Time Out New York, March 20, 2011:
I read that you're an avid book collector. What do you collect?
I say I'm a collector; my wife says I'm a hoarder. I collect books, primarily first-edition 20th-century fiction. I'm an addict, I'm an alcoholic, so I have this tendency to want more and more. I mean who needs 20 cameras? Who needs 300 pens? I hoard.
I say I'm a collector; my wife says I'm a hoarder. I collect books, primarily first-edition 20th-century fiction. I'm an addict, I'm an alcoholic, so I have this tendency to want more and more. I mean who needs 20 cameras? Who needs 300 pens? I hoard.
What's the difference between a collector and a hoarder?
I hope the difference—and I've told my wife—is that the stuff I'm collecting we'll be able to sell for more money than we bought it for when I'm dead. I've got books that have escalated in value 1,000, 2,000 percent over the years that I've held them. Because I find the best book I can: the most pristine copy signed by the author; the rarest; the smallest printing. I go for the best. I have 800 books of just Samuel Beckett's work, tons of his correspondence, personal letters that he wrote. I have copies of plays he used when he directed, so all of his handwritten notes are in the corners of the page. I did it right. If someone wanted to do a study of Beckett, they could do it with my collection and figure out most his life very easily.
I hope the difference—and I've told my wife—is that the stuff I'm collecting we'll be able to sell for more money than we bought it for when I'm dead. I've got books that have escalated in value 1,000, 2,000 percent over the years that I've held them. Because I find the best book I can: the most pristine copy signed by the author; the rarest; the smallest printing. I go for the best. I have 800 books of just Samuel Beckett's work, tons of his correspondence, personal letters that he wrote. I have copies of plays he used when he directed, so all of his handwritten notes are in the corners of the page. I did it right. If someone wanted to do a study of Beckett, they could do it with my collection and figure out most his life very easily.
If you had to pick three books to make sure everybody read, what would they be?
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon; A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole; and A Gay Place, by Billy Lee Brammer.
Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon; A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole; and A Gay Place, by Billy Lee Brammer.
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