| myself as an antique on antiques roadshow |
| The time: some years into the future. The city: San Francisco. The event: The Antiques Roadshow. The object: a copy of the best of bflowriter.com On camera is the owner, a woman—the grandmotherly type, joined by the appraiser—conservative type in a nice suit/bow tie combo who speaks with a mild quiver in the voice as he fondles the book. Appraiser: tell us about the book and how it passed into your possession Owner: it was given to me by my grandmother. The writer as I understand it had no family. He had a son from whom he was estranged. He was a close friend of my grandmother and her family and in his will he left everything to my grandmother and her brother. So the book and several boxes of manuscripts and copies of letters were handed down from my grandmother to my mother and when my mother died I came into possession. Thats the story. Appraiser: Let me say something. When I was contacted about you--that you were here with this book and told some of my colleagues who also work as book antiquarians they went nuts. They were gibbering like monkeys. And I was gibbering like a monkey. He pauses to gather himself. He says: This is the situation. I know something about the writer. I am an authority. I have read the books and the letters and every word written about him. Outside of a handful of stories and magazine pieces he was never published during his lifetime. You know how he died—correct? Owner: some sort of freak accident I believe. Appraiser: yes he was playing golf at the Brookside course in Pasadena and drove the cart off a bridge on the 11th hole into a cement culvert. It was then, following his death, that your grandmothers mother—your great grandmother— decided to get his writings published. At some point she got a publisher interested in the letters. So out comes a volume of the letters—that causes a sensation. Now come the books—one following the other. They sell like hotcakes. They go through the roof. It happened quite fast—in a flash. One day he was unknown, as unknown as you can get and the next day—a cultural phenomenon. Then its on with the translations, the biographies, the sale of movie rights, etc, etc. Owner: Yes I know something of all this. Appraiser: there was a flavor to the writing—a humor—offbeat, cynical, twisted—that penetrated deeply in to the psyche of the country at this time. He was hailed as the new Mark Twain. He pauses and says: your grandmother and her family must have cashed in big time as a result of all this action. Owner (excited): Yes—they became rich! He laughs: Darling--you have no idea. When Jack was 64 he started a website–www.bflowriter.com—shortening of Buffalo, his home town and at some point decided to put a book together adapted from the site. This is that book—the best of bflowriter.com He printed it himself. It was a limited edition of 100 copies. But he never made it to 100 copies. The printing involved a hideous amount of work and he got to 35 copies and threw in the towel. He pauses and says: Now the question is: what happened to those 35 Copies? Only 14 have turned up. Of all the manuscripts and letters it is the 35 copies of the best of bflowriter.com that are the most sought after by collectors. 5 years ago a very fine copy turned up in pristine condition. I sold it myself—for $14,000.000 Owner: no kidding. Appraiser: That is correct. (the quiver re-enters his voice) but this copy you have here is a little different. This book has never been read. How do we know? Because the book exists in the original shrink-wrapped packaging! He struggles to control himself. He says: These books were art books. There were 24 color plates and in view of this, to protect the plates from mishandling he shrink-wrapped the books. That’s the story. He continues: Now for the question we always pose to the owner: would you care to estimate or take a guess at the value of the object? Pause. She thinks, says: $25,000,000 Appraiser: I would say for purposes of insurance—and this is a conservative guess—at least $40,000,000 Owner: No kidding. Appraiser: I could get on the phone right now and solicit an offer for $35,000,000. I guarantee it. Owner: No. My grandmother would object. She was sentimental about Jack. Plus I dont need the money. The family has made a fortune from Jacks books! Appraiser: Of course. Thank you for coming to the show and to bring this wonderful book. Its too cool! |
| first edition copy of the best of bflowriter.com. estimated value: $120,000. (adjusted for inflation) |
