How rare is my signed and numbered copy of <whatever>?

[mjp]

Hardcover numbered and signed: 751

For this one the number is on the colophon in the back, not on the signed page.

 

[hank solo]

Last Night Of The Earth Poems - First edition, hardcover, numbered and signed issue
... an otherwise blank leaf with the author's signature is bound as the recto following the title page. Binding ... with a cream cloth backstrip. Light gray endsheets. Red and gold false headband. 751 signed copies were published 23 March 1992: 750 copies numbered 1-750 plus an additional copy marked "File Copy."

A Descriptive Bibliography of the Primary Publications of Charles Bukowski by Aaron Krumhansl

 

[Fille]

Oh aren't you both lovely?

Thank you so much! :)

 

[mjp]

Oh aren't you both lovely?

Well, he is.

 

[mjp]

I added the early chapbooks to the list, only because I was looking through my copy of Dorbin, which was Ed Blair's copy, and he's penciled in some limitation numbers for the older books like Longshot Pomes and Run With the Hunted: "200 according to Buk." I figure that's as close as we'll get to the real publication numbers (unless Abel talked to the publishers and heard differently from them).

I think he's also written how many copies he had of each title (you can see "3" for Run With the Hunted). If that's the case, he had 3 copies of Flower, Fist, 4 Epos, 2 Longshot Pomes, 3 Run With the Hunted, "lots" of It Catches and Crucifix, 3 Cold Dogs, 2 Confessions of a Man Insane Enough to Live With Beasts, 2 Genius of the Crowd, and on and on like that. Quite the collection (some of which was sold in 2006 - http://www.pbagalleries.com/view-auctions/catalog/id/216/).

 

[mjp]

Last time I checked there were 26 letters in the English alphabet, so maybe someone who owns some of these lettered editions - or has seen a lot of them - can enlighten me on why every Black Sparrow lettered edition has more than 26 copies...

HAM ON RYE Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 47
BRING ME YOUR LOVE Hardcover lettered, signed issue: 40
HOT WATER MUSIC Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 33
THERE'S NO BUSINESS Hardcover lettered, signed issue: 41
WAR ALL THE TIME Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 48
YOU GET SO ALONE AT TIMES THAT IT JUST MAKES SENSE Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated issue: 48
BARFLY Hardcover lettered and signed by Bukowski, Barbet Schroeder, Faye Dunaway and Mickey Rourke: 31
THE ROOMINGHOUSE MADRIGALS Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 49
HOLLYWOOD Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 51
SEPTUAGENARIAN STEW Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 48
THE LAST NIGHT OF THE EARTH POEMS Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 63
SCREAMS FROM THE BALCONY Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 46
PULP Hardcover lettered, signed and illustrated: 48 signed
SHAKESPEARE NEVER DID THIS Hardcover lettered and signed: 47
BETTING ON THE MUSE Hardcover lettered and signed: 32
BONE PALACE BALLET Hardcover lettered and illustrated: 32
THE CAPTAIN IS OUT TO LUNCH AND THE SAILORS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE SHIP Hardcover lettered and illustrated: 52 - signed silkscreen print by R. Crumb

 

[Purple Stickpin]

I believe that the answer is that lettered edition counts, for the most part, include the presentation copies, printer copies, file copy, etc. Are you getting those numbers from Krumhansl or the colophon of the books themselves?

 

[mjp]

I'm taking them from the list at the beginning of this thread, which is an amalgamation of Krumhansl and colophons and people's observations.

I bring it up now because I was just correcting the Hot Water Music entry based on the actual number written in the book (colophon says 126 illustrated, but numbering is xx/100).

 

[Pogue Mahone]

For Shakespeare there were 15 photographer's copies alone.

 

[Purple Stickpin]

I bring it up now because I was just correcting the Hot Water Music entry based on the actual number written in the book (colophon says 126 illustrated, but numbering is xx/100).

Hot Water Music is a bit of an oddity in that there were both lettered and numbered versions with paintings.

 

[mjp]

Same with Ham On Rye and War All The Time.

lettered edition counts, for the most part, include the presentation copies, printer copies, file copy, etc.

Yeah, looking at Krumhansl, that is correct. Since we've seen so many of those presentation and "special" copies come to market it's probably best to stay with the Krumhansl numbers.

 

[LickTheStar]

Can we talk about 3100 copies of Crucifix?

Holy shit, my carpal tunnel is acting up just thinking about it...

 

[sarapna]

I was wondering how common or uncommon later printings of hardcovers are. My Love is a Dog from Hell hardcover states that it's from 1998 and that it's a 27th printing.

Pardon me for derailing, but I didn't figure it would be good to waste a thread on this one question. :)

 

[mjp]

I was wondering how common or uncommon later printings of hardcovers are.

They are not uncommon and of little value, comparatively. If your Love is a Dog from Hell is in absolutely perfect condition it's worth maybe $50. People try to sell them for more, but I don't see many completed sales for higher prices.

That being said, it still takes some effort to put together a full run of mint condition hardcovers, even later printings. So maybe they're not exactly common. But the value is still low.

 

[skiroomalum]

I think any Black Sparrow non-1st hardcover in mint condition is worth $40-60 concluding with Betting On The Muse.
They do look great on a bookshelf, without concern about reading them.

 

[mjp]

hardcover [...] Love is a Dog from Hell hardcover states that it's from 1998 and that it's a 27th printing.

For what it's worth, I believe that the printing number applies to both the hard and soft covers combined. Meaning there were not 27 (or more) printings of the hardcover. I'm pretty sure that the printed pages were used for both hardcovers and paperbacks (since they all contain ISBN info for both editions). So when they needed more hardcovers they probably just bound up x number of copies of whatever the most recent printing was.

I don't know that for a fact (you can ask John Martin, he doesn't take my calls anymore), but the number of hardcovers that you see for a given title would seem to suggest that was the case. I'd do some comparisons, but all my books are in boxes at the moment.