For approximately $600, other people may purchase restricted editions of Bob Dylan’s new e-book, “The Philosophy of Fashionable Music,” with the promise of the e-book being hand-signed through the famed musician himself. Now, the e-book and its writer are underneath hearth as consumers printed that the meant hand signature used to be in truth a reproduction.
Simon & Schuster/Wayback Gadget
A now-erased webpage for Simon & Schuster, the e-book’s writer, gives an “unique version” of the e-book “assured to be in my opinion hand-signed through Bob Dylan.” The record worth for the e-book used to be $599, ultimate sale, with out a returns approved. In the meantime, the unsigned replica of the e-book is indexed through the writer for $45.
Simon & Schuster is a department of Paramount International, as is CBS Information.
The e-book even got here with a letter from the writer’s president and CEO, Jonathan Karp, dated November 15, that additional promises the signature’s authenticity.
“You dangle on your arms one thing very particular, one in all simply 900 copies to be had in america of The Philosophy of Fashionable Music signed through Bob Dylan. That is Bob’s first e-book of latest writing since Chronicles, Quantity One, revealed in 2004, and because successful the Nobel Prize in literature in 2016,” the letter states, finishing with a easy promise, “This letter is affirmation that the replica of the e-book you dangle has been hand-signed through Bob Dylan.”
But if consumers of those restricted editions were given their copies, they have been stunned to search out that the signature used to be no longer hand-signed. It used to be a computer-printed copy.
The revelations of the copy signature emerged a month in the past, earlier than many of us gained their books. One YouTuber common for selling fan mail and autograph accumulating posted a video on October 21 that confirmed a signed replica of the e-book that somebody had obtained thru Canadian bookseller Indigo.
“It used to be painfully transparent that it used to be by no means signed through Bob,” the YouTuber says, announcing it used to be obviously made through a gadget for numerous causes. “…It simply does not appear to be Bob’s signature. Secondly, the traces are 100% uniform and feature unique beginning and preventing issues.”
And in the end, he mentioned, “at 81 years previous, you could be expecting to look some shake in his signature.”
“In case you ordered a replica, now is your time to cancel,” he warned.
One one that bought the e-book mentioned on Reddit that it appears to be like find it irresistible were signed with an “auto-pen,” a gadget that reproduces somebody’s signature.
“No doubt NOT an actual signature,” someone else tweeted this week once you have their replica of the e-book. “I’ve 3 exact Bob automobiles that glance not anything like this. Anyway, happy I am getting my a reimbursement. The letter is an entire shaggy dog story.”
Simon & Schuster publicly addressed the location on Sunday, issuing an apology to those that bought the supposedly hand-signed e-book.
“Because it seems, the restricted version books do include Bob’s unique signature, however in penned copy shape,” the commentary says. “We’re addressing this straight away through offering each and every buyer with an instantaneous refund.”
Dylan has no longer publicly commented at the signature snafu.
The e-book used to be in the beginning introduced in March for a November 8 newsletter. It is the mythical singer and songwriter’s first e-book of latest writing since his 2004 e-book “Chronicles, Quantity One.” In it are greater than 60 of Dylan’s essays about track and songs, through which he breaks down their rhymes and syllables and presentations how genres are intertwined – even bluegrass and heavy steel.