Featured Signed books

I collect books on arms and armour, and have a fair few in my library. However, a few years back I decided to collect them properly and in their own right, rather as an adjunct to my weapons collecting. To that end I managed to acquire several rare and old volumes, and have since then tried to collect books that are either signed by the author, or have come from the libraries of famous collectors.
I wondered what signed editions, on any subject, anybody has in their possession.....

 

I’ll often look in my local Charity shops at the hardback books front pages. Gleaned a few signed copies that way, politicians, etc.
Got several Stephen Fry signed books as he’s a local.

 

In my general library I have a copy of a book signed to me by Spike Milligan. He lived locally when I was in Barnet, North London.

 

I have some Art & sports books signed by their authors..

 

This the oldest book in my arms and armour library, 1920, the auction catalogue of a famous collector and author on the subject. It also belonged to the late Howard Blackmore, himself a famous collector, author and authority on arms and armour.

 

Nary a one, I'm afraid. I do have a few pre-WWI cookbooks, but that's it.

 

Those in themselves are interesting, as of course cooking methods would be quite different to today. When I was in Ireland, many homes still cooked on a range which must be a bit of an art in itself. I have cooked on gas, but even that was nearly sixty years ago! Tempus fugit!

 

I just found a hand written late 19th century recipe book in a lot of ephemera I’ve had for years but hadn’t gotten around to searching through. So interesting! Unfortunately it only lists ingrideints, no directions.

 

I had a Carl Sandburg signed Abraham Lincoln biography. I have a handful of signed history related books from the library of a well known historian/author. Other authors sent him a lot of signed books. I have a Jules Verne signed 20,000 Leauges Under The Sea. Barry Goldwater signed booklet on Kachina Dolls. Probably some others I’m not thinking of and quite possibly some I don’t even know I have. I’ve got plenty of books I’ve never checked. Of course, that means I also haven’t read them. Oh I met comedian Pete Holmes at a book tour event and he signed his book for me. I met actor Kevin Pollack at the NY Book Show and he signed his book ‘How I Slept My Way To The Middle’ for me. I like a singer songwriter called Dan Bern. I bought a signed copy of his book from him. Come to think of it I think I’d get a lot of signed books at the Book Show the years I worked it but none of note that I can think of.

 

My relatives in Scotland cooked on an ancient Aga, and it worked fine. It also kept their Georgian kitchen warm.

I cooked on gas until a few years ago. A Dutch thing, we have our own gas fields. I stopped when my brain damage made me too clumsy, I didn't feel like getting burnt all the time. Now no more pots and pans for me, all microwave and airfryer.
By that time the earthquakes due to gas extraction caused substantial damage in the northern provinces, so we stopped using gas for heating as well and 'went electric'.

 

My girlfriends family was mum and dad and five children, plus us two visitors. As you say, the house was always nice and warm, but the thing I remember so fondly was that the kettle was always on the stove, and there always seemed to be gorgeous soda bread cooking in the oven. Warm fresh bread, and butter ( we always had margarine back in the Uk then). The smell was delightful, and the bread was more like cake, and I have never enjoyed bread so much! Very fond memories.

 

I have signed books - mostly fiction - by Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, KW Jeter, Hunter Thompson, Harry Crewes, Lucius Shepard, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Kathe Koja, Thomas Ligotti, Quentin S. Crisp, James Crumley, Chuck Palahniuk, Jim Harrison, and John Grisham.

 

aaaaand now I want to live in Ghopper's house and read my way through his library. You had me at Harlan Ellison.

I have an open burner natural gas stove, and will as long as I'm allowed. Electric stovetops make me crazy. If you want art forms, my grandmother learned to cook on a wood-fired stove on the family farm. If you want above-my-chevrons art forms...bake a pie in a wood-fired oven.

In the old days, they assumed you knew how. People weren't starting from zero. You were in the kitchen, cooking with Mom or someone, from the time you could see over the table and hold a spoon. Sometimes just hold a spoon; you could stand on a chair if need be. By the time you were old enough to buy a cookbook, odds were you'd been in the kitchen enough to know what to do.

 

out of curiosity how are the measurements stated ?

 

I hope I haven't told this before. Years ago I was at the famous City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, home to many of the 1950's 'Beat' poets. Its owner and proprietor, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, actually published Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" in 1956 and was then charged with (and acquitted of) obscenity.

While I was upstairs at the bookstore, looking at books on the wall in the Poetry section, suddenly the wall itself swung open and out walked Ferlinghetti himself. Apparently there was a door cut into the wall and his office was behind it.

I talked to him briefly, had him sign one of his books, and then he disappeared back behind the door.

Later, I realized the metaphysical implications: I had been in a bookstore, browsing books, when the author himself materialized from out of the ether, walked into physical reality, talked to me personally, shook my hand, and then evaporated back into abstraction again.

Man, I thought, that never happens! But I sure wish it would!

 

Great question. I don’t even know if it listed measurements. It may have just been ingredients. Nothing stood out as abnormal to me but I was looking at it while nearly asleep. I’ll check and post a recipe or two for you. Will be a couple days. I recall a lot of deserts.

 

Personally, I probably cook better when I am asleep! Joking apart, it will be very interesting to see a recipe or two. I actually love cooking, though I cannot make any great claims to being good at it. I do however, find it very therapeutic, especially when accompanied by a good glass of wine!

 

Great to see here a fellow book collector! I am a collector of early modern books. It was not a common practice to sign books as an author, so I have no books in my collection that were signed by the author. Many books in my collection are signed a former owner though (ex libris = from the library of...). That can be a person or an organization.

Some owners go too far:



Sometimes books were once part of a famous library:

Bookplate from the famous house Arenberg in Belgium.





Bookplate of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia from the house Romanov.



Owner mark of a library of a hidden Roman Catholic Church and library in Amsterdam, the Moses and Aaron-church




Owner mark of a guy named Rudolph von Kamphausen, (Roermond, 1599)




Sometimes names were even stamped on the binding.

 

@J Dagger that would be awesome & thank you. I am always fascinated by old recipes & how far we have come in the cooking & baking world.

 

Wow, those are simply awesome! All mine are far simpler and more modern by comparison.

Amongst the books in my arms and armour library is a 1996 reprint of the catalogues from Castle Churburg in the Tyrol, which houses an extraordinary and unique collection of early armour. However, I have seen a copy of the original 1929 edition, signed by both Count Graf von Trapp and Sir James Mann, which is a signature that I have been after for years, unfortunately to no avail. Unfortunately, the website is down and I cannot get in touch with the seller at present, which is a pity as it is a tome I would dearly love to have, and the presentation copy is one of only eleven examples and this is the only one in private hands.
Another tome that I sadly missed out on wasa copy of a catalogue from Windsor Castle in 1907. The book was presented to the chaplain at Windsor Castle by King Edward VII at christmas 1907 and has personally signed and presented by him. That would have been amazing to have in the collection, but alas, wasn't to be.

A book that I do however have in my collection is a copy of a Metropolitan Museum publication from 1937. One of only 500 copies, this one is signed by the author, who was the keeper of the arms and armour Dept. at the museum, and presented to the noted collector Edwin M. Berolzheimer, a noted collector and benefactor of the museum, and a contemporary of W. R. Hearst. I love the beautiful hand writing if the author!