Odd Question about Signatures

Hi,

I have a copy of both The Gathering Storm and Towers of Midnight that are "signed" by Robert Jordan. The only problem is he died while working on the books and before they were published. Has anyone else run into this?

I'm assuming they are forged signatures, but wanted to ask here. I would pull them out and post pictures, but they are packed in one of my 75 boxes of books and I'm not sure exactly which box they are in. From what I remember they aren't signed like some versions are now where it is just a printed signature. These actually look signed. I got them as cheap, like new copies for my 1st/1st collection, but always wondered about the signatures.

Thanks.

>1 Luke.w: Not necessarily forged. Signed does not always mean “physically signed by the author” these days.

There are machines that can sign for you (not to mention that these days you don’t even need that - you can literally photograph it in) - and a lot of “signed” editions have a note tucked in telling you it is a photocopy of a signature (of words to that effect) - usually on the copyright page but may be elsewhere. The author or his estate approved the usage usually (and usually got something in return).

If it looked printed, that’s what it is…

Or the publisher had him sign the preliminaries while he was still alive, intending to bind them in later.

Or they had sheets from another book they reused with the approval of the estate (or because the initial contract allowed it).

If anything, either of those is a lot more probable than a forgery IMO.

>1 Luke.w: There's copies available on AbeBooks which state that Robert Jordan's signature was printed in by the publisher.

Thanks all for your replies. Wasn't aware there even was such a thing as autopen.

>5 AHS-Wolfy: I looked at some of the signature photos there and that's how I remember it. I'll have to verify when I find my copies, probably this summer when I have time to reorganize.