JIM CRACE (b.1946)
Useless America. New York: Doubleday, 2006.
First and only edition, limited to 75 copies, of a mystifying ‘phantom book’, signed and annotated by the author with 500 words of explanation. When Useless America was offered for sale on Amazon in September 2006, it came as a total surprise to its supposed author. At the time, Crace was at work on a novel with the working title ‘This Used to be America’ (ultimately issued as The Pesthouse by Picador in 2007), but due to an apparent administrative error, the working title was mis-transcribed so that ‘Used to’ became ‘Useless’ and the error made its way into Amazon’s listings and took on a life of its own. In an article in The Guardian on 28th October 2006, Crace writes that ‘the Amazon computer sucked the information in, fleshed it out, nurtured it, gave it provenance.’ This limited edition, with a Preface re-printing Crace’s article in The Guardian, a fictitious blurb on the rear cover, printed endmatter and 253 numbered pages, was therefore issued otherwise entirely blank. Crace’s annotations confirm the limitation to be just 75 copies, ‘mostly to be distributed amongst book trade cronies’, of which the present copy is one of six sent to the author himself. Another copy is amongst Crace’s papers at the Harry Ransom Center, Texas, one was sent by the author to a ‘completist’ collector, and Crace has been aware of ‘three or four copies – usually unsigned – being offered for sale in catalogues and the internet for foolish amounts of money’. He estimates that fewer than 10 copies remain extant.

Octavo. (Tiny stains at lower edge.) Original printed wrappers; print-outs of relevant pages from The Guardian, Amazon, and Waterstones loosely inserted.

Buyer’s premium is payable, with a significant portion donated by Christie’s to English PEN, but note that no VAT is payable on hammer price or buyer’s premium.
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