There’s only one way to get this collectible John Updike lapel pin, which is faithful to the self-portrait Updike did for his Paris Review interview, and that’s to pay your membership dues for 2010. And for those who aren’t already members, it’s not too late to join. Those who do so between now and our business meeting at the American Literature Association conference the end of May will still be considered Charter Members. The lapel pin features the Society logo, sans lettering, and the Society is grateful to Martha Updike for giving us permission to use the drawing. These pins will be a great way for us to instantly recognize fellow Society members at conferences like ALA!

In a 1992 interview on The Dick Cavett Show, John Updike told his host that he keeps all of his books from Knopf “in a row, without their jackets, and it’s in this set that I note the typos and gaucheries, so in a sense I have a master set, ready for the new editions and to be further refined.” When Cavett said that book collectors  “would be horrified to know that the dust jackets aren’t on,” Updike responded, “Only this one set. Elsewhere in the same small room, there is a full set of them in their jackets and in their several editions and in their translations. It really is a room to enter. You’ve got to be pretty fond of me. Maybe only I can enter it.”

A collector himself, John would always take note of an edition he was asked to sign. When I finally saved up enough money to buy a First Edition of Rabbit, Run many years ago, I sent it to him to sign. It came back with another gracious inscription, but with a Post-It note attached:  “Jim—the book is a first edition, but the jacket is not [and he underlined “not”]. It quotes a review—the first had flap copy by me. Best, John.” I contacted the book dealer, who was one of the nation’s most reputable, and it was the first he’d known of this point, which wasn’t detailed in any catalog. But John noticed things like this. He was a stickler for detail and accuracy, as his readers well know. Unlike some authors who dated books if they were signed after publication year, John only dated a book if asked, or if it was a gift. He didn’t want to begrudge any collector his/her treasures.

According to Lawrence Grobel, who recently had an article on collecting Updike in Autograph Magazine, “pristine copies of his early signed books go for as much as $4500 (Rabbit, Run). Even 50 years after it was published, Rabbit, Run remains the most sought-after of Updike titles, but it’s awfully hard if not impossible to find a copy in pristine condition. Rare book dealer Ken Lopez has one for sale that’s fine in a near-fine, price-clipped dust jacket “with some slight rubbing and a tear at the lower rear spine fold,” signed, for $2000. There’s another copy on eBay now for $450 minimum bid, but it’s a little rough-looking and also has a signed bookplate—so Updike never held the book in his hands. But that’s all that seems to be out there right now, which would all but validate what Grobel is saying.

By comparison, Grobel says that signed copies of The Centaur are fetching $1800, while The Poorhouse Fair is commanding $875 and Pigeon Feathers $350. But the good news for new collectors just discovering Updike’s works is that the author so graciously signed so many books that there are a lot of the newer volumes out there for $100 or less. Hemingway and Fitzgerald Society members should be so lucky.

On September 24, Bloomsbury Auctions will sell the Burt Britton Collection of Self-Portraits, a collection which includes a self-portrait by John Updike. The Updike artwork is item number 155, described as follows:

“John UPDIKE (American, 1932-2009) Self-portrait. ink and mixed-media on paper. 10 7/8 x 8 1/2 inches (270 x 215 mm). signed. Updike won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1991 for Rabbit at Rest, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 2004 for The Early Stories, and the PEN/Malamud Award for ‘excellence in the art of the short story’ in 1988. In his self-portrait, Updike covers his mouth with a cut-out of his name and inscribes the picture ‘in a glass darkly.’ est. $2000-$3000.”

So how does that estimate compare with what other self-portraits are expected to fetch? Lot 50 is a drawing by Margaret Atwood ($500-$800); Lot 58 is by Saul Bellow ($3000-$4000); Lot 75 is Truman Capote ($2500-$3500); Lot 76 is Ray Carver ($2000-$3000; Lot 83 is James Dickey ($600-$800); Lot 101 is Joseph Heller ($800-$1200); Lot 102 is John Irving ($2000-$3000); Lot 113 is Norman Mailer ($2000-$3000); Lot 114 is Bernard Malamud ($2000-$3000); Lot 116 is Toni Morrison ($2000-$3000); Lot 135 is Philip Roth ($3000-$4000); Lot 157 is Kurt Vonnegut ($2000-$3000); Lot 158 is Derek Walcott ($800-$1200); and Lot 160 is Robert Penn Warren ($2000-$3000).

Britton’s collection began when he was bartending at the Village Vanguard in New York City and asked Norman Mailer to “draw me your self-portrait,” and hundreds would follow. For further information on the auction, phone (212) 719-1000 or consult the website link above.