Chas Hodges 'Chas & Dave All About Us' Great autobiography, some brilliant recolections in there about the music scene in the 60's. Very funny and raunchy. Well worth a read
I'm a big Bukowski fan, too, got tons of his stuff (novels, short stories, poetry), a lot of it published by Black Sparrow. If you see those editions, they're well worth picking up because they look ace. I saw a hardback of his Sometimes I Walk Through The Fire (Black Sparrow edition) in Waterstones about 10 years ago. Already, I thought it was odd for Waterstones to have that book by that publisher, but when I went to pay for it, I found it had a limited-to-50 litho print of a little cartoon by Buk inside. Worth a LOT more then the tenner I paid.
Of his novels, Ham On Rye is my favourite.
Also, as an aside, Bukowski was a huge champion of the-then forgotten writer John Fante, and was instrumental in getting him republished. Now, John Fante is ACE. His short story collection The Wine Of Youth is fabulous, especially the story story A Wife For Dino Rossi.
Great to see there are a few Bukowski fans on CL, Hawksmoor - and Redskin and I exchanged messages about John Fante just the other day. I've got 'The Road to Los Angeles', 'Dreams from Bunker Hill', and an edition of 'Ask the Dust' in which Bukowski wrote a brief and very moving tribute to his hero.
A friend turned me on to Buk in the early 1980s, when you had to go to Compendium Books in Camden Town for the American imports. Yes, the Black Sparrow editions are lovely objects, with richly coloured and textured endpapers, and covers designed by Barbara Martin, the wife of the publisher. You've got a real scoop there, a limited edition with a litho print. Well done!
You may know that John Martin 'discovered' Buk in the late 60s. Buk was approaching 50 years of age and working as a postman in LA; he had had poems published by small presses but was largely unknown. Martin sold his personal collection of first editions to fund Black Sparrow and persuaded Buk to quit his day-job and write full-time, for which Martin promised to pay him 25 dollars a week for life. They went on to build a very successful and lucrative partnership.
Of the novels, my favourite is 'Women', a relentless catalogue of Buk's turbulent sexual relationships in a drink- and drug-fuelled LA of the 70s. Like most of Buk's work, it is both funny and sad - and not for the feminists or the faint-hearted.
About 20 years ago I was amazed to find 'Crucifix in a Deathhand' in a secondhand bookshop in Greenwich. It's a collection of Buk's early poems published in 1965 by Jon Webb in an edition of 3,100, and is a most beautiful book, printed by hand-fed letterpress using a variety of paper stocks, colours and sizes, and with lithographic illustrations by Noel Rockmore. My copy is signed and dated by Buk, with a crayon drawing of himself with the bottle, and the inscription: I WAS IN JAIL LAST MONDAY NIGHT, AND YET I AM STILL ABLE TO SEND U THESE POEMS.
I bought this in the days before the internet; the bookseller didn't know its true worth, now upwards of 600 quid. So, thirty sovs was an absolute steal, but its value to me lies in its beauty as a book of very fine printing. And the other day in the uncollected columns of 'Notes of a Dirty Old Man', I read Buk's picaresque account of travelling overnight by train to Jon Webb's press in New Orleans, lodging with an old lady and getting drunk, and signing those books, one of which is now on my shelves.
Whoah, that Crucifix In A Deathhand kills my contribution! What a find. I'm familiar with the title as I know it's a most sought-after volume. I remember those facts about Bukowski. John Martin really went out on a limb to help him as a writer and Bukowski was eternally grateful to him. Funnily enough, Women was the first Bukowski book I read. I also like Post Office and Factotum. But, as I said, Ham On Rye is my favourite of his 'novels'.
I just checked Fante's bibliography and it seems I have all his books in one edition or another (mostly Black Sparrow), except Dago Red. I have a feeling that was never republished in English.
I remember Compendium well. Used to buy a LOT of Beat stuff out of there. I'm a huge Kerouac fan, too. Used to drop a LOT of money on 1st editions (including a UK first of On The Road with the dust jacket designed by Len Deighton).
Whoah, that Crucifix In A Deathhand kills my contribution! What a find. I'm familiar with the title as I know it's a most sought-after volume. I remember those facts about Bukowski. John Martin really went out on a limb to help him as a writer and Bukowski was eternally grateful to him. Funnily enough, Women was the first Bukowski book I read. I also like Post Office and Factotum. But, as I said, Ham On Rye is my favourite of his 'novels'.
I just checked Fante's bibliography and it seems I have all his books in one edition or another (mostly Black Sparrow), except Dago Red. I have a feeling that was never republished in English.
I remember Compendium well. Used to buy a LOT of Beat stuff out of there. I'm a huge Kerouac fan, too. Used to drop a LOT of money on 1st editions (including a UK first of On The Road with the dust jacket designed by Len Deighton).
You've got a gem there: the Kerouac first edition with Deighton cover. I thought I had more by Fante, but can't find them at the moment; I'll hunt for your recommendation, 'The Wine of Youth'.
Yes, the close working relationship between Bukowski and John Martin is quite touching, lasted a very long time. But it wasn't always plain sailing: Martin sent Buk the proofs of one of the early novels, 'Factotum' I think, which he didn't bother to check. When the book was published Buk hit the roof because Martin had inserted adverbs all over the shop: instead of "He said", it was "He said, mournfully", etc. You can imagine him hating that. He insisted that Martin rush out a second edition with all the extraneous words excised.
Have you seen the films? I thought 'Factotum' with Matt Dillon was very weak: it was sanitised, bloodless. But about 15 years ago the National Film Theatre had a Bukowski night that included interviews with the man conducted by Barbet Schroeder, the director of 'Barfly', that are very funny. Just Buk sitting at home slugging beer from the bottle and banging on about his usual themes: women, the horses, drinking, the madness of the nine-to-five job....
I actually I think I have seen all the Buk film adaptations. Wasn't impressed with Rourke or Matt Dillon, to be honest. I thought Ben Gazzara nudges it. The Belgian film Crazy Love is, I think, the best. It's an episodic adaptation of a selection of his short stories, although The Mermaid Of Venice Beach was always going to be a troubling one to translate to film!
Have you seen Schroeder's The Bukowski Tapes? That selection of 10-minute or so interviews with him? It's about three hours worth in all. And there's that hilarious footage on youtube when he gets thrown off that French culture show, which he mentions in Shakespeare Never Did This. Getting free dinners all over France on the back of it.
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
For the last 4 weeks I have been reading IT by Stephen King, nearly 1400 pages. Not bad, had to finish it, but felt it could have done with a strong editor. Could have been cut by 300-500 pages.
One of my fave SK books, aitchyaddick.
For any SK fans out there, wondering whether you have read his collaboration with Peter Straub : The Talisman . Found this gem around 20 years ago and keep going back to it.
Fantastic epic read. The flyleaf stated that Stephen Speilberg had acquired the rights to film it but obviously never made it to the big screen.
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
I've got the Bukowski Tapes on a couple of very unofficial DVDs, and yes, that scene with Linda is extremely uncomfortable. That said, he's a great raconteur. The part where Bukowski's being driven round in the car and pointing out all his old bar haunts, and the other scene where he goes into the bathroom of his old house, where his dad used to beat him if Buk left one but blade of long grass after he'd mowed the lawn.
Finished Darkness at Noon, pretty interesting. It had me looking up some Soviet history, did feel very dystopian and 1984 like in places.
I was then bored on a train last week so went back to Heart of Darkness, decent but still a slog. Now on Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, a bit more my usual thing. It's a look at some (I think) senseless murders in Kansas 60 or so years ago.
I was going to download more Steinbeck but most of his novels are £7+ on Kindle, I can't really justify that. Yeah I'd spend that on a new book but I'd prefer a copy for my shelf for that much, I can't lend it to anyone, etc. Instead I have Cannery Row in the post, or at least I think that's the one I ordered.
Well done! I will make time to skim/ re-read some older books and read some newer ones that come up on here... OK Heart of Darkness probably best read after a trip outside of the first world to get perspective on things...
The Alchemist and other books by Paulo Coelho well worth a look at but it all depends on where you are going with all this...
I'm not sure exactly... Originally it was 'classics' but by doing that I've got a better idea of what I enjoy reading. I guess like my films, things I can appreciate as much as enjoy and leave me thinking afterwards. For too long I was only reading a couple of books a year and they were usually non-fiction.
Slaughter-House Five was very different than I expected, and I thought lived up to the hype. It's certainly unique. Cannery Row was a quick, easy yet fulfilling read, I love Steinbeck's more haunting passages like the abstract chapter ("Our father who art in nature") near the beginning and Doc's mournful poem near the end.
On the advice of a friend I downloaded Crime and Punishment. Hard going but I'm now a third through and it is interesting. I also have Steinbeck's The Pearl on my phone and I may read another short one before East of Eden... That I have very high hopes for.
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
I've got the Bukowski Tapes on a couple of very unofficial DVDs, and yes, that scene with Linda is extremely uncomfortable. That said, he's a great raconteur. The part where Bukowski's being driven round in the car and pointing out all his old bar haunts, and the other scene where he goes into the bathroom of his old house, where his dad used to beat him if Buk left one but blade of long grass after he'd mowed the lawn.
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
I've got the Bukowski Tapes on a couple of very unofficial DVDs, and yes, that scene with Linda is extremely uncomfortable. That said, he's a great raconteur. The part where Bukowski's being driven round in the car and pointing out all his old bar haunts, and the other scene where he goes into the bathroom of his old house, where his dad used to beat him if Buk left one but blade of long grass after he'd mowed the lawn.
Yes, Bukowski was a great showman. And his endless hatred of Robert Creeley, and his grudging respect for Henry Miller: "When he was good he was very good and vice-versa", which has that lovely inverse logic that only Buk could do. "Sure, baby," he says to Barbet Schroeder, who asks him about his job as a mailman on the Bukowski Tapes: "Sure, baby. People who do a nine-to-five job... [Buk slugs from a bottle of Schlitz] ... they sicken me in the gut and the soul".
Currently coming to the end of Stalingrad by Antony Beever was a real nasty fight that Beever really narrates well, especially towards the end where the Germans have been trapped by the Russians.
Amazing how the Germans / Russians were dying from the cold and starvation (i.e. a lot of people died as they hadn't had anything to eat, they'd be given the smallest bit of food and would die straight away)
How the Germans would shoot themselves in the hand to try and get airlifted out as "wounded" which didn't work at all and has the reverse effect as they were unable to fight and defend themselves when the Russians attacked and that they always believed Hitler wouldnt abandon them (which of course he did)
Interesting to read as well that Albert Speer's brother Ernst was a private in Stalingrad (who ultimately disappeared / never seen again) but all high ranking Nazi's were forbidden to use their influence to help family members who were serving.
Was terrible what the Nazi's did etc... but definitely an interesting read on the war that didnt involve the Western Allies something I've been trying to learn and understand for a while now
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
I've got the Bukowski Tapes on a couple of very unofficial DVDs, and yes, that scene with Linda is extremely uncomfortable. That said, he's a great raconteur. The part where Bukowski's being driven round in the car and pointing out all his old bar haunts, and the other scene where he goes into the bathroom of his old house, where his dad used to beat him if Buk left one but blade of long grass after he'd mowed the lawn.
A couple of deliberately provocative and dryly amusing statements from Charles Bukowski, written c. 1970 and published in 'More Notes of a Dirty Old Man' (City Lights, San Francisco, 2011):
"One of the most depressing places to be upon the earth is to be sitting in some Los Angeles café at 9.30 a.m. and having the waitress hand you the menu of various egg delicacies as her ankles are thin and her buttocks resigned. She has been used and abandoned by her men and she just wants the rent and a way to go, and then you look up and in a mellifluous voice full of victory and hope and understanding, you order item Number Three, the cut-rate special."
And:
"All the women in my life have become The Recurring Woman: their complaints have been just as similar and just as realistic. So I judge them, in comparison, only upon the artistry of their head-jobs and their kitchen work, faithfulness and so forth. And when I line them up in this fashion I can't come up with a winner. Just a loser: me."
Used to love reading Campbell Armstrong books, especially Jig. Just looked him up in Google and he died this year. Will have to find the last of his books and give them a go.
Assassins & Victims (1969) The Punctual Rape (1970) Death's Head (1971) Asterisk (1976) Brainfire (1977) The Wanting (1978) Mr. Apology (1979) Letters from the Dead (1980) Dressed to Kill (Based on movie script) (1980) Raiders of the Lost Ark (Novelization) (1981) Jig (1987) Mazurka (1988) Mambo (1989) Agents of Darkness (1991) Concert of Ghosts (1992) Jigsaw (1994) Heat (1996) Blackout (1996) Silencer (1997) Deadline (2000)
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
I've got the Bukowski Tapes on a couple of very unofficial DVDs, and yes, that scene with Linda is extremely uncomfortable. That said, he's a great raconteur. The part where Bukowski's being driven round in the car and pointing out all his old bar haunts, and the other scene where he goes into the bathroom of his old house, where his dad used to beat him if Buk left one but blade of long grass after he'd mowed the lawn.
A couple of deliberately provocative and dryly amusing statements from Charles Bukowski, written c. 1970 and published in 'More Notes of a Dirty Old Man' (City Lights, San Francisco, 2011):
"One of the most depressing places to be upon the earth is to be sitting in some Los Angeles café at 9.30 a.m. and having the waitress hand you the menu of various egg delicacies as her ankles are thin and her buttocks resigned. She has been used and abandoned by her men and she just wants the rent and a way to go, and then you look up and in a mellifluous voice full of victory and hope and understanding, you order item Number Three, the cut-rate special."
And:
"All the women in my life have become The Recurring Woman: their complaints have been just as similar and just as realistic. So I judge them, in comparison, only upon the artistry of their head-jobs and their kitchen work, faithfulness and so forth. And when I line them up in this fashion I can't come up with a winner. Just a loser: me."
Great stuff. Obviously, I have Notes Of A Dirty Old Man, but I must admit, More Notes Of A Dirty Old Man passed me by. Need to get that sorted. Good to see this one, like the original, is published by City Lights.
I mean, 'The Scroll' edition of On The Road I bought the day it came out over here, but I'm embarrassed I missed this 'new' Buk.
As a side note about City Lights. I was in San Francisco many years ago and I asked the guy at the hotel reception in the most precise, even poshest, accent I could muster, 'Excuse me, could you tell me where City Lights book store is, please?' A simple question about one of the most iconic shops in SF. He had no idea what I'd just said. I might as well have been speaking Moon Man language. He apologised that he couldn't understand me, and proceeded to bring about four other fellas from out the back, one at a time, to listen to me repeat the question and all of them, without exception, looked blankly at me, looked back at him, shook their heads and said, 'Sorry, I can't understand a word.'
A book called GI Brides by Duncan Barrett and Nuala Calvi which is about British Women who married American GIs during the Second World War. I didn't think it would be my thing (it was given to me, but looked like an easy read), but it's really interesting. If social history is your thing it's worth checking out.
I agree with you about Mickey Rourke, too - both he and Dillon played Buk as some sort of Neanderthal man, which he certainly wasn't. I haven't seen the Belgian adaptation yet.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
I've got the Bukowski Tapes on a couple of very unofficial DVDs, and yes, that scene with Linda is extremely uncomfortable. That said, he's a great raconteur. The part where Bukowski's being driven round in the car and pointing out all his old bar haunts, and the other scene where he goes into the bathroom of his old house, where his dad used to beat him if Buk left one but blade of long grass after he'd mowed the lawn.
A couple of deliberately provocative and dryly amusing statements from Charles Bukowski, written c. 1970 and published in 'More Notes of a Dirty Old Man' (City Lights, San Francisco, 2011):
"One of the most depressing places to be upon the earth is to be sitting in some Los Angeles café at 9.30 a.m. and having the waitress hand you the menu of various egg delicacies as her ankles are thin and her buttocks resigned. She has been used and abandoned by her men and she just wants the rent and a way to go, and then you look up and in a mellifluous voice full of victory and hope and understanding, you order item Number Three, the cut-rate special."
And:
"All the women in my life have become The Recurring Woman: their complaints have been just as similar and just as realistic. So I judge them, in comparison, only upon the artistry of their head-jobs and their kitchen work, faithfulness and so forth. And when I line them up in this fashion I can't come up with a winner. Just a loser: me."
Great stuff. Obviously, I have Notes Of A Dirty Old Man, but I must admit, More Notes Of A Dirty Old Man passed me by. Need to get that sorted. Good to see this one, like the original, is published by City Lights.
I mean, 'The Scroll' edition of On The Road I bought the day it came out over here, but I'm embarrassed I missed this 'new' Buk.
As a side note about City Lights. I was in San Francisco many years ago and I asked the guy at the hotel reception in the most precise, even poshest, accent I could muster, 'Excuse me, could you tell me where City Lights book store is, please?' A simple question about one of the most iconic shops in SF. He had no idea what I'd just said. I might as well have been speaking Moon Man language. He apologised that he couldn't understand me, and proceeded to bring about four other fellas from out the back, one at a time, to listen to me repeat the question and all of them, without exception, looked blankly at me, looked back at him, shook their heads and said, 'Sorry, I can't understand a word.'
Yes, 'More Notes' is in print, widely available and cheap through Amazon. Same old stuff, of course - some of the famous stories in sketchy form, and funny. Do you like Raymond Carver? He and Buk crossed swords on the literary circuit - almost literally - and Carver wrote the poem about him: 'You Don't Know What Love Is', p.75 of 'Fires'; the university in Iowa City wasn't big enough for the two of them. I love Carver's short stories - another Lifer is a fan too - and also his poems: deeply moving and mostly overlooked. And John Cheever's novels, 'Bullet Park', etc.; Cheever was a contemporary of them, different in that he came from a white-collar upstate New York background, yet similarly subversive.
Great to hear you've got 'The Scroll' - and yes, the San Franciscans loving your English tones. I dined out on mine for a weekend in Rapid City, South Dakota: "I just luuurve your English accent. Say it again." "Sure, baby."
Just finished Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. A very good read and quite diverse in nature. Thanks to #LuckyReds and #Henry Irving for the recommendation.
By complete coincidence my son is reading another book called The Periodic Table, though this one by Paul Parsons and Gail Dixon features only chemistry.
Just finished reading The Amateurs by John Niven. If you're a golfer, like a bit of sex and violence (who doesn't?) this is a good lighthearted read. That's if you can understand the Scottish dialogue.
I have read a collection of Carver's short stories, Viewfinder, and even at the time I was reminded of Bukowski. I remember being impressed by the natural, truthful quality of the dialogue. A thing that's always impressed me with Bukowski: not one single line of dialogue rings false.
Now Cheever I haven't read, which I must remedy. Was there some correspondence between him and Buk in one of the Black Sparrow letters collections?
The Adventures of Augie March .. Saul Bellow .. very disappointing from the 'renowned Nobel Prize winner' ... to my mind, as someone once said of Jack Kerouac .. 'this aint writing, this is typing'
Comments
There are moves afoot to make a film version:
http://www.vulture.com/2012/05/exclusive-galifianakis-plays-ignatius-in-dunces.html
A friend turned me on to Buk in the early 1980s, when you had to go to Compendium Books in Camden Town for the American imports. Yes, the Black Sparrow editions are lovely objects, with richly coloured and textured endpapers, and covers designed by Barbara Martin, the wife of the publisher. You've got a real scoop there, a limited edition with a litho print. Well done!
You may know that John Martin 'discovered' Buk in the late 60s. Buk was approaching 50 years of age and working as a postman in LA; he had had poems published by small presses but was largely unknown. Martin sold his personal collection of first editions to fund Black Sparrow and persuaded Buk to quit his day-job and write full-time, for which Martin promised to pay him 25 dollars a week for life. They went on to build a very successful and lucrative partnership.
Of the novels, my favourite is 'Women', a relentless catalogue of Buk's turbulent sexual relationships in a drink- and drug-fuelled LA of the 70s. Like most of Buk's work, it is both funny and sad - and not for the feminists or the faint-hearted.
About 20 years ago I was amazed to find 'Crucifix in a Deathhand' in a secondhand bookshop in Greenwich. It's a collection of Buk's early poems published in 1965 by Jon Webb in an edition of 3,100, and is a most beautiful book, printed by hand-fed letterpress using a variety of paper stocks, colours and sizes, and with lithographic illustrations by Noel Rockmore. My copy is signed and dated by Buk, with a crayon drawing of himself with the bottle, and the inscription: I WAS IN JAIL LAST MONDAY NIGHT, AND YET I AM STILL ABLE TO SEND U THESE POEMS.
I bought this in the days before the internet; the bookseller didn't know its true worth, now upwards of 600 quid. So, thirty sovs was an absolute steal, but its value to me lies in its beauty as a book of very fine printing. And the other day in the uncollected columns of 'Notes of a Dirty Old Man', I read Buk's picaresque account of travelling overnight by train to Jon Webb's press in New Orleans, lodging with an old lady and getting drunk, and signing those books, one of which is now on my shelves.
I just checked Fante's bibliography and it seems I have all his books in one edition or another (mostly Black Sparrow), except Dago Red. I have a feeling that was never republished in English.
I remember Compendium well. Used to buy a LOT of Beat stuff out of there. I'm a huge Kerouac fan, too. Used to drop a LOT of money on 1st editions (including a UK first of On The Road with the dust jacket designed by Len Deighton).
Yes, the close working relationship between Bukowski and John Martin is quite touching, lasted a very long time. But it wasn't always plain sailing: Martin sent Buk the proofs of one of the early novels, 'Factotum' I think, which he didn't bother to check. When the book was published Buk hit the roof because Martin had inserted adverbs all over the shop: instead of "He said", it was "He said, mournfully", etc. You can imagine him hating that. He insisted that Martin rush out a second edition with all the extraneous words excised.
Have you seen the films? I thought 'Factotum' with Matt Dillon was very weak: it was sanitised, bloodless. But about 15 years ago the National Film Theatre had a Bukowski night that included interviews with the man conducted by Barbet Schroeder, the director of 'Barfly', that are very funny. Just Buk sitting at home slugging beer from the bottle and banging on about his usual themes: women, the horses, drinking, the madness of the nine-to-five job....
Have you seen Schroeder's The Bukowski Tapes? That selection of 10-minute or so interviews with him? It's about three hours worth in all. And there's that hilarious footage on youtube when he gets thrown off that French culture show, which he mentions in Shakespeare Never Did This. Getting free dinners all over France on the back of it.
Yes, that's it - The Bukowski Tapes! They were originally shown nightly on French TV in very short segments; I saw the whole lot in one go at the NFT. There's a particularly memorable sequence where he and Linda are sitting at home on the couch drinking and he starts berating her for going out at nights without him. She protests that she has people in her life other than him, and he retorts: "I know, I know: I'm turning you over to them. I'm gonna move you outta here so bright and so fast, you're gonna think your ass has been skinned, baby." Love the "baby"! Linda was winding him up something rotten, and eventually he snapped and started pushing and kicking her. Cut! Finis.
For any SK fans out there, wondering whether you have read his collaboration with Peter Straub : The Talisman . Found this gem around 20 years ago and keep going back to it.
Fantastic epic read. The flyleaf stated that Stephen Speilberg had acquired the rights to film it but obviously never made it to the big screen.
Well worth a looksee...
Slaughter-House Five was very different than I expected, and I thought lived up to the hype. It's certainly unique. Cannery Row was a quick, easy yet fulfilling read, I love Steinbeck's more haunting passages like the abstract chapter ("Our father who art in nature") near the beginning and Doc's mournful poem near the end.
On the advice of a friend I downloaded Crime and Punishment. Hard going but I'm now a third through and it is interesting. I also have Steinbeck's The Pearl on my phone and I may read another short one before East of Eden... That I have very high hopes for.
Amazing how the Germans / Russians were dying from the cold and starvation (i.e. a lot of people died as they hadn't had anything to eat, they'd be given the smallest bit of food and would die straight away)
How the Germans would shoot themselves in the hand to try and get airlifted out as "wounded" which didn't work at all and has the reverse effect as they were unable to fight and defend themselves when the Russians attacked and that they always believed Hitler wouldnt abandon them (which of course he did)
Interesting to read as well that Albert Speer's brother Ernst was a private in Stalingrad (who ultimately disappeared / never seen again) but all high ranking Nazi's were forbidden to use their influence to help family members who were serving.
Was terrible what the Nazi's did etc... but definitely an interesting read on the war that didnt involve the Western Allies something I've been trying to learn and understand for a while now
"One of the most depressing places to be upon the earth is to be sitting in some Los Angeles café at 9.30 a.m. and having the waitress hand you the menu of various egg delicacies as her ankles are thin and her buttocks resigned. She has been used and abandoned by her men and she just wants the rent and a way to go, and then you look up and in a mellifluous voice full of victory and hope and understanding, you order item Number Three, the cut-rate special."
And:
"All the women in my life have become The Recurring Woman: their complaints have been just as similar and just as realistic. So I judge them, in comparison, only upon the artistry of their head-jobs and their kitchen work, faithfulness and so forth. And when I line them up in this fashion I can't come up with a winner. Just a loser: me."
Has anybody read the Jack Reacher thrillers by Lee Child?
Earlier ones definitely best.
Easy reading for tube or beach etc.
Unusually some are in first person and some are third person.
Tom Cruise however is definitely not Jack Reacher! In my mind always had a Lawrence Dallilgio type person as the character.
Assassins & Victims (1969)
The Punctual Rape (1970)
Death's Head (1971)
Asterisk (1976)
Brainfire (1977)
The Wanting (1978)
Mr. Apology (1979)
Letters from the Dead (1980)
Dressed to Kill (Based on movie script) (1980)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Novelization) (1981)
Jig (1987)
Mazurka (1988)
Mambo (1989)
Agents of Darkness (1991)
Concert of Ghosts (1992)
Jigsaw (1994)
Heat (1996)
Blackout (1996)
Silencer (1997)
Deadline (2000)
I mean, 'The Scroll' edition of On The Road I bought the day it came out over here, but I'm embarrassed I missed this 'new' Buk.
As a side note about City Lights. I was in San Francisco many years ago and I asked the guy at the hotel reception in the most precise, even poshest, accent I could muster, 'Excuse me, could you tell me where City Lights book store is, please?' A simple question about one of the most iconic shops in SF. He had no idea what I'd just said. I might as well have been speaking Moon Man language. He apologised that he couldn't understand me, and proceeded to bring about four other fellas from out the back, one at a time, to listen to me repeat the question and all of them, without exception, looked blankly at me, looked back at him, shook their heads and said, 'Sorry, I can't understand a word.'
100 per cent agree with you MrOneLung. Tom Cruise? You're having a laugh! Liam Neeson type character maybe ...
100 per cent agree with you MrOneLung. Tom Cruise? You're having a laugh! Liam Neeson type character maybe ...
Yes, 'More Notes' is in print, widely available and cheap through Amazon. Same old stuff, of course - some of the famous stories in sketchy form, and funny. Do you like Raymond Carver? He and Buk crossed swords on the literary circuit - almost literally - and Carver wrote the poem about him: 'You Don't Know What Love Is', p.75 of 'Fires'; the university in Iowa City wasn't big enough for the two of them. I love Carver's short stories - another Lifer is a fan too - and also his poems: deeply moving and mostly overlooked. And John Cheever's novels, 'Bullet Park', etc.; Cheever was a contemporary of them, different in that he came from a white-collar upstate New York background, yet similarly subversive.
Great to hear you've got 'The Scroll' - and yes, the San Franciscans loving your English tones. I dined out on mine for a weekend in Rapid City, South Dakota: "I just luuurve your English accent. Say it again." "Sure, baby."
By complete coincidence my son is reading another book called The Periodic Table, though this one by Paul Parsons and Gail Dixon features only chemistry.
I have read a collection of Carver's short stories, Viewfinder, and even at the time I was reminded of Bukowski. I remember being impressed by the natural, truthful quality of the dialogue. A thing that's always impressed me with Bukowski: not one single line of dialogue rings false.
Now Cheever I haven't read, which I must remedy. Was there some correspondence between him and Buk in one of the Black Sparrow letters collections?