Least people think I’m the craziest bibliophile in the world, The Wall Street Journal brings us word of a $75,000 limited edition of ten books about an Indian cricket star, the signature pages of which actually incorporate his blood. Think I’m going to pass on that one. I’m also going to pass on the $50,000 Christo book mentioned in the same article.
I have been known to pick up the occasional ultra-limited (in fact, I just got one of 26 lettered copies of John Berylane’s massive Tim Powers bibliography from PS Publishing, the edition that includes the a volume replicating the original holographic manuscript for The Anubis Gates in full color), but it’s not the focus of my collecting. I generally only pick them up if they have material not in any other edition, they’re by an author I’m interested in, and I can get them at a decent pre-publication price. So I don’t have that many in my collection. I do, however, regret not picking up the famous Charnel House lettered edition of Powers’ Last Call (though I’m pretty sure I couldn’t have afforded it, and it was probably sold out pre-publication by the time I heard about it…)
On the other hand, I don’t regret passing on the $1,000 Joe Haldeman poetry chapbook Henry Wessells published. You’ve got to draw the line somewhere…
(Hat tip: Mike Berro.)
