quote:

Originally posted by ThomasG:
Hello everyone. I ran the events program at the Booksmith for more then ten years, before being de-accessioned by the new owners in 2009 (the same owners who stopped the cards series and had surplus cards thrown in the trash). I put on more than 1000 events, and during my tenure wrote or copy-wrote the text on the back of the store's author trading cards. I also helped design the images on the front on a few occasions, like the obscured Thomas Pynchon card (#183). Pynchon did not show up for his event, strangely enough!

I am confident that there were 1080 cards in the series. I am in the process of putting my collection in order, and believe I have most every card. (I also have autographed cards of most every card, except for those authors who didn't show, cancelled at the last minute, etc....) I can't recall any author who refused to sign a small number of their cards.

Though a few cards were (mistakenly) not numbered, each card has a number assigned to it in the series of author events. I have a numbered list of all 1080 cards. Most all cards were printed in a run of 200. None were sold; they were given out free at the front counter as a promotional device. Customers, and even a few authors, collected them.

Certainly, the rarest card was for musician NEIL YOUNG. The store was offered a world exclusive book signing event with NY on two weeks notice for his "Greendale" book. We pulled it off, sold thousands of books, and got national press including the NYT. To mark the occasion, we printed an out-of-series card in an edition of 50. Neil got some, the store got some, and a very few were given to the public. Neil even signed some!

Neil Young was one of a number of celebrities (rock stars, actors, politicians, etc...) who did events at the store. A few big names not already mentioned in previous posts include George R.R. Martin, Wes Craven, Alan Lee (LOTR), Patti Smith, Eric Burdon (The Animals), Grace Slick, Annie Leibovitz, Ralph Steadman, George McGovern, Art Spiegelman, Sen. Gary Hart, acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace, Nobel Prize winners Czelsaw Milosz and Kazuo Ishiguro, and a number of Pulitzer and Booker Prize winners. There were also Beat poets (Ginsberg, Ferlinghetti, McClure) and two members of the Grateful Dead. Check out this page for a little history of my life as a bookseller and short lists of other authors who I put on events with = https://www.thomasgladysz.com/bookseller/

I will let everyone know once I have organized my collections, which is taking more time then I thought it would.

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Originally posted by cardaddict:
I'd love to get the Harlan Ellison Booksmith Card.

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Originally posted by catskilleagle:
Here's the Allen Ginsburg card ThomasG noted:

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Originally posted by ThomasG:
As long promised, I have finally put together a list of all the Booksmith cards from #1 to #1080, when I believe the series ended. This list is based on the cards themselves, so I know it is accurate.

I have also written a 2000 word history of the cards - it is more interesting than it sounds, as there were unnumbered cards, a limited edition card, a few unissued cards, a few cards out of series, etc... and there were lots and lots of celebrity cards.

DOES ANYONE HAVE A CONTACT AT NON-SPORT UPDATE, OR ITS BLOG, SO THAT THEY MIGHT CONSIDER THIS PIECE ON BOOKSMITH CARDS?