Richard wrote:
"Through the years Lawrence Block has signed a good many
books for me and has always been most gracious. The books
were generally his latest or something relatively obscure,
which always seemed to interest him. I've had the same
experience with Westlake, Evan Hunter, Charles McCarry and
others who seem to enjoy seeing an oddity from long
ago."
I had much the same experience with Westlake a few years ago.
He was interviewed on stage at the Smithsonian by Michael
Dirda. Afterwards, they had copies of his latest book (a
recent Parker) for sale and he signed anything anyone put in
front of him. His one request, which was very reasonable, was
that those with several books wait at the end of the line and
let those with single books go first. This was far from being
a hardship since he continued to answer questions and tell
stories the whole time.
I was one of a handful of people at the end. I had brought
his new book, the Pocket Book Parkers I had collected,
Anarchaos and Comfort Station. During the earlier interview,
Westlake had been asked about his numerous pseudonyms. He
told the quite amusing story about how he, as Westlake, wrote
the blurb for himself on the pseudonymous Comfort Station: "I
wish I had written this book." So everyone was thoroughly
impressed when I handed a copy to him to sign. None of the
other collectors had seen a copy, though they had looked for
it. Even Westlake said it had been a long time since he had
seen one. I had picked it up years before for half cover. By
the way when Westlake signs pseudonymous works, he signs his
real name, but puts the initials of his alias in
parentheses.
Mark
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