The Art of Talk

[stlcoastfan1985]

Hello again Coastheads!

Anyone here happen to own a copy of Art Bell's autobiography, "The Art of Talk"? And if so, does anyone have an autographed copy? I understand that when the book was released, Art personally signed 1,000 of them, but I don't know how you can tell if the autograph is genuine or not. I own a copy that I obtained at a book fair a few years back and it has an autograph on the inside page, but it's on a sticker placed on the page. From what I can tell, it appears to be in ink, but I'm really not sure. I didn't know if maybe the genuine ones were signed directly onto the page and later versions had the autograph printed on a sticker and put in there, or maybe it was the other way around. Either way, if anyone happens to know for sure I'd really appreciate it! It'd be so cool to know that I have a genuine autograph from the King of the High Desert himself! Thanks!

"No mystery is closed to an open mind." -Tim White

[ziznak]

probly real according to some guy on anther forum!! nice find... if it is.
"Art Bell did autograph books at a few special book signings at a book store. But for the ones he sold for awhile on his show he only stuck a pre-signed sticker on them."

actual site: http://imaginativeworlds.com/forum/showthread.php?2475-Art-Bell-on-eBay!
its a few posts down.

[stlcoastfan1985]

OK thanks! That's about what I figured. One of the old episodes from Hal's collection was from the day the book came out and he mentions personally signing 1,000 for people who ordered them, so that's what led me to believe I had one. It'd be nice if maybe I could take it to an autograph expert and have it authenticated, but I'm gonna guess for now that it's real! Pretty cool! 

[MV/Liberace!]

i have the audiobook version of the art of talk in cassette form.  bought it off of ebay a few years ago for like $28.  you can't get it for anywhere near that price today (as far as i've seen, at least).  alas, no autograph.

[Scully]

Here's what's on the sticker in my copy of "The Art of Talk," which I ordered through Amazon about a year ago.  I wondered, too, if Art really signed it, and so compared it with the ones of 2 online friends.  I hate to tell you that all 3 copies were different.

[stlcoastfan1985]

Hmmm... well I guess there's really no way to tell for sure, but I would think if the autographs aren't all exactly the same then that might mean that they were all hand done and not duplicated. It might have been easier for him just to sign a stack of stickers and have someone place them in the books when they were shipped out, as apposed to having to single handidly sign a crate of 1,000 books! 

[ziznak]

I'm sure he did the sticker thing over a few days.  You have a sticker autograph right?  I'm going to say it sounds very likely it's real due to the sticker evidence and the fact that, lets face it, it's not "Babe Ruth" we're talking about here.  I highly doubt somebody is out there faking Art Bell autographs just to make money on E-b....

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[MV/Liberace!]

I highly doubt somebody is out there faking Art Bell autographs just to make money on E-b...

i've been doing that to pay my electric bill since 2007.

[PB the Deplorable]

Do signed stickers in a book really count as a signed copy?

[Falkie2013]

I have a copy of The Source with a signed sticker with Art's and Brad Steiger's signatures on them

As far as I'm concerned they're real.

When you do a search for Art Bell of late on ebay, all you seem to get is stuff about collectible bells.

Though somewhere on one of my Imacs, ( I've got 6 of them, long story ) is my link to those special Art Bell cd sets of Art's old web site that he was selling a long time ago.

His old webmaster Keith Rowland still has copies of them for sale and Art's website for Coast was and is way better than Snoory's which is one of the worst designed and hardest to use that I've ever seen.

One of these days, I'll have to buy another copy. I bought one way back when but I've never been able to find it in here. It's buried somewhere  and probably fell into Mel's hole or something.

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[Scully]

Hmmm... well I guess there's really no way to tell for sure, but I would think if the autographs aren't all exactly the same then that might mean that they were all hand done and not duplicated. It might have been easier for him just to sign a stack of stickers and have someone place them in the books when they were shipped out, as apposed to having to single handidly sign a crate of 1,000 books!

The handwriting is distinctly different in the 3 copies I've seen.  Notice that in my book he uses an "ending 't'" at the end of "Art."  On the others he crossed the "t."  The capital "B" in Bell was also completely different on the others.  I used to study graphology years ago, and can't help but note that although we may scribble one day and scrawl another, some things never change.


I've got no dog in the fight, but would love to know the answer to the mystery of the stickers.  I ordered my book from Amazon a year or two ago.  It was from a contracted source of theirs, and I noted when it came that the return address was a Salvation Army in SC.  I couldn't have cared less whether the book was signed or not. Just curious.


P.S. Also one of the other two signatures I saw was on a printed desert-type background sticker.  Who knows?  There may be cottage industries everywhere specializing in AB sigs.  :

[stlcoastfan1985]

Wow! This sure has opened up a whole new bag of questions that I couldn't of imagined! Seems like I'm going to have to look into this even deeper somehow when I have more time. I would have to agree that it's doubtful some people would be selling fake Art Bell autographs, but I wouldn't put anything past the idiots out there these days! Who knows at this point. BTW nice pictures Falkie! When did you get to meet him?

[saab93driver]

The handwriting is distinctly different in the 3 copies I've seen.  Notice that in my book he uses an "ending 't'" at the end of "Art."  On the others he crossed the "t."  The capital "B" in Bell was also completely different on the others.  I used to study graphology years ago, and can't help but note that although we may scribble one day and scrawl another, some things never change.


I've got no dog in the fight, but would love to know the answer to the mystery of the stickers.  I ordered my book from Amazon a year or two ago.  It was from a contracted source of theirs, and I noted when it came that the return address was a Salvation Army in SC.  I couldn't have cared less whether the book was signed or not. Just curious.


P.S. Also one of the other two signatures I saw was on a printed desert-type background sticker.  Who knows?  There may be cottage industries everywhere specializing in AB sigs.  :

Or there was more than one person signing Art's name to pages of stickers to put in the books mailed out at the time.  That wouldn't really surprise me either.

[stlcoastfan1985]

Oh, I see! LOL! Oh well, one can only dream I guess! 

[73s]

I was wondering if anyone else has read this book? I got one as a gift recently, has the sticker on the inside page with Art's signature.

Just started reading it. I remember reading some of it from a library checkout 10 years ago. I didn't finish it. Hoping to get through it this time.

[Lord Grantham]

I was wondering if anyone else has read this book? I got one as a gift recently, has the sticker on the inside page with Art's signature.

Just started reading it. I remember reading some of it from a library checkout 10 years ago. I didn't finish it. Hoping to get through it this time.

I have a copy (unsigned). It's....it's not the best written book, tbqh.

[73s]

I'm just now reading the chapter about beautiful Asian women...

[starrmtn001]

Do signed stickers in a book really count as a signed copy?

Counts as a signed sticker, I would imagine.  That's gotta be worth something.

[pate]

...

One of these days,

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpHzPzjUTY8

[TheSheriff]

Here's my copy that I managed to acquire from a book store in Vegas:



I didn't even realise it was signed until somebody mentioned it to me!