Saturday, May 5, 2007

One of My Hobbies

One of my favorite hobbies is collecting signed books and author autographs, particularly from well-known writers. I've found that authors are often agreeable to honoring requests for signed books or bookplates, particularly if you send a polite, commendatory, and short letter to them. The two Updike signatures arrived in today's mail, the Irving in the past week. The Vonnegut and Styron, of course, were signed long before now. It's a very enjoyable hobby, and I look forward to passing my collection on to my girls one day.

Now if I could just get Salinger or Pynchon to write me back!!

3 comments:

ipanema said...

Now that's priceless. I'm envious. It's unique and beautiful. How much would it fetch on ebay? Not now though, 50 yrs after. :)

Hope the girls will teasure them.

Great post!

Dancingirl said...

I'm impressed! Do you write them c/o the publisher? And now I have all kinds of questions. Like how you got started doing it, for one. Neat shot.

NoVA Dad said...

I actually started years ago -- I've always loved literature, and signed books are just a special thing for me. I also collect them so that I'll have something of some value (hopefully) to pass on to my daughters later.

I write directly to the authors in most instances, and I find that many of them are very agreeable to these sorts of requests. There are lots of writers I wished I had written while they were alive (Vonnegut), and some who I wish would answer (J.D. Salinger and Thomas Pynchon). It's fun for me, though, to see who has time enough on their hands to respond!

Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.