a few of those.

The thing about book pricing is that abebooks can provide a general indication of bookseller expectation, but there needs to be about 5-7 copies to be sure that the over-priced sellers aren't setting the price. I recently bought a book on ebay and paid a small premium for it, and it arrived with some foxing, so I felt that the price should be lower. The seller found two copies on abebooks and they happened to be offered by a seller who is well-known to price books at 200-300% of their real street value.

Imagine my difficulty in referring him to abebooks and then trying to explain that the examples he found there are over-priced by a substantial amount.

Those of us here are basically looking for ebay-type prices. By that, I mean about 20-30% off of the common-sense price on abebooks. Not a big deal on a $15 book, but on books in the $100-$300 range, abebooks is generally over-priced and sometimes way, way over-priced.
 
2.Factotum- 3 copies: One of them is the "work copy" and has some pencilling and a little bit of spilled ink,

one of them is the printers copy so there are a couple of pencilled notes on it

editors copy with a few punctuation corrections in red pencil

working copy ( some pencilled notes on cover)
I wonder what you mean by "working copy"? How can there be a working copy of a finished book? Unless you are talking about galleys or an Advanced Review copy, but they would not have the regular covers on them.

I just wonder under what circumstances a typesetter would work from anything but manuscript copies. The typesetter is the first step of the process. By the time the book is printed and bound the typesetter's job is done.
 
It was the working copy for the print shop in general- and often minor errors would be corrected after the special editions were printed, but before the trade copies were printed- or to make sure the colors were just right before later printings, stuff like that.
 
To me, the paperback printer's working copies seem the most interesting (from a bibliographic standpoint) and the best buys. But like someone said, the economy sucks, I'm broke, and I'm not buying much of anything I don't really need. Rare stuff I sell on eBay is getting half or less of it's former "value". ABE prices are often way too high. I just saw a book that lists for $95 on ABE go for $6.50 on eBay. It's a bad time to be selling rare books. Good luck with these.
 
It was the working copy for the print shop in general- and often minor errors would be corrected after the special editions were printed, but before the trade copies were printed- or to make sure the colors were just right before later printings, stuff like that.
If you say so. I thought I knew a little bit about how BSP produced their books, but I defer to your insider knowledge.

Having said that...the text for the first printing/edition (including any special editions) would have been printed in one run. There would not be any changes in the text between the various different versions of the first edition regardless of whether the first was a signed copy with a painting tipped in or a trade paperback. All the firsts would have been printed at the same time, only the binding would be different. That's just the way it works.

I'm not trying to be a nitpicking prick (I don't have to try), I just don't want this forum to be a source of erroneous information. I don't know what the marked up copies of the paperbacks are - they certainly could be someone's working copy of something. But the printer would have no need to see text corrections (because the typesetter would make those corrections) and the typesetter would not work out of a finished book. Except, again, in the case of something like Women.

Anyway, assuming the typesetter did revise after the first edition, I've never noticed any revisions between first and subsequent editions, except in the case of Women. Maybe I missed them. That's certainly possible. Never dismiss the possibility that I'm wrong about everything. But can anyone else point to any revisions? In my experience, the few mistakes that I've noticed stayed in BSP books forever.
 
Oooo and I thought I was a smarty pants! O.K. heres the more detailed version- Black Sparrow Press, unlike most custom mixed the inks for all of the covers and first edition title pages- so for all printings after the first they used a book for comparison when mixing the inks. Now as to corrections I have absolutely seen with my own eyes-pencil notes in margins, even pages cut out with corrected ones stuck in, single words cut out of a page etc. I swear it!

Help! I can't figure out how to edit my original post to mark off books that have sold- can anybody explain that to me? Thanks
 
Oooo and I thought I was a smarty pants!
I was a printer for 20 years. You're talking a bunch of shit, and I'm just trying to make sure it isn't accepted as fact without question. I really just want to clarify exactly what it is you have, which will help you sell it. But rather than asking the source and coming back with, "Well, Sasha said they printed the covers on peanut shells," you're just doing some weird, made-up bullshit dance that makes me wonder where you're getting your information.

O.K. heres the more detailed version- Black Sparrow Press, unlike most custom mixed the inks for all of the covers and first edition title pages- so for all printings after the first they used a book for comparison when mixing the inks.
Well you're talking about the covers, which have nothing to do with the text.

Now as to corrections I have absolutely seen with my own eyes-pencil notes in margins, even pages cut out with corrected ones stuck in, single words cut out of a page etc. I swear it!
That's great. Who are you? You're obviously more than just a "neighbor" helping with the sale.
 
wow you are really nasty and its completely unjustified and what earthly reason would I have to lie? I said they were SHOP work copies not HER work copies and I have a 15 year old daughter that never made it home all night and I don't know where she is and I really don't need to be attacked for no reason right now thanks asshole
 
Look for your daughter. get back to us later. Really it is a bit odd to be even reading bukowski.net when your daughter is missing.

best,
Bill
 
what earthly reason would I have to lie?
Who said you were lying? I'm asking questions and you can't answer them. I'm pointing out where you are mistaken about how printing works, and you are whining.

It's not complicated, our relationship. I still love you.
 
Well thats what I get for blurting out something personal cause I was pissed at what mpj said and as for looking at forum posts when my daughter is missing, well sadly my daughter does this not coming home all night at least once a month for the last year and even though she has always come home safely the next day I still spend those nights pacing the floor,worrying, scared shitless that something has happened to her and it's pretty awful so I just try to keep busy so I don't go nuts
 
... well sadly my daughter does this not coming home all night at least once a month for the last year and even though she has always come home safely the next day I still spend those nights pacing the floor,worrying, scared shitless that something has happened to her and it's pretty awful so I just try to keep busy so I don't go nuts

Unfortunately, these are the innumerable joys of parenthood!
Think that she is just doing what she is supposed to do, which is to become her own person, one step at a time. And she is giving you back some of your lost freedom. It is up to you to find out what to do with it. This sounds cold but it is what it is. Show yourself some respect, she'll pick up on it.
Don't beat her ass with "Women", let her read it.
 

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