Bob Dylan apologises for machine-printed ‘autographs’ in ‘hand-signed’ book copies

Dubbed one of the most acknowledged songwriters of all time in popular culture, American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, issuing a rare statement on Monday, apologized for using an autopen device to ‘hand-sign’ the special copies of his new book. Music buffs paid a whopping US$599 to get their hands on one of 900 copies of the legend’s new book Modern Song Philosophy The musician signed the book personally. Publisher of the book Simon & Schuster issued a statement earlier confirming Bob Dylan had not hand-signed some copies of the book himself and that the signatures were imprinted via a machine. Dylan’s book The Philosophy Of Modern Song limited-edition copies and purportedly autographed Selling at $600 per piece 

“To all who bought the Modern Song Philosophy limited edition, we want to apologize,” said a tweet from Simon & Schuster. “As it turns, limited-edition copies of the books do contain Bob’s original signature, but they are in a penned duplicate form. We will immediately refund each buyer for this information.

Outrage at identical reproductions of Bob Dylan’s signature

Fans expressed outrage and poured indignation on social media realizing that the books, in fact, contained identical reproductions of Bob Dylan’s signature. Addressing the angst over the mistreatment, Dylan wrote an apology note on Facebook saying that he resorted to using an autopen for the limited-edition copies because the “bad case of vertigo” prevented him from being able to sign the books himself. 

“I’ve signed every art print by hand over the years and there’s never been any problem,” he said.Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’ On his official Facebook page, the singer wrote. 

Dylan noted that he had to use the autopen to sign the copies as in 2019 he suffered from a “bad case of vertigo” and it continued into the pandemic years of the novel coronavirus. To enable these signing sessions, it takes five people to work in close quarters with you. We couldn’t find a safe or practical way to accomplish what I needed while the virus was raging,” said the American music icon. Furthermore, he elaborated that he felt the pressure of contractual deadlines and “the idea of using an auto-pen was suggested to me, along with the assurance that this kind of thing is done ‘all the time’ in the art and literary worlds.”

Dylan apologized to his fans admitting that the use of a machine for signing the copies was “an error in judgment,” adding that he intends to “rectify it immediately.” Dylan informed in the statement that he had already contacted his publisher Simon & Schuster and his gallery partners “to make things right” and expressed his “deepest regrets.”