January 10, 2009

Vollmann Drawings

vol-drawing-butterfly-stories

I have signed first editions of ten different books by William T. Vollmann, and several of them have drawings that he added when he signed them. This one–a copy of Butterfly Stories–contains my favorite drawing.

vol-drawing-bright-and-risen

This is in a first edition of his first book–You Bright and Risen Angels.

vol-drawing-the-atlas

And this drawing appears in a first edition of The Atlas.

posted by in books, literature | * | 5 comments 

comments

  1. Dave Vogt on January 10th, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Your name isn’t Jason. Not even a little bit.

  2. Sheila Ryan on January 10th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

    I’m not crazy-mad over signed first editions as such, but these are super-cool, Daryl.

    Now Dave’s comment (“Your name isn’t Jason. Not even a little bit.”) reminds me in a wacky sense of a book-signing experience I witnessed.

    I was standing with my friend Al in a club in Chicago in a huddle of people clustered round Alex Chilton. Al presented a copy of Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon and asked Chilton if he would be so kind as to sign it. Chilton did, but he was clearly baffled.

    “Why Hollywood Babylon?” he asked.

    “I bought it today for my mom,” Al replied.

  3. Michael Hemmingson on January 10th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

    If you’re into Vollmann’s art, check oit the WTV web pge on Facebook, I put up pix of his hand made books, and more are in my facebook account.

    Also, have this book coming out:

    http://www.amazon.com/William-T-Vollmann-Critical-Interviews/dp/0786440252/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231637408&sr=1-4

    and a bibliography from Scarecrow Press later in the year or early next.

  4. Daryl Scroggins on January 10th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

    Dave: Yep, Jason don’t read much and did me a favor.

    Sheila: great Chilton story. I like stories like that that tend to keep things in perspective. And I’m not really avid about signed first editions anymore. We went through a phase of looking for deals on such, and found some. But we always only sought out books by writers we really admired already. Our appreciation of the actual copies was always an extension of our praise for the author–a kind of thanks–and not just a hope to make money in the future. These Vollmann books are some I like very much, but I also have similar favorite copies from Cormac McCarthy, Eudora Welty, Ezra Pound, Lorine Niedecker, Russell Edson, Mark Richard, Barry Hannah, Wallace Stevens, W. B. Yeats, and others. We’ll sell them someday–but probably only when the granddaughter needs the money for graduate school.

  5. Brandon Hobson on January 10th, 2009 at 11:28 pm

    Very cool, Daryl.

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