R. Crumb Comics - Black Sparrow Press 1990

[planahea]

Anyone in the market for this book? It's not a need, but sure makes a very nice want.

A Presentation Copy in As New condition for both the book and the slipcase. It was opened for the first time when I scanned these images. I had to darken the colophon page image as the R. Crumb signature and the Presentation Copy inscription are in a silver metallic ink, to compliment the design of the book, and my scanner had difficulty picking it up. The book would not fit in its entirety on my scanner as it is over sized, but I did the best I could. The size is 11 ¼ x 14 inches, 12 x 14 1/2 inches with slipcase, and black cloth-covered boards on both book and slipcase. Also, on the front of both is a 7 x 5 white label with red and black lettering pasted on. It is hand bound by Arnold Martinez and, of course, signed by R. Crumb.

Here is the ABE website showing the book:

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=R.+CRUMB&sortby=1&tn=COMICS&x=53&y=10

I added the price for books numbered 3 & 5 together, as they appear to be closest to my book in condition even though only one of them is a Presentation Copy, and then halved the total. The resulting price of $512.50 plus shipping seems fair to me. If you are interested, what do you think?

I'm willing to haggle just a tad. (Unless tad haggling is illegal in your state.)

Bill W

 

[VonSparx]

What exactly is a Presentation Copy, and is it included in the 226 copies in the edition? If not, do we have any idea how many were produced?

 

[bospress.net]

Hi,
Generally speaking, Black Sparrow Press produced very few "presentation copies". Probably not more than 10 and they are not included in the 226. Sometimes, these had a different binding. In this case, this book comes directly from the distributor for Black Sparrow Press.

Bill

 

[jordan]

presentation copies also often had slight irregularities that prevented them from being included in the larger edition (usually the lettered edition of 26) or were overruns from the bindery.

 

[mjp]

"Presentation" sounds much fancier than "Extra copies" or "Instead of throwing them in the trash copies." Who wants one of those?

 

[Purple Stickpin]

For context, Krumhansl lists the following numbers of presentation copies:

At Terror Street: 10
The Days Run Away: 8 (five marked "presentation copy" and 3 marked "author's presentation copy"
Post Office: 5
Mockingbird: 5
moving ahead to You Get So Alone: 15

Along with the presentation copies, sometimes there was also an author's copy, a publisher's copy, an editor's copy, a printer's copy, a binder's copy, and perhaps a photographer's copy. Not all books had this many additional copies; often, it was just the presentation copies and a file copy, but it did vary. The net result was typically somewhere between an extra 10 to an extra 25 copies that are not included in the published totals described in the colophons.