Posts Tagged → signed

Feasts for All Seasons

by Roy Andries de Groot

SIGNED by illustrator! | First Edition | Alfred A. Knopf | 1966

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It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the US and what better way to celebrate than with a really huge meal cooked for your family and friends! And what better way to do that than with Roy Andries de Groot’s seasonally-focused cookbook, A Feast for All Seasons. 

Broken into four gastronomic seasons: The Spring, Summer Harvest, Fall Holiday Season, and Winter Dog Days, this book includes numerous recipes built around the peak season for each ingredient and celebrating a wide variety of holidays stemming from many diverse cultures.

But for the Fall Holiday Season, which includes the months of October, November, and December, de Groot focuses mainly on the preparation of meals for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lists of seasonal foods–wild game, fish, root vegetables, squashes, nuts, and fruits–are included alongside a lengthy discussion of hot beverages, a quick aside on kumquats, and a meditation on honey. 

Holidays included in the season: 

  • October 10th – the Double Ten holiday, celebrating the China’s freedom from the Manchu Dynasty in 1910
  • October 29th – The Foundation of the Republic Day, celebrated in Turkey
  • October 31st – Halloween!
  • November 1st – The Independence Day of Algeria
  • Late November – Thanksgiving
  • November 30th – St Andrew’s Day, a Scottish holiday
  • December 13th – St Lucia’s Day, celebrated in Sweden
  • December 24th – Christmas Eve
  • December 31st – New Year’s Eve celebrated in German style

And yet, despite the traditional nature of all holiday celebrations, de Groot proclaims that “We refuse to be hidebound traditionalists about our Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts” and suggests suckling pig, venison, or turkey for either meal. He urges you to be creative, to break away from the same old standard fare and to try the vast gastromic delights of autumn.

Now onto the feast! The remaining 13 pages of the chapter are recipes for cream of pumpkin soup, roast turkey with fruit and chestnut stuffing, apples molded in a scarlet overcoat, yams with apricots and sunflower seeds, Brillat-Savarin’s spinach, and a demitasse selection of drinks. When to start preparation of each dish, ideas for finger-foods and relishes, best ways to serve each item, and last minute garnishes are all included in de Groots recipes. 

But perhaps the most useful information de Groot includes in all his timetables on when and how to prepare each portion of each dish, is actually included in the Acknowledgements at the front of the cookbook, “This book began as an idea within our family. It became the shared project of many of our friends.” That is the heart of any feast–and it is reflected in the language used throughout the book. “We” cooked the food. De Groot, his family and friends, you the reader, your family and friends, and everyone else who ever tested out one of these recipes. Feasts are communal and–over a lovingly prepared meal–we give thanks that we’re all together. Which when it’s all boiled down, is the heart of all holidays. 

P.S. – This particular edition of Feasts for All Seasons is inscribed by the illustrator, Tom Funk “My Best Wishes at Christmas” and dated 1966. And since the recipient is unknown, we can imagine that he’s reaching through time and wishing us all a happy holiday season.

Holy Soul Jelly Roll: Poems and Songs, 1949-1993

by Allen Ginsberg

SIGNED | Rhino Records | 1994

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Released on September 6th 1994, Holy Soul Jelly Roll is a 4-disc box set of Allen Ginsberg’s (1926-1997) spoken poetry, including a 64-page booklet of notes, read by the author at various events over the years. 

I sat down with the five hour long tracklist and spent a really chill afternoon listening. I’ve listened to many audiobooks in my day, but never one of poetry and it made for a really immersive experience. There’s light jazz playing in the background, faint static behind the tracks, and Ginsberg’s soft-spoken voice reading. Intermittently, he sings–the very first track “Walking at Night in Key West” is set to the tune of “The Saints Come Marching Home”–or gives a little introduction to his poetry, imbuing the whole album with a feeling like you’re sitting there with him. We’re at an open mic, it’s vaguely 1960-something, and Allen Ginsberg has just started reading to a hushed crowd. 

And then there’s something to be said for the album to be on CDs. It’s very mid-90s (vintage now) and tangible in a way that digital media is not. There’s ritual to listening: first of all, you will need a CD-player, then gently remove the CDs from their cases, place them in the play, and sit down to listen. Oh, I suppose you could get a portable CD player and listen while out and about. But something about Ginsberg’s calm reciting lends itself to remaining still and letting the words wash over you. 

To make this particular album more substantial, it has been signed by Ginsberg on the inside of the box. On November 13th 1994 he held this box and signed it for a fan. They’d probably just bought it and then went home to listen, forever linking mid-autumn with the sound of Ginsberg’s voice. It’s kinda lovely, to think you can extend that experience nearly twenty years later. 

Ginsberg died a few short years after the release of this album. He was a core member of the Beat Generation and a lasting voice in counterculture America. He once said, in a Face to Face interview with the BBC, that “a poem is like a radio that can broadcast continually, for thousands of years,” and though he may be gone, we are still here and we are still listening.

A Night in the Lonesome October

by Roger Zelazny

SIGNED | Limited Edition | Easton Press | 1993

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“To — — –. Ulalume: A Ballad”

The skies they were ashen and sober;
      The leaves they were crispéd and sere—
      The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
      Of my most immemorial year;

by Edgar Allan Poe

A Night in the Lonesome October is perhaps the best Halloween story you can read. Written by the late, great Roger Zelazny–himself a literary titan–the characters and settings are heavily borrowed from the great names of gothic, horror, mystery, and science fiction. Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, and the Elder Gods of the Cthulhu mythos all make appearances.

The story itself is broken into 32 chapters. One for every day of October, plus an introductory chapter that introduces our protagonist, Snuff the Watchdog. The entire story is told through his eyes. And though the story revolves around the motives of the literary characters–the action takes place with Snuff and the menagerie of animal familiars Bubo the rat, to name a few.

Without spoiling too much of the plot–since discovering how events unfold along with our characters is part of the delight in reading this story–the basic premise is that the rare blue moon on Halloween night will open a hellmouth between worlds. And what that means for Snuff, his master, and the many inhabitants of the strange community they have formed together.

In fact, it’s become somewhat of a tradition for Zelazny fans to re-read the story every year–one chapter a day over the course of October. Repeatedly coming back to it and trying to parse out all the very many literary and cinematic references he wrote in. And I’ll admit, I have a whole document of my own outlining my own thoughts as I read the story. I felt much like a literary Sherlock Holmes of my own, which added to the experience tremendously. 

The beautiful Easton Press edition of this story is bound in blood-red leather, adorned in gilt, and illustrated by Gahan Wilson. It’s also signed by Zelazny–and considering he passed only a few short years after the publication of this story–that makes it a treasure beyond imagination. A collectible edition you can pull out every Halloween until time immemorial.

Star Trek: Logs One–Ten

by Alan Dean Foster

SIGNED | First Editions | Ballantine and Del Rey | 1974-1978

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The Star Trek: Log books are the complete novelization of all 22 episodes of Star Trek: The Animated Series (colloquially referred to as TAS by fans). It is the first English-language TV series to be completely adapted into literary form. All ten books are signed by Alan Dean Foster. 

The Logs have a really unusual publishing history. Which, as both a book nerd and a Trekkie, I find really interesting. Published from 1974-1978, the first six paperbacks each contain three novella-length episode adaptations, which were written as linked stories. The final four books were adaptations of individual episodes that contained original components and extended plots. So the end result is a series that contains a mix of straightforward recaps and original storytelling. 

To make things even more interesting, the original publisher, Ballantine Books, began the print run using Filmation cells from the show as the cover artwork. With white wraps and colorful text, the animation stills clearly delineated the books as TAS stories. However, sometime in 1976, a decision was made to change the book design. So Logs Nine and Ten feature starship artwork by Stanislaw Fernandes, who had recently moved from Corgi Books the UK–where, as Art Director, he mostly likely signed off on the designs for the UK editions of Logs One through Five (the deal to reprint Logs Six through Ten fell through, so the UK editions aren’t a complete set). 

To add a further complication to matters, Ballantine shifted the Star Trek Logs to their newly created imprint, Del Rey, in 1977. So the colophon and trim size varies slightly in Log Ten, compared to the previous volumes. 

In the present day realm of book collecting, this results in a very unique outcome–you cannot get a full matching set of first edition Logs. They just don’t exist. A full matching set of Fernandes cover designs are available. Later Del Rey editions were redesigned with his starship artwork on brightly colored, solid backgrounds, resulting in a psuedo-rainbow effect when the volumes are lined up on a shelf. And though the background colors have occasionally changed over the years, (somewhat marring the flow from one color to another) the starship designs have not. They remain a matching set. 

And maybe you’re asking yourself. Why is any of this important? What’s so interesting about first edition book designs that don’t match?

And I suppose the answer is it’s a really good story. And kinda familiar–the Logs are the first books of their kind to be a complete television novelization, but it’s a bit hodge-podge in makeup and the covers don’t quite match. And yet, like a certain crew, they belong together. So as one enterprising first officer might say, “Fascinating, Captain.” 

Williwaw

by Gore Vidal

SIGNED | First Edition | E. P. Dutton & Company | 1946

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Gore Vidal was many things: novelist, screenwriter, sometimes-actor, attempted politician, and a problem child of belles-lettres, to name a few. He wasn’t shy about picking fights with literary giants — there’s even a section on his Wikipedia page dedicated to “Feuds.” Opinionated and polemical as he was, Vidal had an undeniable influence on culture and the writing landscape. He wrote his first novel, Williwaw, when he was only nineteen, thus beginning a prolific career.

Vidal wrote much of Williwaw during his time as an officer in the Army Transportation Corps, stationed near the Aleutian Islands, where the novel’s titular wind phenomenon occurs. Williwaw takes place in the same setting on the margins of World War II, during the local storm season. Its minimalist style and exploration of nature vs. human nature recalls writers such as Hemingway and Stephen Crane, and the novel’s success placed Vidal in an elite category of young post-war novelists like Norman Mailer and Truman Capote (a comparison which would likely spark Vidal’s ire — see “Feuds“).

Despite Vidal’s military upbringing and his own personal involvement in the army, his political views often circled back to a belief that the United States’ militaristic, imperialist foreign policy had turned the country into a disgraceful, failed experiment. In the post-9/11 years, in particular, he vocally opposed the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq. Not just in the case of war but in any cause towards which he felt a twitch of passion, Vidal nestled snugly into the self-appointed role of “tremendous hater.” He was a man in touch with all the world’s ups and downs, who believed the “downs” to be most prevalent, and who wrote about it all in a body of work equally satirical and deadly serious.

With this first edition of Gore Vidal’s first novel, we can see the seeds of a storied career. The Dawn Treader’s copy even bears his own handwriting — a note to Charles Abramson, an old Broadway Angel and friend of Vidal’s, and his signature — the enduring mark of a prolific provocateur.

(Visit us in the store to see our signed first edition of Gore Vidal’s novel Creation!)

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag

by Robert A. Heinlein

First Edition | SIGNED | Gnome Press | 1959

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In conversations about science fiction greats, Heinlein’s name looms large. His rise to popularity coincided with the genre’s, which first gained readership through pulp magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction (originally Astounding Stories, now known as Analog), which published Heinlein’s early stories alongside the likes of Isaac Asimov. Astounding‘s sister magazine, Unknown Worlds, originally published the novella The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, which was then re-published in book form alongside five other Heinlein stories. This is the version you see here — a first edition, signed by Heinlein and published by Gnome Press.

Gnome Press, like Heinlein and Astounding, played a foundational role in building the science fiction genre as it is known today. In the 1940s, sci-fi was largely published in magazines; Gnome’s founders, Martin L. Greenberg and David Kyle, dreamed of building a mass market for sci-fi books. And they succeeded! Beginning in 1948, Gnome published more than fifty books, including, perhaps most notably, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. In addition to publishing novels, they gathered stories previously seen in magazines into one place, as was the case with Jonathan Hoag. Soon mainstream publishers began to take notice of the press’s success, and the genre flourished in the way Greenberg and Kyle hoped it would. Ultimately, Gnome’s progress was its downfall. The press couldn’t keep up with the financial pressure and folded in 1962.

Heinlein published four books with Gnome Press: Sixth Column, Methuselah’s Children, The Menace From Earth, and The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag. He was one of the leading writers of “hard” science fiction, which emphasized scientific accuracy, though Jonathan Hoag deviates from this categorization with its uncharacteristic elements of fantasy and mystery. In his life, Heinlein authored over thirty books, twice as many stories, and sixteen collections. In recognition of his achievements, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named Heinlein the first Science Fiction Grand Master in 1974. The master himself has made his mark on our copy of Jonathan Hoag with an inscription that reads: “To Terry, Thank you for everything!”

With its ties to Heinlein, Gnome Press, and Astounding, this book is a piece of sci-fi history. Come by The Dawn Treader today to see Heinlein’s gratitude for yourself.

Naked Lunch

by William S. Burroughs

First Edition, First Printing | Signed Loose Bookplate | Grove Press | 1962

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William S. Burroughs was one of the most prevalent writers of the Beat Generation, a literary subculture movement characterized by rejection of traditional narrative elements and subversive exploration of American cultural and political norms in the wake of WWII. Naked Lunch, Burrough’s most famous book, is a classic example. The experimental novel is a chronology-defying series of almost plotless vignettes that take place in the U.S., Mexico, Tangier, and the Interzone, often portraying the main narrator, William Lee (a stand-in for Burroughs) caught in the grip of some sort of vice or violence, addiction or desire. Masterfully absurd and surreal, Naked Lunch has been called “obscene,” “incomprehensible,” and “one of the best novels of the 20th century.”

Naked Lunch was first published in Paris in 1959 under the title The Naked Lunch. The additional “the,” which was never intended by Burroughs, was removed when Grove Press published the first American edition in 1962 (the delay was due to the book’s violation of American obscenity laws). Our copy of this first edition, first printing from Grove Press is particularly special because it includes a loose bookplate signed by Burroughs himself.

How does a signature like this affect the value of the book? When determining the value of a signed book, a bookseller must consider the form the signature takes. Here’s a quick lesson in the most common types, and their comparative values — presented with the caveat that value is always variable depending on many factors, especially the book’s condition.

Flat-signed books contain the author’s signature, with no additional notes, usually on the title page or another early page in the book. This is usually the most valuable version of a signed book, save for some exceptional association copies (see below).

Inscribed books contain the author’s signature and a note, usually addressed to the book’s owner — for example, if this copy of Naked Lunch were signed, “To Harry: Have a nice lunch. William S. Burroughs.” These are usually not worth quite as much as a flat-signed copy, because while the extra note adds an element of personalization, is not as meaningful to any future owner of the book who is not the addressee.

Association copies are signed with notes or addresses to someone famous or important. These can be extremely valuable, depending on the significance of each of the names on the page. For example, if this copy of Naked Lunch were inscribed to fellow Beatnik Jack Kerouac, it would be extremely valuable. If it were inscribed to someone like Rupi Kaur, it would be worth less, and possibly even less than a flat-signed copy. Book collectors value association copies because they tell a story — they imply the book has changed hands between two people of significance. What was the context of this exchange? What influence might this relationship have had on the writing of this book, or the characters, or simply the author’s life?

Signed bookplates aren’t generally considered as valuable as flat-signed or inscribed books because there is usually no way to guarantee the author ever physically touched pen to paper on that particular edition. A bookplate could have been signed at any time, then attached to or inserted into the book separately. Some bookplates themselves have value, if they are designed by particularly renowned artists. For others, like our Naked Lunch bookplate, the main source of adornment and value is the signature itself.

Come by Dawn Treader today to check out Naked Lunch and our other treasures of the Beat Generation!

Amphigorey Too

by Edward Gorey

SIGNED | First Edition | G. P. Putnam’s Sons | 1975

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Edward Gorey was a Creative with a capital C – a writer, illustrator, set and costume designer, fur coat-clad style icon, and eccentric companion to a host of artists and intellectuals who formed a corner of the counterculture movement at Harvard, Boston, and beyond. Gorey was prolific – over the course of his career, he illustrated over 200 book covers, wrote and illustrated over 100 books, stories, and unclassifiable “works,” and won a Tony Award for Costume Design in the 1977 Broadway revival of Dracula, among other accomplishments.

Amphigorey Too was published as a follow-up to Amphigorey, the first collection of Gorey’s works. It anthologizes 20 Gorey stories that may be difficult to find or buy individually, including such gems as “The Beastly Baby,” “The Nursery Frieze,” “The Pious Infant,” “The Inanimate Tragedy,” “The Gilded Bat,” and more. Gorey’s signature style is on full display – Victorian, gothic, surrealist, absurd, and darkly funny. The combination of these elements leaves a reader unsettled, with a vague sense of the macabre, rendered whimsical with biting humor.

Gorey’s status as “cult classic” is a big factor in determining the value of this first edition, signed copy of Amphigorey Too – those who followed him followed him fervently, and consider his signature something to cherish. A Gorey book contains not only his one-of-a-kind words and illustrations, but also his personal flair, his refusal to define himself as a certain type of artist and person. Much as his work steered clear of categorization, Gorey himself defied binaries of sexuality and traditional notions of masculinity. His friends – including, notably, his roommate Frank O’Hara, who would go on to be a celebrated member of the New York School of poets – were mostly outwardly gay, and Gorey held himself with an exuberant, eccentric air, dressing flamboyantly in oversized fur coats, scarves, sneakers, and heavy rings. But despite copious speculation on his sexuality, Gorey never explicitly labeled himself, leaning instead towards answers such as this (printed in the September 1980 edition of Boston magazine): “What I am trying to say is that I’m a person before I’m anything else.” (If you want to read more about Gorey, O’Hara, and their participation in queer culture, we highly recommend the LitHub article “Edward Gorey, Frank O’Hara and Harvard’s Gay Underground” by Mark Dery.)

Gorey’s lasting influence shows in works influenced by his style, including Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket’s) children’s books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the music video for the Nine Inch Nails song “The Perfect Drug,” which was designed to contain Goreyesque set elements and costuming. When Gorey died in 2000, he left much of his estate to a charitable trust that benefitted cats, dogs, bats, insects, and other such creatures, and he left his one-of-a-kind books to a following of readers eager to see the world through Gorey’s strange point of view. This signed first edition of Amphigorey Too is a celebration of art, counterculture, and uniqueness. If you love Gorey like we do, come by the store to take a look at this and 10+ other signed works in our collection!

Beloved

by Toni Morrison

SIGNED | First Edition, 12th Printing | Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. | 1988

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Toni Morrison was a powerhouse and a revolutionary in the literary world. She was the first Black woman editor at Random House. She wrote and published 11 novels in her lifetime, as well as children’s books and essay collections. In 1993, she became the first Black American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her name falls high on any list of most-frequently banned authors, but her graceful yet unflinching depictions of race, class, family, and love remain relevant and well-read to this day. And her very own pen has touched the pages of this signed, 12th printing, hardcover edition of Beloved.

Beloved is based on the true story of Margaret Garner, an enslaved woman who killed her own child to spare her from a life of slavery. A controversial classic of American literature, it has been banned and censored from some schools and libraries over the years, most commonly for reasons of bestiality, infanticide, sex, and violence. But despite subsequent debate, Beloved received an outpour of acclaim upon publication, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988, as well as the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award, the Melcher Book Award, the Lyndhurst Foundation Award, the Elmer Holmes Bobst Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. It was nominated for the 1988 National Book Award, and when it didn’t win 48 notable Black writers and critics — including Maya Angelou, June Jordan, Angela Davis, and others — signed a letter of protest that was published in The New York Times Book Review.

Morrison kept another letter close to her heart — and framed on her wall. The Texas prison system wrote her after her novel Paradise was removed from prison libraries because they thought it might incite riots. In the 2019 documentary The Pieces I Am, Morrison remembers receiving the letter and thinking, “How powerful is that! I could tear up the whole place.” This “tearing up the place” spirit endures in the pages of Beloved, and in all of Morrison’s iconic writing.