Getting Signed First Edition Books from Barack Obama and Bill ClintonBill Clinton and Barack Obama were at the 2005 and 2006 Texas Book Festivals. Bill Clinton in 2005 and Barack Obama in 2006 ... they both signed a large number of books and gave talks in the House Chamber of the Texas Capitol Building. 2005 Texas Book Festival In 2005, the Book Festival announced that Bill Clinton would be attending. They said he would speak to and also sign books for only 500 people. The 500 people were selected in an interesting way. If you wanted to attend, you could e-mail the Texas Book Festival and if you were selected you would receive two wristbands. On Saturday, about a month before the Festival Jim and I both sent in our e-mails at 9 AM the designated time. Jim had a winning e-mail but I did not. But he allowed me to have one of his wristbands. Jim told me that in order to get our wristbands, we would have to show up at 6:30 AM on Saturday of the Book Festival. And that's what we did. We were about the 150th and 151st people in line to get signed first edition books. Some had come at 3 AM. After waiting one and a half hours we got our wristbands at 8 AM. We also were told that we could not bring the books we brought for Mr. Clinton to sign. We had to pay for another one and would be given the book right before the signing. We were a bit concerned at this point whether or not we'd get a first edition. After another two and a half hours of waiting, we were in line to receive our book and get it signed by Mr. Clinton. The line went down into the basement of the Capitol Building. After going past the Secret Service we got our signed first edition books from Mr. Clinton. Bill Clinton shook hands with his right hand while signing with his left hand. He chatted briefly with everyone that went through the line. We both breathed a sign of relief as we saw that we each had gotten first editions. At least one person in the front of the line got a second edition. And he had waited since 3 or 4 AM. We went in and heard Mr. Clinton talk.
He said he wrote the book My Life long hand in notebooks ... and had a pile of them when he was done. After the talk we got something to drink and then went about getting our other books signed. There were some outstanding, famous authors at the 2005 Book Festival. We got several valuable signed first edition books as a result of being there. Salman Rushdie, A Man Booker Prize winner was present. I got the controversial book, The Satanic Verses signed. Jim had that book and a few others of his signed. Also, Frank McCourt was there.
We picked up copies of his latest book, Teacher Man, to get signed. I also had bought his first book, Angela's Ashes, to get signed. 2006 Texas Book Festival In 2006, we were able to get signed first edition books from Barack Obama. We again arrived at the Book Festival at about 6:30 AM in the morning. We found there was already a long line to get into the House Chamber to hear him talk. We stood in line but were not selected and so did not get in to see him. Instead, we bought books to get signed and Jim stood in line. Barack Obama signed first edition books after his talk. He must have been there an hour and a half signing Audacity of Hope.
By far, the most unusual book signing we have been to was for Mark Danielewski's Only Revolutions.
This book was nominated for the National Book Award in 2006. His first book was The House of Leaves. Both books are very controversial and unusual. He spent years working on both of them. The first book is getting expensive. Jim has two copies of it. The signing took place in the upstairs room of an Austin bar on Saturday. Mr. Danielewski and his friends talked first. Then the signing began. It went very slowly and we couldn't understand why until we were nearer to the front of the line.
Mr. Danielewski was doing elaborate custom inscriptions including drawings for everyone. There were certain things he insisted on having for the inscriptions including the name of the buyer. This took about two - three minutes per book so it was a very long signing. There were about 50-60 people at the signing. This made for a very long day for us. But it was very rewarding.
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