Times They Are a-changin’ as robot signs new Dylan book
Fans to get refund and apology after publisher admits special edition was not actually ‘hand-signed’
‘Handwritten penmanship has a flow but with a pen machine it goes from point to point. It looks like a copy’
BOB DYLAN’S publisher has apologised after online sleuths discovered that 900 of his books had not been signed by the musician but by a robot.
Simon & Schuster is offering refunds for a $600 (£500) special edition of Dylan’s new book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, acknowledging that the “hand-signed” copies were not individually inscribed. Some who received the book compared the signature and concluded they were produced by machine.
Justin Steffman, an authenticator who runs a Facebook group for collectors, said the autographs, far right, were created by an autopen. Mr Steffman told The New York Times that handwritten penmanship has a flow but “with a pen machine, it goes from point to point” and the beginning and end of each stroke apply more pressure.
Dylan’s autograph also appears to have a “slight shakiness”, he said. “It does not look like something a person signed; it looks like a copy.”
Mr Steffman said the autograph is based on the signature Dylan, right, uses on his artwork.
The book is the first the 81-year-old songwriter has published since he won the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature. Dylan has only occasionally offered limited-edition autographed copies of his artwork or his Chronicles book.
The book came with a letter signed by Jonathan Karp, Simon & Schuster’s president, saying it was “one of just 900 copies available in the US”.
It added: “This letter is confirmation that the copy of the book you hold in your hand has been hand-signed by Bob Dylan.”
Items autographed by Dylan typically sell for $1,500 or $2,000, he added. On ebay, vendors had been offering the “signed” book for resale for as much as $6,000.
Simon & Schuster tweeted: “To those who purchased the Philosophy of Modern Song limited edition, we want to apologise.
“The limited edition books do contain Bob’s original signature, but in a penned replica form.
“We are addressing this information by providing each purchaser with an immediate refund.”
Speculation was rife as to how the error was made. Simon & Schuster was unlikely to have been looking to deliberately deceive buyers when the duplications were so likely to be easily spotted. A Dylan spokesman declined comment.
There is no suggestion
Dylan was aware of the mistake.