Autograph Hound Super-Sunday once more!
Haven’t done one of these in awhile — and for once it’s not coming from that maniacal Autograph Hound Brian Leno. At least not directly.
Brian did tip me to a plethora of John Hancocks on the block that decorated the cover for the slim program book for the 1977 Bouchercon in NYC. But I’m the one who popped for it.
I’ve been on a The Shadow kick lately, plowing through almost a dozen of the short novels. The Gahan Wilson cartoon of Jack Kerouac’s favorite pulp avenger plunged in the first hook. Wilson signed just below his byline on the illo. The major Shadow scribe Walter Gibson did his Double X mark (just below the AT THE) where the top of the Xs makes a W followed by the rest of Walter B. Gibson and the lower half makes an M followed by the rest of Maxwell Grant, the Street & Smith house name for writers working on The Shadow Magazine. I already have his Double X mark in a first edition of The Shadow Scrapbook, but that hook was in, sharply tugging.
Another attraction was that this copy came from the collection of the late Richard Lackritz, an MD who delivered over 700 babies. Nice guy. I met him during the Boucheron in Austin, Texas in 2002, and got to drive his car. Finest such machine I ever drove, some luxury brand like Lexus. We were heading out for dinner — Lackritz, me, Dennis McMillan, Gary Philips, Kent Harrington — and Dennis insisted I drive, since Lackritz was a terrible driver. I only did one showboat move, summoning up torque, to give them their money’s worth — and so we didn’t miss the left turn for which no one gave me any advance notice.
An In Memorian gesture, then.
From that point on, any other consideration just iced the cake. Brian told me that two signatures at the bottom more than covered the cost. Isaac Asimov apparently goes for $200ish, more if in a desirable first edition of one of his books. “By itself,” Brian said, “I would guess Dannay adding ‘Ellery Queen’ pretty much, almost, pays for the item.”
And there are more. John Ball at the top center (I got to drive him around once, too), author of In the Heat of the Night. Brian Garfield, author of Death Wish, under the heavier inked siggie of Jon L. Lellenberg. I met Lellenberg as well; one of several claims to fame, he was the author of the last book issued by Arkham House. Stanley Ellin. Ed Hoch.
An autograph I would have never doped out was Christiana Brand, but Brian IDed it. Begins under the W in NEW and rolls in a line under YORK — the B in Brand directly under the O. Phyllis A. Whitney, mystery romance novelist, signed directly over MURDER. Dorothy Salisbury Davis signed bottom right, at an upward angle. Phyllis White (under 1977) was the widow of “Anthony Boucher” — I met her on a few occasions.
A checklist used while rounding up the autos remains in the booklet. Names on that list that I don’t see corresponding signatures for include Steranko, Robert Fish, Ron Goulart and Lin Carter. I have a ton of Lin Carter holograph material, correspondence from the 1950s and so on — but he ought to have made the cut. Maybe he ducked out early before Lackritz could corner him.
The six neither Brian nor I can identify begin, top down:
Between the W and the Y the name John M______. The name John Mullen is on the Lackritz list, but this one doesn’t seem to match.
Under MURDER, the name Charles S_______.
To the right of Charles S______, past Michelle Slung, and above the Davis in Dorothy Salisbury Davis, some squiggling at an up-and-down angle. I can’t tell if the name starts at the top or the bottom. Or if the squiggles are two autographs.
Under WAL, in blue ink, Peter (?) S (?) B (???). Doesn’t quite match the auto of Peter S. Beagle, but in haste he might have put the “l” in Beagle in the wrong position.
To the right of the blue siggie, M____ E_____ (???).
Under the Double X in Walter/Maxwell the name John L or T______ (???).
