Signed Books

I've touched on this a few times before in the blog, but I thought maybe bringing them together would be useful, at least to me.  In this post, I talk about the author readings (that I remember) and note if I got a signed copy of the book or not.  (I should add that since posting that, I did see Salman Rushdie doing an in-person interview related to Quichotte and picked up a pre-signed book, as he no longer does in-person signings due to the understandable security risks.)  And here I talk a bit about buying autographed books on the internet, which I don't do often but will if there is no feasible alternative, i.e. the author passed away or is simply no longer on the book circuit.  That said, over the last year I have engaged in a bit more autograph-hunting.  With my recent orders of signed books by Sharon Olds and August Kleinzahler, I have signatures of all the living poets I follow closely with the exception of Louise Gluck (where the cost of her signature now seems to be out of my price range...).  Several of these volumes are from Brick Books where they sometimes sent signed copies as prizes for various competitions, particularly linked to Canadian literary blogs, and I was fortunate enough to win a few times.

There is no question I have more signed poetry books than novels.  In this list, I will put a star next to the ones where I actually got the autograph at a reading or in-person another way.

Margaret Atwood Selected Poems I & II *
Paul Auster The New York Trilogy *
Lindsay B-E The Cyborg Anthology (won a signed copy through a Zoom reading)
Neil Bissoondath On the Eve of Uncertain Tomorrows
George Bowering Errata
Gwendolyn Brooks Blacks *
Jim Carroll The Book of Nods *
Barry Dempster The Burning Alphabet
Adam Dickinson Kingdon, Phylum
Stuart Dybek The Coast of Chicago * (Actually my dad got this signed for me)
Timothy Findley The Wars
Timothy Findley The Telling of Lies
Alice Fulton Powers of Congress *
Allen Ginsberg Planet News
David Gitlin The Journey Home
Jim Gustafson  Virtue and Annihilation *
Diana Hartog Ink Monkey
Michael Heller In the Builded Place
Faye Kicknosway Butcher Scraps
Faye Kicknosway The Violence of Potatoes
Carolyn Kizer Yin
August Kleinzahler The Strange Hours Travelers Keep
Robert Kroetsch Seed Catalogue
Robert Kroetsch Excerpts From the Real World
Evelyn Lau Other Women
Dennis Lee Riffs
Don L. Lee We Walk the Way of the New World *
Philip Levine The Simple Truth
Ken Mikolowski Big Enigmas *
Ken Mikolowski Little Mysteries *
Sharon Olds The Dead and the Living
Michael Ondaatje Secular Love (This is an odd one.  I went to a reading by Ondaatje in Toronto but I don't recall waiting in line for him to sign this.  At the same time, it would have cost more to buy a signed copy than is indicated on the front page, so maybe I did wait it out...)
Orhan Pamuk The Museum of Innocence
Marge Piercy My Mother's Body
Adrienne Rich Dark Fields of the Republic
John Sinclair We Just Change the Beat *
Josef Skvorecky The Republic of Whores
Charles Simic Selected Poems *
Charles Simic The Voice at 3 AM *
Susan Swan The Biggest Modern Woman in the World *
Constance Urdang American Earthquakes

Janet Abu-Lughod Rabat: Urban Apartheid in Morocco
Neil deGrasse Tyson Death by Black Hole

I think this list is complete, though once in a while I stumble across a book that I picked up used, not knowing it was signed, and I'll just go ahead and add it here if that happens again.  That was the case for Bissoondath, Evelyn Lau, Marge Piercy (!) and Constance Urdang.

I guess one benefit of focusing on poets is that they are generally fairly obscure to the general reading public, and there is not as much pent-up demand to get their signatures.  The flip side is that they didn't go to as many readings and book signings in the first place.  Probably the most "famous" signatures I have collected are from Atwood and Ondaatje, both of whom are much better known for their novels than their poetry, though both are fine poets.  (Actually, on further reflection, Paul Auster is the most famous, though I recently scored a fairly inexpensive signature of Allen Ginsberg, but I won't list it until it is in my possession.)