Obama Book Bubble

If you think people have gone nuts for Obama memorabilia -- they bought stacks of newspapers marking the Obama victory -- get a look at the book collectors' market.

With enough scratch you can pick up a boxed set of Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope for a meager quarter mil. Here's the pitch: Book Price $250,000. Quantity: 1

You think 250 grand is too costly? Hey, it's signed. But if you're really looking for a bargain, check out this list of signed Audacity copies priced from $1,275 to $9,800.

Not incidentally, that boxed set is being sold by a bookseller in Arizona, of all places. Ya think the Gasbag might want the set? He can afford it, and he could inspect it in person. All he would have to do is hop into his SUV and take a drive over to Scottsdale.

Hmm ... maybe he would prefer to pick up, oh, 10 signed copies instead -- like this $2,500 marvel -- one for each of his residences, or however many he owns. Whaddya think?

About the set:

Dust jackets for both books in Brodart protective mylar. I have had a custom clamshell box made for this set, with engraving on the box stating, 'Barack Obama, Dreams From My Father and The Audacity of Hope, Signed First Editions'. This box will protect what may be the zenith of American Presidential collectibles. These are both true first editions: Dreams From My Father (Times Books, 1995) with First Edition stated and number line to 2 per Random House standards in year of publication (the publisher, Times Books, was acquired in 1984 by Random House From the New York Times Company), and The Audacity of Hope (Crown Publishers, 2006) with First Edition stated and number line to 1 per Random House standards in year of publication (the publisher, Crown Publishers, was acquired in 1988 by Random House From the Crown Publishing Group).


They are both As New in As New dust jackets. Both books were signed by then Senator Obama in my presence at an appearance on October 23, 2006 at the Changing Hands Bookstore sponsored event at the Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona. I was employed by Changing Hands at the time as a manager and worked there for nearly nine years. I have ephemera, including an untorn event ticket, advance bookstore event notice and seat reservation slip, all in pristine condition. In addition I have a signed letter from one of the owners of Changing Hands Bookstore confirming my employment, presence at the signing event in Phoenix and personal ownership of both titles.

Please inquire about availability of a photograph of Obama at the signing event, printed and framed to proudly display. It will be nearly impossible to get close to Obama from now on, let alone have him sign a book. Dreams From My Father had a limited print run, rumored to be around 20,000 copies, and sold only between 8 and 9 thousand, so most are long gone, either ex-libris or lost to time (print run citation from a January, 2007, Washington Post article on Obama and sold citation from a May, 2008, New York Times article on Obama). The Audacity of Hope had a much larger print run, in the six-figures, and has sold hundreds of thousands of copies to date. Obama's contract from Crown and reported advance of $1.9 million was for three books, the second to be a children's book about his life and the third as yet undefined, so we can expect more literary output from this true American success story. There are no other copies of this set available anywhere with such impeccable provenance. Pictures available upon request.

Or maybe Sarah would like to have the set? The BananaRepublican Party could get the tab for her.

November 6, 2008 10:33 AM | | Comments (1)

1 Comments

the leftist illuminati has been so star struck that there's bound to be disappointment once he takes office.

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Me Elsewhere

'WILD SIDE' STILL ROCKS 

Nelson Algren was one of the great American authors of the 20th century, it is no exaggeration to say, and among the most neglected. Consider his underrated classic, "A Walk on the Wild Side." The title -- popularized and co-opted as an idiomatic phrase by Hollywood and Madison Avenue (institutions Algren loathed) -- is familiar to most anyone who speaks English or knows Lou Reed's lyrics. But the novel itself? Hardly.

BUSTER KEATON REVISITED 
Buster Keaton: Tempest in a Flat Hat is not a biography. "This book is merely a fan's notes," Edward McPherson writes in the introduction, although his publisher ignores the disclaimer and calls it a biography on the cover. In fact, the book is a bit of both, a difficult combination to bring off unless you're David Thomson, who set the standard with Rosebud, his penetrating rumination on the life and career of Orson Welles, which was nothing if not a distillation of every obsessive thought he ever had about the myth and the man and all his movies.
LAUREN BACALL, STILL SALTY AT 80 
When Lauren Bacall writes that her singing voice ranges "somewhere between B minus sharp and outer space," she's being candid and funny. It's not every stage star with two Tony Awards for best actress in a musical whose vocal talent offers so little promise. (OK, Harvey Fierstein excepted.) Still less would one admit it.
THE STARS ACCORDING TO BOGDANOVICH 
Peter Bogdanovich's superb collection of movie-star profiles and interviews -- a sequel to Who the Devil Made It, his interviews of top film directors -- begins with an affectionate tale about Orson Welles that reminds us just how intimate the author's connection to Hollywood's greatest has been. But contrary to what we've come to expect from dime-a-dozen celebrities and celebrity interviews not worth two cents, the tale avoids bromidic egotism and journalistic platitudes.
HERMAN WOUK'S LATEST 
It's hard to say which comes off worse in Herman Wouk's latest novel, his first in a decade: the U.S. Congress or the American press. "A Hole in Texas" offers the choice between two emblematic stereotypes: a red-faced opportunist who heads the House Armed Services Committee and a mustachioed investigative reporter for the Washington Post.
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