# What autographed books do you own? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 15, 2004, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563 "2004-01-15T08:03:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ms\_Macphisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Ms\_Macphisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Macphisto)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/61 "2004-01-17T09:11:19Z")
I have two books by Guy Gavriel Kay (Lord of Emperors and Beyond This Dark House) inscribed to me, and will probably bring along all my beat-up paperbacks of earlier works when he’s promoting his new book this spring. In the left-over-after-in-store-appearance category, I’ve got signed copies of Lasher by Anne Rice and Uther by Jack Whyte. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/62 "2004-01-17T11:46:54Z")
**The Truth Machine** by James Halperin. I read the book on his web site and filled out a questionnaire to get to the next chapter, he came across my web site and apparently liked it, and he sent me an autographed copy of the book. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/63 "2004-01-17T14:45:23Z")
**Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink** by Patrick McManus. It’s a shame he isn’t known better, he is one of America’s great humorists. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/64 "2004-01-17T15:58:24Z")
Asimov, **Robots and Empire** , 1st. ed., inscribed (gift from my brother). **The Bradbury Chronicles** collection of illustrated Bradbury stories - signed by Ray and by the artists. 1 Milo Manara (Italian artist) illustration collection. ---
**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/65 "2004-01-17T16:18:31Z")
> [@racer72](#): > > **Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink** by Patrick McManus. It’s a shame he isn’t known better, he is one of America’s great humorists. I love Patrick McManus! But I don’t have anything autographed by him. I have: **Startide Rising** by **David Brin** , inscribed “To a lady with lovely eyes.” 🙂 **Knitting from the British Isles** autographed by **Alice Starmore** and **Knitting in the Old Way** autographed by **Patricia Gibson-Roberts.** ---
**Author:** ![Intent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5e9695/32.png) [@Intent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intent)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/66 "2004-01-17T19:48:35Z")
If you’ve heard of Walter Farley, who wrote the black stallion books? I have a signed first edition of another one of his books, the Island Stallion Races, I think. It’s only worth a few hundred dollars, but it’s neat, as my mom found it at goodwill for 50 cents. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/67 "2004-01-17T21:17:26Z")
I have two Spider Robinson paperbacks signed to me. I told him at a small booksigning that one of his stories “True Minds” was my favorite sci-fi story. He inscribed it “For \*\*\*\*\*\*, this is the first time anyone’s ever told me they liked this story. Thanks! Spider Robinson” That was in a copy of Melancholy Elephants. In a ratty copy of Time Travelers Strictly Cash he mentioned that it was a first edition. Not worth anything, and the book is in poor shape, but a cut above “To \*\*\*\*\*\*\*, from \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*.” ---
**Author:** ![Tanaqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Tanaqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tanaqui)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/68 "2004-01-17T21:59:47Z")
I have a copy of “The Curse of Chalion” signed by Lois McMaster Bujold. It’s not a personal inscription or anything, though–I just bought it at Powell’s shortly after they had a signing with her and they had some left over copies, I guess. I also have a copy of “A Tale of Time City” by Diana Wynne Jones that is signed–just her name. I bought it at a tiny used book store in Oregon. I have no idea how it got here, since DWJ is neither American nor a particularly popular author, but I managed to find DWJ’s signature on the web, and it’s definitely hers. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/69 "2004-01-17T22:07:13Z")
Norman Spinrad autographed my copy of The Iron Dream. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/70 "2004-01-17T22:40:11Z")
[QUOTE=HDS] This isn’t a real autograph, but I’ll mention it anyway… One night I dreamed that I met Ray Bradbury. He signed a book of mine and when I looked at it I could actually read it (I can never read words in dreams.) It said: Handcrafted with Pride To HDS See you Around from Time to Time [QUOTE] I’ll answer this question later, but I wanted to say that is the coolest inscription I’ve ever seen. I have got to use that. If I ever get a book published, that is. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/71 "2004-01-17T22:47:30Z")
## **The Bible** ---
**Author:** ![pesch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pesch/32/4925_2.png) [@pesch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pesch)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/72 "2004-01-17T22:53:20Z")
OK, now that I’ve finished reading all the entries, here’s my list: - Twain’s “The Innocents Abroad” ruined 1st edition, signed by Hal Holbrook. - “The Last Hero” signed by Pratchett. I also bought Michael Dirda’s “An Open Book” – a fine memoir about his early years – and had him sign it at the same event. - John Scalzi’s “The Book of the Dumb.” It’s excellent, too, but I’m a wee bit compromised by helping John copyedit the entries. - I had Donald E. Westlake sign a copy of “Humans” for my wife, who’s a big fan. Through several major moves, Westlake’s books was one of the few authors not purged from her stacks. - Oh, and a copy of the script to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” signed by King Arthur himself, Graham Chapman. I also have letters from John Mortimer and George Macdonald Fraser. Mortimer reassured me that he’s still writing the Rumpole stories, and is working at last on the Penge Bungalow murder case. Fraser appreciated my kind comments about “The Pyrates” and even gave me a bit of pirate talk in return, bless him. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/73 "2004-01-17T22:54:49Z")
I’ve got a signed Anne Rice book around here somewhere. Sparky Anderson signed his memoirs for me at a ballgame. Gene Kranz inscribed _Failure Is Not An Option_ for me (and one for each to my kids for when they grow up). I have given signed books as gifts as well (some Robert Jordans for my hubby, a Clive Cussler for my dad). Oh, and a copy of a book about my family’s history (mostly about founding a town in Texas), signed by the granddaughter of the founder, who was my great-great-great-grandfather IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/74 "2004-01-17T23:54:36Z")
**pesch** I just looked in that book and realized I forgot a line _smacks self_. The entire inscription is: Handcrafted With Pride To HDS From your Old Friend See you Around from Time to Time I’m glad you like it. I woke up feeling like I actually met him. To me it was as close to magic as I’m going to get. ---
**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/75 "2004-01-18T02:01:25Z")
I have a signed copy of Andrew Matthews’ Being Happy, which I got while living abroad in Singapore. He had come to my elementary school to give a motivational talk, tagging along with another author whose children’s book he had illustrated. My copy of University Physics by Ron Reese was signed by the author when he came to my college to give a talk. I was one of two undergraduates who attended; the rest of the audience was faculty. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/76 "2004-01-18T02:50:07Z")
**Hammer** - by Dave “The Hammer” Schultz **On A Cold Road** by Dave Bidini ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/77 "2004-01-18T05:36:18Z")
Seamus Heaney’s _The Spirit Level,_ dedicated & autographed Seamus Heaney’s _Collected Works"_ (or something like that) autographed Tomaz Salamun’s _The Selected Works of Tomaz Salamun_ dedicated & autographed That might be it… ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/78 "2004-01-18T06:03:42Z")
I’ve never been particularly starstruck by celebrities, even though I’ve met [quite a few](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=207474&perpage=50&highlight=celebrities&pagenumber=2). I have no interest in autographs for their own sake, but since I love books, having an autographed book is something special for me. So I’ve collected quite a few. And I worked at the National Air and Space Museum for 12 years, which gave me many opportunties to add to my collection. All are hardbound, unless noted. Most are firsts. - Indicates I didn’t meet the author personally. Otherwise I did. I think my most impressive book is _First on the Moon_ by **Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins**. I got all three to sign it on the 20th anniversary of the moon landing. Neil and Buzz were a little reluctant, but did it. Michael was pleased and enthusiastic about signing. Nice guy. Aviation/space related: **Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger** (both signed): _Apollo 13_ (paperback) **Alan Shepard** (signer) and **Deke Slayton** : _Moon Shot_ **Chuck Yeager** : _Yeager, an Autobiography_ **Jeana Yeager** (no relation) and **Dick Rutan** : _Voyager_ Also aviation/space, but less perhaps a little less impressive because they’re by NASM colleagues: **Tom Crouch** : _The Bishop’s Boys_ (paperback) **Gregg Herken** : _Cardinal Choices_ **Don Lopez** : _Fighter Pilot’s Heaven_ **Robert Smith** : _The Space Telescope_ (paperback) Non-fiction: **Ansel Adams** : _Ansel Adams_\* **Mario Andretti** : _Andretti_ (paperback) **Isaac Asimov** : _Of Matters Great and Small_ **Milbourne Christopher** : _Houdini_ (my first autographed book, when I was 13. The author, a famous magician himself, added a little drawing of a man hanging upside down in a straight jacket, saying “Help,” which is also upside down.) **Buckminster Fuller** : _Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth_\* (paperback) **Milton Glaser** : _Graphic Design_ **Samuel Goudsmidt** : _Alsos_\* **Gen. Leslie Groves** : _Now It Can Be Told_\* **Thor Heyerdahl** : _Kon-Tiki Man_ (paperback) **Richard Lederer** : _Crazy English_\* **Philip and Phylis Morrison** : _The Ring of Truth_ **John Allen Paulos** : _Beyond Numeracy_ **Penn and Teller** : _How to Play with Your Food_ (paperback) **Richard Rhodes** : _The Making of the Atomic Bomb_ **Carl Sagan** : _The Dragons of Eden_ **John Stoessinger** : _Henry Kissinger: The Anguish of Power_ **Clifford Stoll** : _The Cuckoo’s Egg_ **Andrew Szanton** : _The Recollections of Eugene Wigner_ (I met Wigner, a noted physicist, at the same time my friend Andrew did. After that meeting, Andrew asked Wigner if he would write the book with him. The book is signed by Andrew, not Wigner.) **Edward Tufte** : _Visual Explanations_ Fiction: **Garrison Keillor** : _The Book of Guys_ **Kurt Vonnegut** : _Galapagos_ **John C. Wright** : _The Golden Age_ (he’s a college friend, but it’s a great SF trilogy) I think I’ve probably forgotten a couple. While we’re on the subject of autographs, **Terry Gilliam** signed a copy of _Wired_ that had an article about him. Except for the items below, this is my only non-book autograph. I own a signed print of **Philippe Halsman** ’s famous portrait of Albert Einstein, and the original art of a daily _Pogo_ comic strip, signed by **Walt Kelly**. My greatest regret (in this area–I have lots of others) is that I didn’t get to Chagrin Falls, Ohio, in time to get an autographed copy of a _Calvin and Hobbes_ book. **Bill Watterson** used to provide a few signed copies to the small bookstore in his home town, but apparently stopped after finding out that people were selling them for huge sums on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/79 "2004-01-18T13:18:52Z")
I have a copy of “Fay” by William Wegman that he signed to me and the late Iiko Puppy-Dog Boy. He was doing a signing at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia, and he had two of his Weimeraners with him. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563/80 "2004-01-18T14:50:28Z")
All mine are geeky political stuff, because I’m a geeky political person. Rigoberta Menchu’s autobiography, Spanish-language version, _Me llamo Rigoberta Menchu y asi me nacio la conciencia._ (Apologies for lack of accent marks.) She spoke at my university right after we’d read her book in class. This was years before she won the Nobel Peace Prize, nd even longer before it was discovered that much of her “autobiography” was entirely fictional. Anne Nivat’s _Chienne de Guerre: A Woman Reporter Behind the Lines of the War in Chechnya._ I wish I’d gotten to talk to her more, but she had a plane to catch. Fareed Zakaria’s latest: _The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad._ Another one I wish I’d gotten to talk to longer. Does it count that I have a super-geeky reprint of one of my ex-boyfriend’s journal articles on the history of Stalin’s physics policy? (I helped him edit the English for publication; it’s inscribed "To the real author. How geeky is that?) I think there are a couple of others banging around here, but can’t remember them right now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-autographed-books-do-you-own/224563.md?page=5)