|
William McAllister
, January 01, 2011
WOW!!!
I collect signed first editions of favorite mystery writers. I used to have just a few favorites, and at the collapse of the Berlin Wall, I even optioned Ross Thomas's, "THE EIGHTH DWARF", thinking it a fantastic potential series to be shot in Eastern Europe. I had several lunches with Ross, and he indicated an interest in serving as the key story editor if I got the project off the ground.
I didn't. Everyone but Billy Barty was afraid of a dwarf as the lead character.
Shortly after this, it was my dear friend Charles Champlin who steered me down the correct path. Chuck was past Arts Editor for the Los Angeles Times, and was, in the early '90s, the mystery book reviewer for the Sunday Calendar section of that paper. He gave me a reading list that got me hooked for life.
For nearly twenty years now, I've been requesting that authors sign my books with a slight difference. I've asked them to hand write the first sentence of the book above their signature, and, if it's close to the publication date, the date of the signing. For me, it is like having a wee bit of original manuscript, in the author's own hand. Most have been very generous and understanding. In some instances, with a very long first sentence, they'll go to the first comma or something, but I've built up quite a collection over the last couple of decades.
The practise has finally paid-off in a way that surpasses my wildest imagining. And, of course, it is a multi-level reward. The pinnacle of patience, or doggedness, has culminated in what I can only compare to that hopefully awaited ". . . infinite number of monkeys, with an infinite number of typewriters . . .".
With Don Winslow's SAVAGES, I'm now holding in my hands a copy signed with that first line/paragraph/chapter. Not only that, but the capper to it all is that to any casual observer who might open this now treasured tome, it appears that one of the best writers in this, or any other genre, is seriously pissed at me.
THANK YOU, ZEUS!!! THANK YOU, ZEUS!!! THANK YOU, ZEUS AND ALL THE CREATIVE MUSES!!!
And, by the way, the next time I see Don Winslow, even if it's not until a signing next year, I must remember to tell him: "Same to you Fella!"
|