10:30 P.M. (1 Viewer)

This is from Sun #1 (1961). An interesting cover. Looks like a woodblock print.

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Thanks! That's high praise coming from you! That's not a recent acquisition. I've actually had that in my big box o' littles for many years. Didn't realize it was that rare.
 
Sun is a tough fucker. Very few libraries, if any, have a complete set. I always suspected that B. might have been in issues not listed in Dorbin (as was the case of Scimitar & Song), but I've been unable to track down all the issues.
 
Yes, that would be great because this one looks RADICALLY different in the Slouching Toward Nirvana version.

And thanks for all of them--wonderful stuff!
 
Actually, that poem goes on for another TWO PAGES! I didn't post pics because, according to the database, it appears in Slouching Toward Nirvana. I'll post pics, though, if anyone wants.

I've Fought Them From the Moment I Saw Light From the Womb

Thanks to nymark for following up, here.
 
Buk original:

like Chopin drunk, clutching his Pollack soil
while all around him
the whores were selling their bodies
like beautiful things the bees like,
like beautiful things that bloom.


Martinized Shit-Upon Version:

I'm Chopin, drunk, clutching my Polack soul,
the last bad man,
while all around me
the whores are selling their bodies
like beautiful things
like beautiful things that bloom.

"Soil" changed to "soul"
whole line added "the last bad man"
"the bees like" cut out.
etc. etc. etc.

So the title Slouching Toward Nirvana: New Poems, is actually true. They are NEW Poems. Title should be: Slouching Toward Nirvana: New Poems by John Martin
 
"the whores were selling their bodies
like beautiful things the bees like,"

- That's a great line. You have to have those bees in there. How on earth could anyone think it's better without them?

And "soul" is obvious, lacks the sensuality of "soil".
 
Here's why Buk wrote "like Chopin drunk, clutching his Pollack soil"

While Chopin was in Austria, Poland and Russia faced off in the apparent beginnings of war. He returned to Warsaw to get his things in preparation of a more permanent move. While there, his friends gave him a silver goblet filled with Polish soil. He kept it always, as he was never able to return to his beloved Poland
[...] Chopin's last request was that the Polish soil in the silver goblet be sprinkled over his grave.

(source)

Do you see that JM? Do you?
Damn...
 
So the title Slouching Toward Nirvana: New Poems, is actually true. They are NEW Poems. Title should be: Slouching Toward Nirvana: New Poems by John Martin

Or maybe, "Slouching Toward Hell: New Poems By John Martin", since the Martinized poems got nothing to do with reaching nirvana, on the contrary.
 
Great find, Erik, about Chopin and Polish soil which I had no idea about. Proof again that Buk read The Lives of the Great Composers very carefully.
 
I am really considering burning my copy of Slouching, and the handful of other "New Poems by Charles Bukowski John Martin" books that I own. I just can't bring myself to do it yet. Reading this is really pushing me over the edge. Tonight, after this wine, I will probably do it. Out in the dumpster of my lot. And I couldn't just throw them in it, I feel they have to burn. I wouldn't miss them. I can always just read the real shit on here if I want to. Maybe I'm overreacting, but it feels justified. I don't like being duped. He's duped me.
 
I wouldn't miss them.
I took all the posthumous books (except Betting on the Muse) off my shelf months ago and I don't miss them. I have no interest in reading watered-down (pissed on) Bukowski.

But don't burn them. I've heard there is a site on the way that will have a better suggestion...
 
[...] burning [...] Tonight, after this wine, I will probably do it. [...]

Nothing against symbolical acts! I'm All For them!
But:

In Germany, we have a saying, that in a place where books burn, it isn't far away that people burn. You can guess, what that refers to.
[so: NEVER EVER burn a book!!! just DON'T! ]

From a collector's p.o.view, these posthumous books may even be interesting for future generations. (That's no fun! Look at auctions for 200-yearold books of a special provenience!) Of course, it isn't You to benefit from that, then.
 
Well said, Roni! You just don't burn books. If you don't like them, sell them cheap and give the money to charity or whatever.

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