From the economic perspective of the international rare book market, the collectible first
editions of Jacques Derrida have steadily risen in price over the years. Even though I
have monitored these prices for quite a long time, I was startled today to note a copy of
the true first of Derrida's "La Carte postale: de Socrate á Freud et au-delá" with an
autographed inscription to Paul de Man being offered at $12500.00 by a leading dealer
who has remained in business for more than 20 years. The lowest price for any signed
Derrida is $300. I'm certainly glad I invested the money to buy 5 first French editions
from the library of post-Cunningham/Cage choreographer/dancer Robert Dunn and to
drive over to Johns Hopkins University to hear Jacques Derrida lecture. Nor am I
complaining economically about my comparable activity with Tzvetan Todorov. I'd
recommend investing in the true first editions of all the "post-structuralists".
Have you evaluated the "economic popularity" of your two books recently?
Barry Alpert
On Wed, 8 Apr 2009 11:43:23 -0400 Frederick Pollack wrote:
I know that all my talk of "reflection" and "adequation," my insistence on a
style/content distinction, makes any good poststructuralist's teeth hurt.
But it will be interesting to see how popular Derrida et al. will remain
under conditions of economic hardship.
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