Live, From New York, It's a Vegetarian Cookbook

Linda McCartney's Home Cooking, Signed to Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. $275.00. To purchase this book, click here. 

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Paul McCartney, "Saturday Night Live"

There are three categories of signed books: those that are "flatsigned" without personalization; those with "best wishes" inscriptions to anonymous recipients; and the most desirable, "presentation" copies that are warmly inscribed by the author to a friend or someone connected to the book. As to this last category—the presentation copies—the question then becomes what was the circumstance behind the inscription. Sometimes this can be gleaned from the inscription itself. Often, however, further information is required.

Consider the case of the Linda McCartney's Home Cooking, signed to Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin. Not only does this copy have a warm personal inscription, it contains an authorial drawing as well. It is a pictograph of a fish crossed out by an "x," obviously a suggestion from McCartney that the recipients might consider switching from a pesco-vegetarian diet to an entirely vegetarian one. 

"Linda McCartney's Home Cooking"

"Linda McCartney's Home Cooking" Warmly Inscribed to Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin

Though the inscription dates back to the nineties, the circumstances behind it only recently came into focus. In his just-released memoir, Nevertheless, Alec Baldwin describes the moment he first met Linda McCartney and their instant connection—​the humane treatment of animals:

In 1993, I hosted [Saturday Night Live] when Paul McCartney was performing, and I met the warm and down to earth Linda McCartney backstage. We briefly talked about her animal rights work, since I had been introduced to the issue while living with Kim.

"No Fish!"

Linda McCartney Signature

Kim Basinger, 2002 Award from the Farm Sanctuary