Henry Bernstein has seen Bob Dylan 27 times in concert and owns three items autographed by him: a copy of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan album, a photograph of the singer and a John Wesley Harding songbook. His favourite song is Tangled Up in Blue.
So when Simon & Schuster, Dylan’s publisher, advertised limited-edition, hand-signed copies of the musician’s new collection of essays for $600 each, Bernstein was among 900 fans who went for one. Last week he received his copy of The Philosophy of Modern Song, Dylan’s first collection of writings since he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, with a letter of authenticity signed by Jonathan Karp, the publisher’s chief executive.
There was only one problem.
Karp’s signature “looked more legit than Bob’s,” Bernstein says.
Bernstein was one of hundreds of fans who sleuthed their way around social media, reaching the conclusion that the supposedly hand-signed books had not, in fact, been signed by Dylan.
“I got the nostalgia bug,” says Bernstein, who already owned an unsigned copy of the book, as well as a Kindle version and an audio version. He adds, “If he touches this book – he wrote it, signed it – it feels like the soul of Bob Dylan is with me.”
Instead many fans suggested that the “autographed” copies of the book had been signed by a machine.
Justin Steffman, a professional authenticator who runs a Facebook group for collectors, says the autograph was most likely created by an autopen. The machine, which re-creates signatures, is used by universities, celebrities and, most notably, the White House.
Handwritten penmanship normally has a flow, Steffman says. But “with a pen machine it goes from point to point”, he says, adding that the beginning and the end points of each stroke apply more pressure to the page. Dylan’s autograph in the new books also appears to have a “slight shakiness throughout the signature”.
“It does not look like something a person signed; it looks like a copy,” Steffman says.
As orders began arriving last week, Dylan fans began comparing notes online, and it quickly became clear that something was amiss, Steffman says. Steffman collected images of at least 17 signatures that all looked as if they had been created by a machine. Items autographed by Dylan typically sell for $1,500 or $2,000 – or about €1,400 to €1,900 – he adds.
“They started popping up, everyone received them the same day and it was instant – we all realised it was an autopen,” Steffman says. “More and more people shared their copies, and we all put it together.”
Steffman says Simon & Schuster’s customer service had originally refused to issue refunds and had even denounced “online rumours” about the possibility that the signature was a fake. Twitter and Reddit users also chimed in; a chat board organised by a fan encouraged others who had purchased the book to write directly to Karp, the Simon & Schuster chief executive. Fans flooded his inbox, including Bernstein, who, like others, received a personal response from Karp promising a speedy refund.
By Sunday, Simon & Schuster had issued a public statement that offered few details but acknowledged that Dylan’s signature had been rendered “in a penned replica form”. The publisher said it would give buyers “an immediate refund”.
In response to a request for more detail, a spokesperson for Simon & Schuster declines to elaborate.
“We acted quickly to address the situation, took the book off sale and initiated the process of issuing an immediate and automatic refund to all customers who bought the book,” spokesperson Adam Rothberg says in an email.
Dylan’s music label, Columbia Records, has not responded to a request for comment.
Dylan is far from the first celebrity to be accused of using automated signatures. Fans have taken issue with signatures from Dolly Parton, Brian Wilson, Kenny Loggins and Ozzy Osbourne. Donald Rumsfeld, the former US defence secretary, was criticised for using a mechanised signature on condolence letters to the families of American service members who had been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While questions remain about the decision to use an automated autograph in the Dylan book, fans are confident that Dylan had nothing to do with it.
“I was surprised by the sheer number they were saying they had – 1,000 copies in and of itself seems like a red flag to me,” says Laura Tenschert, who hosts a podcast called Definitely Dylan. “I would assume he has better things to do with his time.”
Tenschert describes the situation as messy but says, “I, personally, would assume Bob Dylan was not involved in this.” She points to his history of keeping ticket sales “affordable and accessible” to fans, which, she says, “suggests it’s more important for him to reach his fans”.
There is also the million-dollar elephant in the room: Dylan, who is now 81, sold his entire recorded-music catalogue to Sony Music for an estimated $200 million this year, and he sold his songwriting rights to Universal Music in 2020 for well over $300 million.
“To me, it would be very uncharacteristic to the point he was involved in scamming his fans,” Tenschert says. “I don’t think he needs it.” – This article originally appeared in The New York Times
