Originally published at: Turns out Bob Dylan didn't actually hand-sign the $600 "hand-signed" copies of his new book | Boing Boing
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Was the autograph the only difference between the $600 version and the $29 hardcover available on Amazon?
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Given the loyal trust Dylan fans have with his material, and the emotional connection many of those $600 buyers have, this is really sad.
Or to change a lyric slightly:
It’s alright, ma, (we) can (fake) it! — Simon & Schuster
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Can’t be his real signature anyway. I’m quite sure it would be exactly as easy to read as his lyrics are to understand.
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Shouldn’t Bob Dylan address his fans and apologize?
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This should surprise absolutely nobody who has had even a passing acquaintance with how Dylan has done business over the last 30 years.
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I didn’t realize those auto-signers were still a thing. Is this the same kind of thing Margaret Atwood was pushing for a while (although, IIRC the idea behind the one she was promoting was author tours without having to go on tour).
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The books included a certificate of authenticity signed by Simon & Schuster’s president-CEO Jonathan Karp…
So did the certifacte of authenticity have a real signature, or was that faked too?
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Dylan:
“Go ‘way from my window
Leave at your own chosen speed.”
—”It Ain’t Me Babe” (1964)
Source:
“Go away from my window
Go away from my door.”
—John Jacob Niles, “Go ‘Way From My Window” (1958)
Dylan:
“A phrase in connection first with she I heard
That love is just a four-letter word.”
—”Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word” (1967)
Source:
“You don’t know what love is. To you it’s just another four-letter word.”
—Paul Newman, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Dylan:
“Well, I have had some rotten nights
Didn’t think that they would pass.”
—”Seeing the Real You at Last” (1985)
Source:
“I’ll have some rotten nights after I’ve sent you over — but that’ll pass.”
—Humphey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Dylan:
“When I met you, baby
You didn’t show no visible scars
You could ride like Annie Oakley
You could shoot like Belle Starr.”
—”Sweetheart Like You” (1985)
Source:
“I’m looking for a woman who can ride like Annie Oakley and shoot like Belle Starr.”
—Clint Eastwood, Bronco Billy (1980)
Dylan:
Bob Dylan signature “The Philosophy of Modern Song”
Source:
“autopen” signature replication device 2022
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Wow, that is shitty. As a fan, I’d be really annoyed especially if I had paid that much with the assurance that it was real. That is a dumb con to try to pull on an obsessive fanbase that examine every minutia of his output. Authentic autographs are hard to come by so of course people are going to post and compare them. Off to pop into expecting rain to read up on the discovery/fall out.
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Even if it had a different cover and slipcase, it’s not worth $570 bucks more with a fake signature.
Seriously, I’d be livid.
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Quite obviously, the only way to guarantee that a copy is signed by an author is by going to a book signing… although there are risks when coming face to face with your “heroes”. My schoolmates (and roommates to-be), already in SoCal and awaiting my arrival in a month’s time, went to a Frank Herbert book-signing event. My best friend Mike had two copies of God Emperor of Dune signed, one of which was later given to me. Mike, being Mike, brought along a large poster that showed the Space Shuttle lifting off the pad. A gift for Herbert. Per Mike, Herbert scowled at the offering, scowled as he looked at the unrolled poster, but accepted it, although grudgingly. Why? Perhaps he didn’t appreciate (yet again that day?) being sucked up to. Or maybe he associated NASA with “governments”, which he mistrusted. Whatever the reason, we were all saddened by Herbert’s reaction to the gift.
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Hmm, not much on it in their forum yet, but it looks like at least some of his signed prints maybe auto-signed, too.
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I guarantee you that some cryptobro is out there right now claiming that the solution to this problem is NFTs.
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Ironically, each of the certificates was a forgery created directly by Dylan.
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Haa. good one
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I work in book production and signed editions are a unique challenge. Some are signed live in bookstores and those are just regular copies that get signed. Some are sold in stores as signed, and those have to go through some extra production. Months before the text is sent to the book bindery/print house, I have to order boxes of unbound blank pages with an overage of about 20% and a return shipping label to be sent to the author’s location, allowing about 6 weeks for them to get signed, depending on the quantity needed. But I need to make sure the author gets the signed copies returned to the print house by a certain date, so the pages can be tipped in at binding as an extra page in the front of the signed edition. Those editions get a unique ISBN number and usually a Signed Edition decal on the dust jacket, and get boxed and distributed under that unique number. What stores or other sellers charge is up to them, but the price on the jacket is the same as the regular edition, at least at the publisher I work for. I haven’t had to do one in a while, and I’m okay with that! Autosigning machines are strictly frowned upon by my employers (who are not Simon & Schuster), but stories like this do crop up from time to time.
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this needs more likes. perfection.
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Yeah, I was going to say, I’ve got plenty of signed copies of things , many of which were signed “before binding” and many of which were signed “live in a bookstore”, and I almost always think of these things for people who are selling many many copies as being done by autopen or the author not signing the book, but instead signing thousands of blank pieces of paper that get bound in.
This isn’t a new behavior from publishers or authors.
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