Sold American! Book goes for over $10K!

March 29, 2015 • 2:08 pm

Well, my wildest dreams have been exceeded, for here is the final price of the multiply-autographed and Houle-illustrated copy of WEIT:

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That is a LOT of medical aid, and Kelly and I are chuffed!  All of this goes, of course, to Doctors Without Borders, and I hope they’ll be pleased, too. Thanks to all the people who autographed the book and made comments about naturalism; to Ben Goren, who suggested that I should send the book to Kelly for her to illustrate, despite my claim that such a request was too presumptuous, and who also provided a pawprint of the famous Baihu Goren; and, finally, to Kelly, who put in more work than all of us combined by illustrating and illuminating it—and procuring a velvet presentation box, preparing the announcement, and running the auction.

It is finished. Into thy hands, buyer, we commend this book.

71 thoughts on “Sold American! Book goes for over $10K!”

  1. I do believe that the few dollars I spent on that book plus the gas to drive across town to get it plus the ink for the pen and pawprint and the postage to send it to Jerry…that has, far and away, got to be the most successful and significant investment of my life so far in terms of bang-for-the-buck. We’re talking a thousandfold return on investment in just a couple years, all of it going to MSF.

    …and, Jerry…dare I ask the fate of the paperback…?

    Congratulations and hearty thanks to all!

    b&

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    1. Really good news. Congrats to all involved.

      Ben, did you ever get an answer to your question about the best sauce for crow 🙂

      Reply

    3. Congratulations to Ben and Jerry! I said it in that order only b/c it was kind of funny that way.

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  2. Congratulations! It was nice to see that a bidding war added almost 2k to the final sale. That will be a lot of help to DWB: a very admirable achievement.

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          3. Didn’t know what dashi is until you gave me no choice but to Google it. I’ll have to give it a try, since I’ve already got two thirds of the ingredients and the remaining third is only an Amazon click away….

            b&

        2. He just got his after-lunch dessert, and didn’t at all seem to mind being awoken from is after-lunch nap to get it. He’s on my shoulders right now as I investigate dashi and kombu.

          I mix a little bit of Trader Joe’s Tuna for Cats in with his meals to get him to lick the bowl (which has lots of water in it) dry. Without the tuna, he’ll eat all the food but leave a fair amount of water; with the tuna, he licks the bowl. It’ll be interesting to see if he’ll lick the bowl if I use dashi rather than plan water with tuna….

          b&

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          1. Let us know how the dashi experiment goes. I bet he’ll love it, and so will you. It is the classic base for miso soup (and all Japanese soups) so make sure to check out a recipe for that as well.

  13. Impressive. And to think, your book–had it been published before 1966–could very well have ended up on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

    Your joy is contagious and appreciated.

    Mike

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      1. …and now that I’ve made a crack like that… it makes me wonder if it shouldn’t be insured for crazy money. (with crazy-care shipping)

        But what do I know about these things?

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      2. Congratulations to all: the author, the illustrator, the signatories, and the very generous benefactor who gets this beautiful special edition of a book that tells a fascinating and true story.

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  17. WEIT Artist in Residence is beaming as well as deeply into painting/illuminating today …Thanks to all who purchased her Darwin Orchid and Moth hand illuminated prints (a few left). Doctors without Borders definitely benefiting from a dedicated artist and writer in addition to Baihu!

    Reply

    1. No fiction needed to help others.

      And that is atheist ethics in one sentence. All the good things that religion is supposed to do, and occasionally actually does–helping others, feeding the hungry, working for justice, providing comfort, searching out knowledge, etc.–can be done equally well by those who are not religious. In fact, the only thing that the non-religious cannot do as well as the religious is to engage in stultifying religious activities, such as worshiping an invisible sky fairy (who looks very much like a non-existent sky fairy), praying (instead of doing something useful), and pretending to know stuff they don’t really know (aka “faith”).

      As for religionists who claim that we have no basis for our ethics, and that someone who chooses his or her ethics without reference to god (which one?) might choose a selfish, immoral, and destructive lifestyle, the reasonable response is, “yes, but we don’t live our lives based on your own psychological projections, and we are sorry that you don’t think you can be a decent person without being afraid that some gnarly sky ogre is going to get you if you don’t behave well.”

      And, congratulations all around on the book sale. Superb results!

      Reply

  19. Hooray! Congratulations to you, Prof. CC, as well as to Ms. Houle (with her Mad Skillz), & all those who signed the volume. What a stupendous coup!

    For the record, I recommend the Thai green curry crow, with a nice pinot gris. *ahem*

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  20. Great news and for a worthy cause. I’m sure that I’m not alone in saying that had I had the cash, I would gone for it.

    (Though I do have a wonderfully autographed softcopy in recognition for some silliness regarding krill ;))

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  21. I missed winning the bidding by *that* much
    (I was the second highest bidder). I see that the winning bidder actually placed two bids in the minute *after* the bidding was supposed to have closed (no doubt due to the network time lag). In contrast my last bid was placed seven seconds before the closing time. PCC can thank the two top bidders for boosting the final price by more than $2K in the last six minutes. And no, I certainly would not have crossed out Ben’s signature if I had won.

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    1. Thank you for being willing to put your money up for a worthy cause. And gratitude and admiration to the winning bidder, whoever it is.

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    2. Well, thank you very much for being willing to contribute so much for the book and to the charity. If for some reason the winner doesn’t come up with the dosh, you will of course get another chance to have the book at your bid.

      Reply

    1. A VERY good question. And this is a great place to ask.

      There must be someone in this group in the journalistic profession — or who knows someone in the profession (?)

      Such a story could likely provide even more dosh for a good cause…

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      1. I suggest that when the donation is submitted to MSF/DWB, they be notified of the details re the source of the donation. I would think that this would be something they would certainly put on their website and possibly issue a press release. Just a thought.

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  27. This is a wonderful thing you have done! Created a thing of beauty and wisdom, and saved many lives, all in one swell foop.

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  28. That is fantastic! Congrats!

    I suppose I should only speak for myself, but I would guess that many of us who are excited about this are excited not only because a decent sum is going to a great cause, but because it shows that there are others out there who deeply value science and art. In my experience, this can sometimes be easy to forget.

    Reply

  29. Fantastic result! I wish I’d had the money to bid, but have signed up for a monthly payment to DWB instead. Two coffees less per month here in Zurich, that’s all it is.

    Reply

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