Autographs - John Rechy

I'm pretty sure I got John Rechy's autograph when he spoke at USC (where he later taught creative writing for many years), and not at a bookstore. And I think it was a speech for the public, but it might have been for the Gay Student Union.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy

(Click each image to enlarge it.)
I got Christopher Isherwood's autograph on two different occasions. I helped arrange a speaking engagement for him at USC's Gay Student Union. He agreed if we would provide transportation. I did the driving. My friend Kieran Prather (long ago dead of AIDS and still missed) and I went to Isherwood and Bachardy's Santa Monica Canyon home, where they invited us in for drinks. I remember Bachardy's paintings and drawings everywhere. Happily for me, Kieran provided most of the conversation while I drove. The GSU turnout was light, but Isherwood didn't seem to mind. Sometime during the evening, I got him to autograph The Berlin Stories.



Isherwood and Bachardy both came to A Different Light bookstore when My Guru and His Disciple was published. I bought a hardbound copy (gasp!) and got Isherwood to autograph it. When I saw the dedication and saw Don Bachardy quietly wandering the store's shelves, I asked for his autograph, too.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - David Hockney

I got both of these autographs when David Hockney appeared at A Different Light bookstore. As you can see, when Hockney autographs a book, he crosses out his printed name, "replacing" it with his autograph. (The cover of this book shows the results of being in a stack of books, with sunlight hitting only part of the cover over many months. It's still in a stack these days, but out of the sun.)



This is a tiny book, maybe 2 inches by 3 inches and about 60 pages, with black and white Hockney etchings every page or two.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Jorge Luis Borges

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

I heard Jorge Luis Borges speak at USC's Bovard Auditorium. I asked for his autograph after the speech. Borges was blind. His assistant positioned my book and Borges' hand, and Borges scrawled the illegible autograph you see here.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Isaac Bashevis Singer

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

In August 1966, when I was 15, I spent two weeks at a Jewish arts camp in the Catskills. I was one of four "campership" winners at Temple Beth-El in San Antonio. I think it was because I was in my high school band and a good student generally.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, later to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, was one of several distinguished visitors who stopped by the camp. I bought this book at the camp and asked for his autograph. As you can see (click the image to enlarge), he misread my name from the inside front cover, signing to "Rooney J Hoffman"

I think this is the first author autograph I ever got.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Ken Kesey

(Click each image to enlarge it.)

I went to hear Ken Kesey speak at USC's Dedeaux Field baseball field - an unusual venue. I had a number of items I hoped to get him to autograph, starting, of course, with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Before the talk began, I walked onto the field and asked him to sign the book.

When he finished, I handed him the second one:



He grinned and asked my name, and gave me one of my most treasured autographs. You must click the image to read what the page is about and what he wrote.

Now that we were on intimate terms, I asked for two more autographs:

(Index of autographs)

Autographs - Allen Ginsberg

This is one of only two authors whose autograph I have without having met them in person. (The other is Arthur C. Clarke.) I was a devoted customer of the wonderful LGBT bookstore A Different Light in Silverlake (long gone, sigh). But I had to be out of town on the date that Allen Ginsberg was going to visit and sign books. Bookstore manager Richard LaBonte readily agreed to ask Ginsberg to autograph these three books I bought ahead of time.

Even if I had met him, I'm not sure I would have had the nerve to ask him to kiss me, so I could enjoy the vicarious thrill of indirectly kissing so many other famous folks. As the story goes,

If you can get a staff member of the store [Philadelphia's Giovanni's Room] to kiss you, then you will be in the direct succession of Walt Whitman's kiss, which flows from Walt to Edward Carpenter to E.M. Forster to Allen Ginsberg to Bern Boyle, one of the founders of Giovanni's Room.

(Index of autographs)

Autographs

I have a modest collection of autographed books. Although it includes some very well-known authors, the books are mostly cheap paperbacks, because I've almost never bought hardbacks. And, because they're cheap paperbacks and because I never did anything to protect them, many are falling apart. 

Still, I enjoy recalling each meeting with an author. I've decided to start scanning the autographs and posting them here. 

I hesitated because nothing about these posts will help cultivate outrage, but there aren't enough of them to justify an entirely new blog, and there are already other non-outrage posts here. Click here for an index.

Channel Islands - Sept. '83

Pinnipeds at Pt. Bennet, San Miguel Island

Over Labor Day, 1983, I toured some of Channel Islands National Park. My visit began with an overnight boat trip to the farthest island, San Miguel. There a park ranger led us on a short hike to view the pinnipeds on the beach. In the photo, all those dark spots and streaks on the sand are seals and sea lions. We spent the rest of the day slowly cruising past the other islands and returning to the mainland.

Oahu - March 1981

Diamond Head and Honolulu

Hanauma Bay

Oahu cliffs

I've only been to Hawaii once (so far) and then, only Oahu. In March 1981, I took advantage of a friend's military posting to Schofield Barracks. He and his wife generously put me up and toured me around the island. I also spent time in Honolulu as a solo tourist. I so enjoyed snorkeling amid all the tropical fish in Hanauma Bay that I went back a second day.