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Thread: Best book dedication you ever read?

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    Best book dedication you ever read?

    I was wondering if you guys are ever eager to look at a book's dedication, like I am - and, if so, what was the best one you ever read. I think there is something loving and intimate in the act of dedicating a book to someone.

    I remember the dedication of a book by Manuel Talens, "Hijas de Eva" ("Daughters of Eve"), which said something like this:

    "They say that dedicating a book is one of the most exquisite acts of love one can perform. I would argue that it is even more beautiful to dedicate this one to you without saying your name" (I don't have it before me, so I'm quoting from memory here).

    There are others I loved, but I'll try to get the books and transcribe them (as well as this one) literally.
    Last edited by Pecksie; 10-09-2008 at 07:19 PM.

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    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    I read a book dedicated to Robin Hood with a preface thanking Robin Hood, a colleague, for the help preparing the book.

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    Registered User Etienne's Avatar
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    It's most probably the dedication of Tristam Shandy, Gentleman by Sterne and Rabelais' dedications of his books.
    Et l'unique cordeau des trompettes marines

    Apollinaire, Le chantre

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    Tu le connais, lecteur... Kafka's Crow's Avatar
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    Eliot's dedication of The Wasteland added at the time of 1925 reprint which simply but beautifully reads like this:

    "For Ezra Pound: il miglior fabbro"






    '
    "The farther he goes the more good it does me. I don’t want philosophies, tracts, dogmas, creeds, ways out, truths, answers, nothing from the bargain basement. He is the most courageous, remorseless writer going and the more he grinds my nose in the sh1t the more I am grateful to him..."
    -- Harold Pinter on Samuel Beckett

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    Mad Hatter Mark F.'s Avatar
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    Most of Bulowski's dedications, notably :

    Pulp : "Dedicated to bad writing"

    Post Office : "This is presented as a work of fiction and dedicated to nobody"
    "And the worms, they will climb
    The rugged ladder of your spine"

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kafka's Crow View Post
    Eliot's dedication of The Wasteland added at the time of 1925 reprint which simply but beautifully reads like this:

    "For Ezra Pound: il miglior fabbro"






    '
    I loved that one.

  7. #7
    Neil Gaiman 'Anansi Boys'. It put a smile on my lips and I haven't even read the book!

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    Quote Originally Posted by BreakawayChloe View Post
    Neil Gaiman 'Anansi Boys'. It put a smile on my lips and I haven't even read the book!
    What does it say?

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    Lewis for pure heart melting!

    The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis!

    To Lucy Barfield
    My Dear Lucy,

    I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books. As a result you are already too old for fairy tales, and by the time it is printed and bound you will be older still. But some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. You can then take it down from some upper shelf, dust it, and tell me what you think of it. I shall probably be too deaf to hear, and too old to understand, a word you say, but I shall still be

    your affectionate Godfather,
    C.S. Lewis
    Last edited by bookwormsuz; 10-18-2008 at 11:24 AM.

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    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pecksie View Post
    I loved that one.
    I wonder if Pound edited it in.

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    Of all the books I read I liked Les Misrebales dedication by Victor Hugo. I don't remember the exact words but I do remember that it is the best dedication I have ever read.

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    Soulless Student Serenity5815's Avatar
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    Harry Potter because Jo dedicated to me. Not me personally, but it was dedicated to her fans, and even though mine was one of millions of copies, I still felt like it was just for me.

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    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Serenity5815 View Post
    Harry Potter because Jo dedicated to me. Not me personally, but it was dedicated to her fans, and even though mine was one of millions of copies, I still felt like it was just for me.
    To my fans, and their parents' wallets. Unless you are old enough to buy your own book, then just to your wallet.

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    Soulless Student Serenity5815's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JBI View Post
    To my fans, and their parents' wallets. Unless you are old enough to buy your own book, then just to your wallet.
    "And to you if you have stuck with Harry until the very end."

    I was there with him the entire time. What an awful woman going from desolate poverty to millionaire. How dare she.

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    Asa Nisi Masa mayneverhave's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Serenity5815 View Post
    "And to you if you have stuck with Harry until the very end."

    I was there with him the entire time. What an awful woman going from desolate poverty to millionaire. How dare she.
    There is nothing wrong with earning money - but do not attempt to justify her literature as art by saying she made a lot of money off of it.

    J.K. Rowling is a brilliant business woman, but inept as an artist.
    Last edited by mayneverhave; 10-19-2008 at 10:40 PM.

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