So unusual to encounter a double author’s inscription.  I doubt it’s a mistake, in that the author had to go to a section page for the second inscription.  Is it like a renewal of marriage vows?  Was there a second book signing exclusive to folks with previously signed copies who still liked the book?  (Might be similar to getting one’s horoscope “progressed” — what will the author say this time?)  Or is doing a second inscription a “thing” that I somehow missed along the way?  If a friend owns a poet’s chapbook, and the poet pays a visit, does the chapbook serve as the home’s guestbook, with the poet “signing in” each time (presumably until the pages of that particular chapbook run out)?  I’m unduly perplexed, especially since the first inscription is undated.  If I had a range to work with, perhaps the cloud of unknowing would begin to dissipate.  Could both of these inscriptions have occurred somehow at the same book signing?  Maybe Reynold Boden was so excited after the first signing that he got back in line, and Erickson indulged him with a second inscription.  Maybe they’re not true, unfailing friends after all; maybe Erickson says that to everybody.  (In all fairness, a buyer of one’s book can seem like a hero and savior.)

By the way, the first piece in this book has 14 lines, 7 of which are a quotation of Keats.  Seems like a pretty good insurance policy, to play it safe with half of one’s content already hailed as genius.  You might still fail with a 50%, but it won’t be a zero.