'Masterpiece' Book Offer Coming MONDAY!

...So, to recap: a major art museum in the American Midwest discovered a rich cache of new copies of old books, lovingly packed in oaken casks in pristine excelsior, way down in the labyrinthine underground catacombs beneath the museum building where hardly anyone ever goes—you know, with all the skulls and cobwebs*. It has (exclusively!) offered the books to TOP to offer (exclusively!) to YOU.

There are a limited number of copies available.

There are, I think, seven titles in all. To start with we'll be offering one title only. But it's a showstopper, a masterpiece—a fabulous and wonderful, deeply engaging, educational and highly tasty book that, I can all but guarantee, no lover of photography will be sorry to own or want to be without. And more to the point it's going to be incredibly unbelievably unprecedentedly cheap. In the talks leading up to this, I suggested a very low price. So the museum had a meeting, discussed the matter, mulled it over at great length, and...decided on an even lower price.

I need to emphasize this: There are a limited number of copies available.

(All the details will be revealed on Monday.)

Runaway giveaway
Really, this amounts to a giveaway.

It almost is. Basically, the book was already a good success, and they don't need to make money or recoup investment from the few remaining copies. Rather, they want the last copies of the book to go to the right people...people who will appreciate and enjoy them.

That's you again; you're getting that?

I'm getting very excited about this. The more time I spend with this book, the more I've been loving it. It took the author six years to write. All I can say is that he must have a lot of energy and be a very hard worker, to get all this done in a mere six years.

There is a decent supply, so it isn't the sort of think you can blink and miss. The thing is, though, we just never know how these things are going to go.

So you want to be alert here. Come back on Monday. (I'll try to give you the exact time in advance. We're still working out the last details.) You might decide not to get this, but, take my word, you want to give yourself the chance to decide.

Mike

*Do I exaggerate? Possibly, but I like to believe that all museums have catacombs full of treasure beneath them.

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Comments

[Tom Frost]

Six years to write. Can you offer a hint a day until Monday?

[It is a large and weighty tome, essentially four books in one. --Mike]

[Tim Bradshaw]

Can you ship outside the US? Should be more practical for a book than a LF camera!

[Chris Kern]

" . . . it's a showstopper, a masterpiece—a fabulous and wonderful, deeply engaging, educational and highly tasty book that, I can all but guarantee, no lover of photography will be sorry to own or want to be without. And more to the point it's going to be incredibly unbelievably unprecedentedly cheap. . . ."

Hmmm. You haven't been listening to Donald Trump speeches again, have you, Mike?

[Chuck Albertson]

I didn't know they still make excelsior.

[Kev Ford]

Can I just check what forms of payment are acceptable and if it is shipping internationally?

[Michael Roche]

"Runaway giveaway
Really, this amounts to a giveaway.

It almost is. Basically, the book was already a good success, and they don't need to make money or recoup investment from the few remaining copies. Rather, they want the last copies of the book to go to the right people...people who will appreciate and enjoy them.

That's you again; you're getting that?"

Mike I'll be very interested to see what figure you consider will match this hype,after all one person's idea of cheap can be another's idea of expensive,it will be interesting to find out what TOP'S version is.

[John Krill]

What time Monday. We on the West Coast tend to get to your site AFTER all the excitement. So if this is really a good offer all of us should have the same chance.

[I'll try to let you know in advance. I'm pretty certain they can't all be sold in a single day, though. --Mike]

[Hugh Smith]

So we can assume this is EXCLUSIVE?

Mi dos pesos

[Matthew]

Just shut up and take my money, already!

[Michael M]

Excited! Will you ship to the UK?

[I think so, but we're still working that out. --Mike]

[Kirk in PDX]

Alas, with Monday being a holiday in the U.S.A., I am not likely to be anywhere near a computer. Hopefully not all the copies are snapped up in a single day.

[Chester Williams]

Ok...let us summarize.

1: gorgeous photobook remainders from the '80s, '90s, and early 2000s

2: discovered in the storage rooms of a major Midwestern art museum

3: all of them are good, and five of them are great, and two or three of them are superb

4: there should be enough for everyone who wants one, at least if you claim yours in the first few days

Ok...I give up..just can't figure it out.

Help?

[Ailsa]

Can they be shipped internationally?

[Dave in NM]

Mikkel Aaland, The Sword of Heaven?

[Manfred Winter]

No hints as of yet? I just hope you will ship internationally! I already made up my mind will most likely buy all 7 ...

[Richard]

Sense of the cost here? $50? $500?

[Hendrik]

"It took the author six years to write."
So, it is not a book of photography then?

[Hendrik]

Hm.. but then maybe you are using the term "write" rather loosely ... maybe there is a clue in him (undoubtedly no female here) being "a very hard worker" ...

Any prizes for guessing? Like the 1st copy ;-)

[Hendrik]

I actually have two books in mind. Both took 6 years to put together because they involved a lot of travel. The one by the European I already own, also it was to the best of my googling never exhibited in a museum -- major or not -- in the Midwest.

That leaves the American (not US though).

[Hendrik]

The American's book is a hefty tome and was rather expensive at the time. It was exhibited in both Iowa and Wisconsin (I wouldn't know if either museum qualifies as "major", I had to look up "Midwest" even.)

It has many, many images culled from so many more images made in a vast number of countries. So it was hard work indeed and it is about hard work. The author is well known, and as it were often critized, for making "highly tasty", as Mike puts it, images of rather dismal motives. The dismal motives spring from his social interest -- he actually started out as an economist -- which should cover Mike's "deeply engaging". It is "educational" because of the terrain covered, but also because there is a lot of text involved. Which, to come full circle, might explain the use of "write". It is in its way a tract or an essay rather than a collection of images.

I've never seen it in the flesh. Although I have seen his similarly encyclopedic last oeuvre which derived its theme from the bible, no less.

So, now you know who I think he is and which book this is about, no?

[dan]

Just for fun, my guess is Salgado's Genesis.

[Chester Williams]

Hendrik...are you identifying the photographer as Sebastião Salgado...He is the only Economist turn photographer I am aware of.

[Bri]

I like to wait until xmas day to open my presents. It's part of the excitement. You know, the surprise element. Sometimes it's crap, sometimes it's good. But hey, tis all part of the fun. You hearing me Mr. Hendrik :)

[Hendrik]

Yep, Salgado is my guess. Genesis is his most recent work. The one from the early 90s, that I reckon (!) Mike might be on about, is "Workers". The exhibition was prepared by the Philadelphia Museum of Art,and it went on to show in among other places, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin.

The LA Times wrote in 1993: "But there is real meaning to this book. Salgado is an economist as well as a photographer, and "Workers" is a book that exhibits both of those skills well. A reader who chooses to read through the text in the separate booklet can learn a great deal about the struggles and successes of the world's laborers." So there you have "deeply engaging, educational".

And now we'll just have to wait til Monday ...

N.B. The other book I found to have been 6 years in the making is "Roma Journeys" by Joakim Eskildsen,which is a most wonderful book (and engaging, too).

[Chester Williams]

Mike...have you thought of limiting the sale to one copy per person for the first couple of days or so. This will help those of us who sleep until late in the morning to at least get a copy...

[Hendrik]

... ok, so "write" wasn't used loosely ... ;-)