Selected Letters - PLEASE HELP!!!! (1 Viewer)

I have read almost everything there is to read by Bukowski and I am in desperate need of help. In his letters he writes about a famous author that wanted to meet him (I think after a poetry reading) and he declined, uninterested. If ANYONE can recall who he was talking about it would really help, I need it for a paper I'm writing. Thanks
 
I think it was William S. Burroughs. But then again, I don't think Burroughs requested to meet him. Buk just happened to have the chance and declined.
 
I can't answer the original question, as my copies of the letters are 12000 miles away. But I'll add a layer of needless complication to help out with/complicate the research.

In Women, the chance to meet Burroughs came through an intermediary and both Bukowski and Burroughs rejected the idea. Sounes, in his biography, posits that in this same encounter, Bukowski wanted to meet Burroughs (how enthusiastic he was, I don't know), but was turned down. Afterward--again, according to Sounes--Bukowski threatened to kick Burroughs' ass, but was reminded that Burroughs packed heat.

Maybe Bukowski reversed this scenario to his benefit in his letters, I can't be sure. I am sure, though, that Bukowski turned down a shitload of offers to meet so-called famous authors. That's a part of the legend.
 
I appreciate the help all. Remembered the Burroughs meeting but the specific one I was referring to (finally came to me after fucking hours of looking) was the chance to meet Jean-Paul Sartre in Paris. Buk turned it down like the literary legend he is and got drunk instead.

Long Live Buk,

winepulse
 
That sounds about right. I knew it was one of those famous French "intellectuals" (yeah, more than worth snubbing). Question, though: where did you find this in the letters?
 
I thought the story was that Buk and Burroughs were at the same place giving readings or attending events (NYC in the 80s) and that Buk was interested to meet Burroughs but Burroughs was a bit standoffish and that Buk concluded he was something of a cold fish.
I think I read that in Sounes.
Does that sound right?
 
Sounes page 141 (paperback):

Of the Beat writers, only William Burroughs had given him the cold shoulder, snubbing him at a reading, which was ironic because Burroughs was the only one he admired. Bukowski muttered about going outside and fighting him.
"I could push him over with one punch", he told Harold Norse, who knew them both.
"Yeah, but you'd be dead", said Norse. "He'd shoot you."

- I believe Bukowski mentions the possibility of meeting Burroughs somewhere in his writings but decides against it.
 
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